Rallying: 3 top tips every beginner should know

Being able to hit a ball consistently over the net makes tennis so much more enjoyable for everyone on the court - but when you’re new to the game it can be tricky to master.

Here’s how you can instantly improve your rallying ability and feel confident to keep that ball going…

Stepping onto a court for the first time with a friend and trying to keep that yellow fuzzy thing going between you can be a seemingly impossible task. Even with a coach who is able to hit an easy controlled ball to you, as a beginner, it’s totally normal to fluff it up.

You feel rushed. You feel you have very little time to get the ball back, and the court feels so big and impossible to cover that all you think you’re doing is running about like a headless chicken with not much reward for your efforts. Sound a little familiar?

Below I’ve put together my top 3 tips to offer every beginner out there trying to find their feet on the court and hit consistent rallies over and over again.

Tip #1: Think about getting a good contact point

And no I don’t mean hitting the ball out of the middle of the racket (although that is the aim). Whenever I talk about your contact point I mean where the ball is in relation to your body when you hit it. There is a bit of a sweet spot that you really want to meet as you strike to get the most out of your technique and give yourself the best opportunity to hit the shot you want.

And there are 3 essentials to where that ball needs to be when you hit it…

a) Waist height. The most comfortable height that you want to strike your groundstroke is in line with your waist. This allows for your racket to move in a comfortable and natural low to high motion, allowing you to lift the ball nicely up and over the net.

b) In front of you. Hitting a ball that is in front of you allows for your body weight to move forward through the shot when you hit it. Prioritise thinking about getting your whole body behind the ball and then pushing forward onto it as you hit.

c) To the side. The exact distance to the side of you is to your discretion, but you need to be sensible with it. Too far away will mean you’re reaching too much, and too close will make you feel caught up and unable to swing freely.

Practice point: Shadow your swing
Hold the racket and shadow your forehand or backhand technique. Swing through the shot and freeze where your usual contact point would be – does it meet the 3 criteria above? If it doesn’t then change what you need to accordingly. Once you’ve done that, keep practicing your swing stopping again at your contact point each time to make sure it’s correct as you build your muscle memory with it.

Tip #2: Prepare for your shot early

So much of tennis is about timing; you want to take time away from your opponent with attacking tactics, whilst at the same time you want to be as smart as possible that you buy yourself more time within the points.

And one way to help achieve this is to have early preparation with your shots by getting your racket back quickly as you move to the ball.

When a ball is hit to you there are five characteristics that you need to read (in frighteningly quick time!) to be able to work out exactly where you need to position yourself to hit your best shot back. These characteristics are depth, speed, spin, height and direction, and out of those five, it is the direction of the ball that our brain masters first. The moment that ball leaves your opponent’s racket you know if it’s coming to your forehand or backhand side. You haven’t quite worked out everything else just yet, but the direction is instant for you. That means you can begin to get ready to hit your shot back by getting your racket back the moment you identify this.

And this is good because it buys you more time. It will start to eliminate some of that sensation where you feel rushed as you approach and strike the ball (because ordinarily you haven’t got your racket back yet) and end up hitting it uncomfortably late - in other words, not in front of you as you want.

Practice point: Call your shots
Learning to develop your ability to read the ball can take a lot of work, it’s not easy, so stick at it – I promise you it will get better! A good exercise to practise is calling your forehand or backhand when you’re next on the court. Try to shout out as early as you can the moment you spot the direction of the ball from your opponent’s racket, and get your racket back ready for that shot. It will encourage you to really focus on the ball’s characteristics and work out what it’s doing. See if you can shout it out before the ball passes the net to your side – then you know you’re reading the ball pretty early!

Tip #3: Recover back behind the baseline

After every shot you hit where do you recover to? I see a lot of beginners standing about one or two feet inside the baseline after each ball as they wait for the next one, eager just to run towards the bounce and get rid of the ball again. But this position is too far forward and results in an incredibly rushed and difficult shot - probably one that is up by your ears!

I always tell my players to recover to about one or two feet behind the baseline in between shots and this is for a number of reasons…

Firstly, standing further back will buy you much more time to read and therefore react to the ball that is coming to you. This extra time will give yourself a better chance to read the ball accurately, and therefore allow yourself to get into the best position possible to hit it back.

Secondly, it will give you more opportunities to step forward onto the ball. When you’re standing inside the baseline between shots, how many times do you find yourself moving backwards to hit your groundstrokes in a rally? I would guess a lot, and let me tell you it’s a waste of energy – we want to be and we can be smarter than that.

It’s much easier to move forwards than it is backwards to a ball so standing further back and giving the ball a greater space to stay in front of you will make it so much easier for you to keep your body behind it as you hit it.

And thirdly, it will make it much easier for you to find that waist height ball. When you are too far up the court, you tend to hit your contact point too high – up by your ears as I mentioned earlier as the ball rises up from it’s bounce. By starting further back, you allow the ball to reach it’s peak after bouncing and then begin to fall back down to the height that you’re after. Again, hitting this falling ball gives you much more time to prepare before you strike it back.

Practice point: Think second bounce
Rather than focusing on the first bounce of the ball, aim to work out where the second one would be before you hit it back. This will encourage you to stand much further back behind the bounce and will mean you swing through on a much lower ball height. The more you begin to realise just how far away you actually need to be from the first bounce to meet that exact waist height contact point you’re after, the more time you’ll realise you have before you hit it back and the easier your shots will be.

So next time you’re on court make sure you have in mind these three main points. As ever, the more you practice, the easier it will get, and you’ll be confident staying in longer rallies in no time. Let me know how you get on!

See also:

How to stop worrying about your volleys and start loving the net

Adult Players: How to find the right tennis coach

Lizzie Flint is a writer and a practicing level 3 LTA professional tennis coach.

She has been in love with the game since picking up a racquet at the age of four – and she has seen it from every possible angle: playing, analysing and reporting on tennis all over the world. Read more about Lizzie here.