Most beginners in tennis have no idea of how tennis is learned. They don't know how many repetitions are needed before the movement becomes automatic. They don't know that the hardest part of tennis is not technique but perception of the ball flight and moving to the right spot in less than 2 seconds.



Tennis looks very simple when you watch a good player. But the road to mastery is long and it doesn't matter which area you are working on - tennis, piano or dancing.

In order to ease your tennis at the beginning there are some important tips which will help you get more realistic, improve your learning rate and groove your strokes with a calm mindset.

Remember - the brain stores everything, not just stroke mechanics. It stores emotions, thoughts and consequently beliefs TOGETHER with the mechanics! So let's start with some realistic views on tennis for beginners:

Why so many balls?

Beginners are not actually aware of the number of balls in the basket when they enter the court. If they would start their volleyball, soccer or basketball practice, they would see 10-20 balls. But here they might see from 40 to 200 balls or even more in one basket.

The reason is simple - the coach knows that repetition is the mother of skill and a tennis beginner will have to make many repetitions before he'll be able to master the stroke. And one more thing - the stroke is not only the arm movement, but consists of the movement to the ball, stopping, balancing and hitting the ball. It's a complex action which takes time to become our second nature.

So to answer the question - there are so many balls because motor learning (learning how to hit and move) takes many repetitions and the coach is ready for that. He also knows that you will probably miss many times before you get the right feel. It's not a life or death question, it's just learning to move in a new way.

Mistakes?

Mistakes are a part of the learning process. A tennis beginner is not actually aware of how many and how BIG his mistakes will be. There are two types of mistakes when learning to play tennis:

a) Mistakes where you can influence the outcome

When a coach reminds you to play gently and you forget to or decide that it's boring to play gently, then you will very likely over hit. You can correct that mistake by hitting more gently. It is in your control. Unless of course you're late on the shot and you're hurrying the stroke which produces an over hit.

b) Mistakes which are out of your control (for now)

You cannot have a perfect technique after 45 repetitions. It's not possible to do the correct and fluid motion with so little repetitions. Your brain needs many more to store and coordinate your body fluidly. You also cannot have a good feel for the racquet face level or swing speed after 20 minutes of practice.

You will make mistakes and you cannot speed up the process. It takes time. So this is out of your control.

You don't have to get upset with yourself, because there is nothing you can do about this right now. Stay calm and give your brain and body many more information so that they can learn and adapt.

Hopefully you now have a better understanding of how the process of learning tennis works for beginners. Accepting mistakes as part of the journey and being patient will make the beginning tennis lessons much more enjoyable and fun.

And later when you master this interesting game you will really enjoy yourself on court. So go ahead and find a tennis coach to show you what tennis is all about.