Technical

Before you can enjoy a good game of tennis, you must ensure that you have good technique. Having the right technique is crucial to ensure that you are hitting the ball to your fullest potential, which allows you to be able to play the game at your best. It also greatly reduces the chances of you getting injured.

There are many different strokes in tennis: Forehand, Backhand, Serve, Volley and Overhead Smash. They are all important in different ways and one would need to practice them all to be a decent tennis player. To ensure that you can master all of these strokes, TAG coaches, who are all ex-professional players, have provided some tips and tricks to perfect your technique.

Forehand

Forehand is the most basic and important stroke in the game and thus is usually the first stroke to be learnt. The tennis forehand stroke has changed drastically over the years and it will be beneficial to learn the modern forehand that is powerful yet consistent.

TAG Coaches have come together to collective produce 7 tips to improve one’s forehand to ensure it is powerful.

Backhand

A backhand is essential to the tennis game as well. There are two main types: Double-handed and Single-handed. There are professional tennis players who use Double-handed backhand (Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Andre Agassi…) and Single-handed backhand (Roger Federer, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Steffi Graf, Pete Sampras…) There really is not one that is better than the other and is solely up to personal preference.

To ensure, that your double backhand is powerful and reliable, here is TAG’s Coach Israel Abarquez RJ 7 best tips.

To ensure you can hit a single-handed backhand well, here is TAG’s Coach Bo Alburo 9 best tennis tips.

Serve

A Serve gets the point started in tennis and it plays a huge role in determining who will win the point. It can be very powerful and helpful only if the right technique is used. Otherwise it may turn out to be disadvantageous and you could lose points because the technique used is incorrect.

To ensure that you have the right technique, here is TAG’s very own Coach Michael Mantua 8 best tips on how to have a powerful and accurate serve.

Net Game

It is a myth that the net game is only needed for doubles. However, it is an important part of the tennis game in both singles and doubles. It is a very good way to finish points as the opponent’s time to recover and get ready for the next shot is significantly reduced. The net game includes Overhead Smashes and Volleys. Overhead Smashes are similar to Serves and can end the point very fast if the correct technique is used. Volleys consist of both forehand volleys and backhand volleys. Similar to the Backhand Groundstroke, one can choose to use a Double-Handed Backhand Volley or a Single-Handed Backhand Volley based on personal preference.

Even though Overhead Smashes might be very challenging for most people, here is TAG’s Coach Michael Mantua’s 12 tips to increase your chances of ending the point with a powerful smash.

Tactical

After correcting your technique and knowing about the different strokes in tennis, the next step is to improve your tactical game. This can be done by learning which direction to hit the ball in and how to use those strokes.

There are many different kinds of players in the professional tennis circuit which mainly includes All Rounder, Baseliner and Serve and Volleyer. These styles all have different strengths and weaknesses and is up to personal preference.

Baseliner

A Baseliner, such as Rafael Nadal is one that gets every ball back, making them hard to win points against. With their shots being deep with heavy top spin, it is not easy to counter and hit winners against them.

Here is TAG’s Coach Rocky Paglalunan’s 9 tips on how to be an effective defensive baseliner.

Serve and Volley

Even though there are fewer and fewer serve and volleyers in the tennis professional circuit now, there are many people who occasionally still go up to the net immediately after a powerful serve to quickly end the point, which acts as a surprise to their opponent.

Here are 6 tips from TAG’s Coach Ray Evan on how to have an effective serve and volley game.

All Rounder

An All-Court player, such as Roger Federer, is one that is comfortable with hitting the ball from anywhere on the court, including both at the baseline and at the net.

Why is an all-court player so good and hard to defeat?

Poaching in Doubles

There are also many tactical plays in doubles and one very important aspect is poaching as a volleyer. Poaching is essential to keep your opponents on their toes and catch them by surprise.

Many people may find poaching challenging. However, TAG’s Coach Dave Regecia has provided tips on how to poach and in what kind of situations should you be ready to poach.

Left-handed tips

Being Left-handed usually brings about benefits in sports including tennis. The vast majority of people are right-handed and thus people are used to playing against right-handers. Hence playing a Left-Hander can be difficult for some people as they may not be used to it.

TAG Coach Parekh Pratim will share some tips on how he used being a left-hander to his advantage and how you can too.

Hitting the ball on the rise

Taking time away from your opponent is very important in a tennis game and hitting the ball on the rise is one effective way to achieve this.

TAG’s Coach Ten Rapeepat shares the benefits and importance of hitting the ball on the rise.