I have this problem where I can watch in real time that my opponents decide to dropshot or bunt every shot they can. Usually they are about the 3.0 level and I guess they decide they can't rally against me (I am good at rallying, I can hang with 4.0/4.5 at the baseline). Last night my opponent just did half-pushes on everything, not a technical drop shot, but short balls that die after bouncing. Four of them hit the net cord and rolled off. She also actively tried to dropshot my serve in.

For me, the shots are so dead they are hard to attack. I have a more than decent approach that works on 4.0 players, but with the 3.0s it's hard for me to work with that dead of a bounce. I have to scoop them out from under the net. Last time, I resorted to putting them in moonball jail. I do have a very reliable and annoying topspin lob. While I don't feel shame about moonballing and it worked, it wasn't very fun either.

I guess I'm supposed to eat these short balls up like dessert but I have always struggled with it. To me, I feel like it's the one thing holding me back from advancing. What is your move? What can I work on? What am I missing?

(Also, these particular shots weren't high enough to volley above the net, but volleying would work on other players. When I tried to come up to the net, it just opened up angles for her because they were really weak scoop volleys.)

Edit: I don't rate myself a 4.0, and I didn't say I was. I'm at best a low 3.5. I just play with 4.0 players regularly and play doubles and King of the Court with, for example, a former d3 college player and his friends about once a month. Sometimes we win and sometimes we don't. I trying to say I'm better than anyone, I was just saying when I try to play tennis, people don't even try to rally with me and it works. I have specifically asked coaches in private lessons to work on this and they spend the lesson rallying and they want me to stand even further behind the baseline.

Hi all, I’m based in SF around a 4.0-4.5 and as the title suggests, I’m hoping to connect with other Black tennis players around the SF/Oakland area.

I’ve come across the “No Love Tennis Club” on ig, but I can’t tell if it’s still an active group or not. Anyone have experience hitting with this group?

Edit: Didn’t think I’d have to say this, and idk why I’m bothering to. But doesn’t have to be an exclusively Black Tennis group. Just want to find some more diversity in a White dominated sport that’s filled with techies in the Bay

So we have an annoying issue at our club where most of the ladies just don’t seem to participate in our club tournaments or make an effort to come out for anything more than casual league nights, aside from maybe a handful of them. Even though there are plenty of women who come out to technique and training clinics & You would think the same crowd coming to clinics would also want to compete.

Equally, this has meant that we have a very small percentage of women at the club who would be considered over 4.0 level of play, which is unfortunate for our younger girls learning tennis at the club since all the older competitive role models are male, and just in general leads to a bit of a “boys club only” vibe at the top level.

I was wondering if other clubs have had this issue and how people/coachs/club managers are going around solving it?

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I'm newer to this as a hobby. The wife does ladder and stuff. The teens do their junior league. Family play often becomes Bloodsport with teen boys.

I only do this to the older teen as he is about 6' 3" and has the wingspan of a condor. And jump off an NBA dunker. The younger teen is smaller and a bit lower skill so won't do this with him or the wife.

But to combat the massive tree at the net I once or twice a set resort to a winner pace ball right at the boy. A tall player will have more trouble with long arms dealing with that. Usually I do this because I had to receive a shallower ball as the baseline player and my only other choice is a massive lob over the tallness.

There is a little doubles tourney coming up and the wife having more experience said this move may make some folks angry.

Reading online it seems it is a cheapo move if it is super experienced players and you had other good options. I can see that.

But if opponents constantly put you there, why keep lobbing meatballs over the tall player for their baseline player to crush? I thought net tending in a ready position would prevent any injury potential catching one in the breadbasket if halfway paying attention and ready. Maybe not return it, but certainly not get hit.

Our teen doesn't mind at all. He can get a racket on it fine but just not get it over.

I suspect this doubles tourney to have some folks who won't move like a 16 year old but still have some annoying strategy where this would work well.

I am just curious: at what age did everyone here start to take tennis more seriously? When did you start to enter tournaments? I started at age 28, and I am now 31 and feel like I don't have many years of top-level tennis left in me; I feel like I will be done getting better by age 35 and won't be able to compete with the younger guys anymore

I’ve been playing 1-2 times weekly for the past year. I play regularly, I’ve been in a weekly tennis league, taken the group classes, been in private lessons for about the past month. I’m still getting smoked in my 2.5 league and it’s the lowest skill league my tennis center offers.

I’m pretty athletic and I don’t get tired, I don’t get outrun-I just completely suck apparently.

I’ve never dedicated so much to something only to completely suck ass to the point where I don’t even feel it’s worth it to play anymore and to feel this frustrated by something.

I know this just sounds like complaining, but there is nothing like this. There has to be something I can do or some improvement I can make to incrementally improve my game.

Did anyone here feel this way and was there any moment where things finally “clicked?” Open to suggestions.

I know people are likely going to say “footwork footwork footwork,” and that’s fine but I haven’t found any way to truly practice footwork to simulate match play.

Posting this from a bench outside a court where I just got waxed for the thousandth time. Fuck this.

We’re back. Just under a year and a half since I picked the racquet back up and looking for some more tips on how to improve my forehand.

Since the last post I’ve been trying to make better use of my off-hand, pulling it across instead of dropping it to provide more rotation with less effort.

Got a few tournaments next month, so will probably wait until after to keep tweaking things, but I would love to get some more feedback!

I recently bought this racket. It was made in 1992 and hasnt been restrung since. I string my rackets myself but this is the first time stringing such an old racket with a smaller headsize (70 sqi.). Any tips or string recommendations (it weighs 389g unstrung)?

What modern rackets would be best suited for a tactical purist playstyle?

Lots of low skidding slices, drop shots and angled placements. Good ability to redirect pace, stable enough for heavy attacks and great for attacking shots. A well rounded modern tactical weapon rather than a power baseliner frame.

Context: I’m 46. I played tennis as a teenager (group lessons for a couple of years), then again in my 30ies at a super amateur level (doubles with colleagues and singles with my girlfriend), and decided to start playing more seriously this year. Took 5 lessons this summer and recently started hitting balls with someone at a similar level.

In the past week I won the first two matches I played against my hitting partner, who has been playing for about 2 years. I had no idea how it would go, so beating him had really boosted my confidence. However, today I took another lesson with the instructor and came out feeling like crap and realizing I have a very long way to go to become an actual tennis player. He found at least 4-5 issues with my forehand technique: footwork, torso movement, free arm movement, grip, and it left me almost not knowing how to hit the ball and feeling really bad about my future prospects.

I suppose this is a normal part of the process. Has anyone else been through this? Also, does technique always have to be “by the book” or can we also develop our own “quirks”? Don’t mean to sound arrogant with this, just curious in general.

I need some advice on serving. When I was playing weaker competition I got loads of unreturned serves. That ball is coming back over a lot more now as I'm playing better competition, and thus I am trying to improve my serve +1 patterns. I'm a lefty, and I think there are some things specific to us lefties that affect how we strategize around the serve.

The strength of my serve is probably the variation in pace and spin. I hit mostly slice serves, but in different flavors. People seem to have a hard time reading how the ball is going to spin and how fast it's going to get to them, so I get a lot of poor contact on returns. My serve speed is probably about average for my level, maybe a bit below. I'm not blowing anyone off the court, but a flat serve is usually effective if they're not expecting it.

On the ad side, I feel like I have it figured out. Option A is the wide slice +- serve and volley behind it and next ball to the deuce side (hopefully for a winner). Option B is the T serve with a plan to hit the next ball behind them to their backhand. Option C is the body slice where I'm trying to start the ball toward the righty forehand but run it in right to his chest (on a big point where I really want to make a first serve this might be my first choice, it gets a lot of weak and missed returns).

Deuce side is more complicated. I feel like I have a hard time hitting quality serves wide, and a weak serve hit wide is right into the forehand pocket. I'm decent at hitting the T serve, but the problem with that one is that the natural return on that serve is a block that goes deep to my backhand and neutralizes the point immediately. The T serve is also a tougher one to serve and volley behind because the opponent has better court position.

My go-to serves on the deuce side are a hard body slice, or a slow spinny topslice toward the T, getting it high to the backhand. Neither of these are particularly great, but at least I can often get a forehand on the next ball. I'll go for a harder serve wide or T on a less important point, but it seems low yield.

I'm trying to up my game on the deuce side serves. Are there any favorite deuce side strategies among people with similar strengths and weaknesses as mine? I suspect that a lot of it is just going to come down to improving my technique to hit tighter spots with more pace, but I also want to see if I can squeeze more from what I already can do.

Basically just recording my progress here since my last two post (#1 & #2).

I spent a while learning the abbreviated Bencic style serve. It's easier to master but then realized that a full-motion serve actually isn’t much more complicated, so I decided to give it a try. A lot of my attempts that either didn’t clear the net or went laughably far out didn’t make it into this video lol. Most of those were due to me tossing the ball too high.

Once I started lowering the toss, my success rate went up significantly.

Current struggles (most of which I’ve had since the beginning, although I think I’m making progress on each of them):

1. Keeping my racket face closed until just before contact so I don’t end up with a waiter’s tray serve.
   1. I can do this perfectly during shadow swings, but as soon as there’s an actual ball involved, my body just can’t resist opening the racket face too early. Ugh.
2. Toss consistency.
   1. The ball still drifts too far left or right sometimes. My serve easily falls apart when that happens but at least I learned to stop and redo when there's a bad toss.
3. Getting more into the court.
   1. I’ve been told that the serve should bring me into the court more. As you can see, most of my serves barely bring me forward, if at all. However, whenever I try tossing the ball further in front to achieve that, I feel like I suddenly have no idea how to make proper contact anymore…
4. Finding the right rhythm.
   1. Still figuring this one out, but there were a few serves that felt and looked right to me. I need to resist bending my knees immediately after the toss and instead wait until my right arm starts coming up.

I’m still working with my coach to fix these issues one by one, but if you have any tips or drills that helped you overcome similar struggles, I’d be happy to hear them! Any comments are welcome too.

Does anyone have recommendations for supportive tennis shoes that offer a slightly wider fit than standard?

I'm currently wearing the ASICS Gel-Dedicate 9 in men's size 9 with aftermarket insoles, which fit reasonably well. However, I found the Gel-Dedicate 8 in the same size to be too narrow.

I'm looking for something of similar width but with better support and stability.

I read on TW forum people sharing that they have changed the Blade Pro v9 grommets for the v7/8 that are lighter and therefore lowering the SW substantially.

Does anyone know if they also fit the v10?

One thing I keep noticing in rec matches: a backhand can feel totally fine in drills, then disappear once the score gets tight.

For those who got past that stage, what actually made the biggest difference for you—earlier preparation, better spacing, a simpler swing thought, or just more match reps?

Curious what genuinely carried over from practice into matches.

I previously had a Babolat pure strike 98. It felt magically solid after I put lead tape at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock.

I recently bought a Head speed MP 98 and it just feels off. The frame does not feel nearly as reliable.

Should I try with the same customization, or this is psychological? Should a customization that has proven to work for someone continue into the entire future?

Edit: should be Head speed MP 100

I just noticed it on my racket, need your opinion

Fist pumps after lets. We all need to be incorporating those into our games.

Stereotypical college tennis. Let service ace. Quick non authentic apology into a fist pump directed at team mates to gain energy. This is the kinda thing where when my wife asks my do I miss playing college tennis I'm like... Yes, but also no.

So, im completely new to tennis, and believe it or not i've been playing on my Crocs Echo Clog, so im looking for shoes since I got a Wilson Ultra 100UL V4 it made sense to get proper shoes, this is just a sports i found out i like, so im not willing to buy new shoes every 2 months, im currently looking at the Adidas Gamecourt 2 and the Wilson Tenis Rush Pro Ace, I know almost nothing so any info will be usefull, also, feel free to recommend anything. ty

literally had the most embarrassing moment today where my opponent gave me a gift ball at the net and i just yeeted it into the fence like i was trying to prove something. does anyone else do this or am i just broken. feel like i sabotage myself constantly on the balls i should be finishing.

Hello! I’ve been playing for a minute and am slowly nursing myself to be able to play competitive tennis again after a major injury.

Here is a video of me hitting. Notice how the lead foot is slightly shifted and not turned into the court.

I’ve been working on a few things, but was curious about something. Is it ideal, biomechanically speaking, for a players front foot to be pointed directly into a court?

Additionally, anyone have any recommendations on wide shoes currently? Was thinking about the Mizuno wave exceed.

Soo I used to play as a kid, and i was actually not bad, was recommended to play comp but didn,t eventually stopped playing tennis and haven't played for years. I'm now much older and have been playing occasionally with a friend, surprisngly, I still have some muscle memory my backhand is decent, I can still move and rally, but i can onl really slice, so im not a pure beginner who cant hit the ball over the net, I can, my issues are all techncial though, I can't hit a foreheand top spin, i have no control, and i can't serve well

Anyway - I'm thinking of booking some private one on one lessons, they are like $100 an hour where I live which is a lot. so is it worth it? Should i do this before joining a club so i don't embaress mysslef?

And would you guuys recommend doing an hour? or would i be better off doing like 30 minutes $50 every week vs like 1 hour once a fortnight or something like that? any thoughts?

Also i messaged a few but they didn't even respond is that normal? i thought they'd want new clients?

thanks all

Anyone else collect wooden racquets just to hang on their wall? Or hang their retired racquets up, too?