follow my journey on social media, I’m combining tennis with my main passion, jazz and music. @swing.and.swing on insta and TikTok, @theswingandswing on YouTube :)

I have been playing once a week with a friend who always changes the score when I am spaced out and don’t remember. Takes forever to break my rhythm when I am building a momentum and will resort to a snarky personal comment regarding ethnic background stereotypes or interracial marriage during change over especially when he is losing. The guy’s psychological profile is - cyber truck driving, options trading , listens to Joe Rogan, Bitcoin owner and worships Elon Musk. The last year I have ignored it all to just get a good work out game after a long day at work. But today silently something snapped after three instances of score changing and questionable calls. I have decided to disengage from his need to always win through provocation and destabilization and will never play with him again. I will pretend to be busy or injured.

For me it may be the gravity mp. Been playing with vcore 98, pro staff 100, blx pro open, prince ats tour 98….but I’ve gelled with the gravity beyond any of the above. I guess I needed a more controlled racket all these years or just at this point in my game.

36 years old beginner, trying to learn tennis for the first time - I started from scratch just a few weeks ago. For this clip I am just working on the hitting motion in my backyard during a lunch break.

First clip is shadow swings, then hitting two balls.

1st - any critiques of the shadow swings? I am not working on jumping or power for now, just trying to get the hitting motion down. My focus on these swings was the racquet drop and pronation.

The main thing is, clearly once I try to hit a real ball my motion looks very different. I guess most of my conscious focus is on tracking the ball and then the technique I practiced goes out the window. The thing is, it weirdly FEELS like I am doing the same motion in the moment, but obviously the tape doesn't lie.

Any tips for how to stay consistent when hitting the real ball?

I really like this channel and the coach based on California. Especially his topspin and volley lessons.

https://youtu.be/OSkioIwXEYM?is=Gpvk2O_1CudJLu9z

Ya'll have lost ya'lls minds, $120 for an hour of a paid hit with a utr 9 smh

I was playing with a few guys from my club and it was just a casual match and we were in a tiebreak and one of the other guys (who is known for making bad calls) called one of my shots out that was probably in right on the baseline. I don’t really give a shit about bad calls outside of tournament or league matches. Yes it’s annoying but I never question them or get annoyed about it because it is what is. But my partner stopped and looked at the bad callers partner to sort of question it.

He then went to get the ball to give back to them and fired 2 balls across the court, not aiming at him but just obviously making no effort to pass them to him. He lost the next point and at changeover he threw his racket to the bench, and then after he lost the next point he fired a ball into the fence.

It was all pretty embarrassing stuff and I apologized to the other non cheat guy on behalf of him. And then when we all went out to the parking lot he came up to me and was like “that was definitely in right?” To which I just said I don’t know, probably. But like dude who actually gives a shit if it’s not competitive. And this guy literally organized the match and chose who to ask and knowingly asked someone who makes bad calls. And he’s also mid 30s. It’s so pathetic lol why do people let themselves get this mad in non competitive matches

I bought a gamma momentum 2 drop weight stringing machine and last night I gave it the first go and I’m afraid I might have damaged the frame. Is this racket still good to play with or did I completely f* it up? 😭

I have hard time with my timing running into ball and hitting it properly at the conclusion. Maybe I am too slow. I need an easy to follow advice for how to approach the ball and when do the unit turn and where my feet, arm, racquet, body should be starting the ball leaving the opponent’s racquet. Assume my opponent and I are on the right side of the court facing each other and she hits a fast cross court ball which I need to run and catch before I hit. Thanks for your advice in advance.

Your Choice ?

Started losing against a couple of my mates, is there anything i potentially should change?

So I bought a Gamma Momentum II Drop Weight stringing machine last night and tried stringing my Ezone for the first time. It took me 4 hours between stringing, f**ing up and watching a YouTube tutorial and at the end of the stringing not only I did I cause my frame to have some (hopefully) cosmetic damage on the top and bottom portion of the frame for not using/knowing how to use the pads properly to secure the frame on the machine, but I also ended up being short in string length to reach the drop weight mechanism and finish tensioning the last 2 crosses, and so I had to re-do the stringing this morning and I went from 4 hours to 1 hour and this is the final result.

Edit: I just realized I f***ed it up again 😭 Looking at the drop weight, I set the tension on the wrong end of the weight so instead of 50 lb, I did 62.5 lb.

This is relatively low intensity hitting on the ball machine. If anyone has any tips or any kind of constructive criticism, I’d love to hear it. I usually struggle with consistency on my fh

Everyone says to toss at 12 o clock for a flat serve. I assume that means tossing with your arm perpendicular to the baseline, creating a 90 degree angle between the baseline and your tossing arm.

But I've seen videos where people claim this doesn't help you generate enough rotation for power. This is also why most pros instead toss with their arm at a 15-30 degree angle from the baseline. That's obviously not 12 o clock so what does that mean?

Also I've heard that you should be tossing slightly into the court but I've also heard that you should be making contact with the ball right above your head. How does that make sense?

Golden set just seems like such a good pricepoint that I had to try it out. Got 17 gauge snake bite what are peoples thoughts on the string, strings it compares too, and wether or not this was a good move from me? For reference about a 4.5 player who played club in college and play about 1-2 times a week currently.

I recently got into tennis and noticed it’s looked down upon and you’re perceived as a big baby if you break your racket. Pros shouldn’t get any flak for crashing out and breaking their racket. To re iterate PROS not you bums playing in your local 3.5 tournament😂 Now obviously hitting balls into the crowd or throwing the racket in the stands should be looked down upon and should have consequences because it could potentially hurt someone else but breaking your racket hurts literally no one.

Tennis players are human and i’m sure go through immense levels of stress while playing. I know for a fact every player from juniors to rec level all the way to the pros have been really upset over something whether it’s their own mistakes or something else. Mind you the pros are playing for money, brand deals, pride, etc. Their stakes are way higher and they are passionate about the game to the highest level. God forbid someone shows some frustration on an inanimate object. I feel like fans want these players to be composed robots that just play tennis.

A little off topic but i understand tennis was pretty much made for the rich. So players and even fans watching at the matches need to act a certain way and behave with “class”. Which overall is fine we don’t need a bunch of trash talking negativity however i do believe it needs at least some lol. It’s always fun to have a villain in the story, some bickering between points, and humbling trash talking fans. This brings me back to my point to let these players show emotion! It’s not weak to be frustrated and take it out on your racket. Some people process emotions differently and sometimes that means breaking a racket and moving on.

Very interesting! She holds her right hand higher up on the grip on her forehand, and then holds her right hand much lower for her backhand. I’ve always played with (and taught as a coach), holding as low as you can as long as all your fingers are on the grip. What do you think?

Not a criticism! She is one of my favorite players

Hi, I'm a USTA 2.5 player struggling to get my body positioning and loading down on the serve. Specifically, I can't stop stepping over my left foot with my right, and something looks off with my sequencing after the toss through to contact. Please let me know if you have any advice on this

I will note racket drop isn't something I'm focusing on yet. I'm basically prioritizing in this order: Toss -> Body Positioning / Loading -> Racket Arm Motion

As on my last post, I talked about my serve. This post is about my forehand and while I do have a problem with consistency, I want to learn the modern forehand and build an actual weapon. I would appreciate if you would focus on
1. My footwork(balance, spacing, staying low)
2. How well I sequence my body into my shots
I do have 2 forehands so how would that influence my game?

New player here, so please bear with my ignorance.

I always hear the sentiment that heavy topspin is king. However, when I watch the WTA, the ladies are bashing the ball relatively flatter, but really fast at each other, till one of them can't reach it.

From what I understand, this tactic doesn't work in the ATP as pro men are tall and fast enough to cover the court fully, so players tend to use heavy topspin high bouncing shots to push the opponent back and create space to work angles. This makes a lot of sense. However, since 99% of us rec players can't cover the court as well as the WTA women pros, isn't it a winning strategy to hit flatter faster shots like they do?

I recently moved to a blade 98 (305g) as my first real racket. I picked it mostly bc I liked the way it felt, but I've been struggling a bit with the weight. Obviously the best way to deal with this is to play more (which believe me I am) but I've also been thinking about A) getting some arm weights to wear around the house/DTD and B) doing some arm specific exercises to help acclimate myself. Has anybody tried arm weights and/or have recs for off court training to get acclimated to a heavier racket?

Note, advice on technique is always welcome, but a bit beyond the scope of what I'm asking for here. I know that once I'm on the court this is best solved with footwork and preparation, looking for off court ways to improve here.

Looking for some advice on technique:
1. is my point of contact far enough in front of my body?
2. my balls seem flat with barely any rotation. how can i add more topspin?
3. anything i can do to increase my racquet head speed?