Tennis: Importance of taking Tennis lessons at least once a month for beginners or non-professionals

I go to tennis courts near my house and see recreational players who have been playing for months. They play regularly and have developed shots that are not there in any tennis teaching manuals. Instead of proper forehands some hits only slice, but they have added power to their slice because of regular practice. Some plays a sort of scoop instead of proper backhand. Some uses forehand grip while playing volley and same forehand grip while serving. Especially people from Indian subcontinent, because they grow up playing cricket they use these cricket shots in tennis. I believe if you are playing every day and getting so much practice why not play in right way and that will take your game to a whole new level.

Also, if you have been playing at 2.5, 3.0, or 3.5 USTA level for quite some time and you want to take your game to next level what helps is practicing the right way. When I say practicing the right way, I mean you need to understand there are different grips for different shots; different ways to hit forehand top-spin shot and forehand slice; different ways to hit backhand top-spin shot and backhand slice.

While playing generally you need three different grips: One for Forehand (eastern, semi-western or western), one for serve and volley (continental grip), and one for backhand (eastern, semi-western or western). Some people use different grips while serving also to get more spin, but for non-professional players one grip generally continental grip is good enough for serve. Similarly while playing forehand and backhand, it is important to use the right grip while playing the top-spin shot and slice shot.

So, there are a lot of things you need to know and practice them. In order to understand these techniques, you can watch videos on youtube but it is very important that at least once a month have a good trainer look at you and make sure that you are using the right technique. Sometimes people learn from youtube, in videos, trainer shows the right technique but when we play we change it a bit and that doesn’t help at all.

The point that I am trying to stress here is, if you a recreational player or someone who wants to take his/her game to next level, watch training videos to learn about the game and techniques but to make sure you are playing with the right technique take a lesson with a good instructor at least once a month and you will see a big difference in your game.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grip_(tennis)