Tennis lessons in Chicago

The basic concepts of Tennis

What skills do tennis coaches need?

Being a tennis coach might be a dream of yours and you are perhaps wondering where to start. The skills required from tennis coaches are several. Let’s start from the first and most important. Most schools and students will expect their coach to have a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education, Sports Management or any related field. Another technical requirement expected from tennis coaches are CPR and first aid certifications. Both schools and students will wonder about the coach’s experience, so having some experience coaching, although not mandatory, is preferred. Certification through the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA) or Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) is something that some coaches may have acquired, but it is certainly not mandatory.

As a coach, just like any teacher, tutor or guide, communication skills are extremely important; a coach needs to be patient and able to express clearly the issues or improvements he or she observes in the student. Finally, the one and most important skill that any coach, tutor or teacher should have is the ability to motivate their students and to keep that interest alive. A tennis coach needs to be passionate about tennis and love teaching, and in their love for the sport they will transmit to the student their passion and their love for this amazing sport.

What is the first thing to learn in tennis?

In tennis, everything begins with the feet. Once you start playing, your feet will not stop moving as they are an essential part of your playing. Therefore, the first thing to learn in tennis are the stances and basic positions. Because tennis is such a fast sport, students might be better off learning right off the bat the “ready position”. This position features the racket in front, standing with the legs shoulder-width apart and the body weight slightly forward. This position will get the student ready to race in any direction. Stances and grips are several and there is no priority to them as the way to use them depends on position and time. The main four stances are closed, neutral, open and semi-open. Grips are similar as there is no correct way to hold your racket.

The six main grips are continental, eastern, semi-eastern, full western, backhand and two-handed backhand; again, no priority, but we may use one over the other depending on what we need at a certain moment in the game. Because tennis, as we mentioned before, is a fast-paced sport, the split-step is fundamental. The split-step is a short hop to be done before going towards the ball. It helps activate the legs in order to have a better reaction time. Moving steps are another aspect of tennis technique and just like stances and grips there are several of them: cross step, side shuffle, sprint, adjusting steps, to name a few. Finally, the path of swing is very important and it can be described as hitting low to high and finishing the stroke across the shoulder.

What are five rules in tennis?

Tennis, just like any other sport, has rules that need to be followed. General rules are the rules that apply to all matches, but there are other rules that are specific to singles matches and doubles matches. Here are five general rules of tennis:

1 - The ball must land within bounds for play to continue; if a player hits the ball outside of bounds, this results in the loss of the point for them.

2 - Each player has two service chances to get the ball into the box.  If they miss both serves, that is called a double-fault and they lose the point.

3 -  A player’s feet must remain behind the service line during the serve.

4 - A player must win four points before the other player in order to win a game. A player must win six games to win a set. In most tournaments, matches are played to best two out of three sets, but in major tournaments like Wimbledon, women’s tennis matches are best two out of three sets while men’s matches are best three out of five sets.

5 - If the ball hits or touches the player, that counts as a penalty.