All About Tennis

How is your tennis during this Pandemic conditions?

There are restrictions about. However, there are a few things you can do to maintain your enjoyment of tennis.

Keep up your exercise routine
Find a wall to hit against to practice and groove your footwork, your volleys
Try “shadow” tennis
Check out aspects of the game you like to improve on by viewing instructions on the internet

By all means get creative with activities you can engage in and most important of all, practice good hygiene, safe distancing, use of masks in public, especially in crowded places, stay well and stay safe. Safe to enjoy tennis another year!

How is your tennis lately?

What is a racquet used for? Hitting, driving, tapping a tennis ball over a 3 foot + net?

Have you had a look at your tennis equipment lately? You wouldn’t enjoy playing tennis with a flat or worn out tennis ball, correct? So why should you neglect your equipment? Has the tennis grip been worn beyond recognition? Are the strings worn and “dead”.

Good news. Restringing as you wait or by appointment available from the skilled restringers at

Tennis Ranch, 128 Victoria Rd.,Gladesville, Tel.(02)9816 3666

Check it out for different string tension or thicknesses to suit your play. Sound advice given.
Work out your string tension. Usually there is a recommended tension in small print on your racquet. Have a look. But you need not follow its recommendation and can choose the tension you want to improve your game with and of course find your mojo.

Historically, one of the players with a highly strung racquet (standard sized) with 70 lbs. tension was the 5 consecutive time Wimbledon champion, Bjorn Borg! Borg’s remarkable achievement was that he was a baseliner and the grass surface of Wimbledon traditionally suited the serve-volleyer. And to make sure the feat is not a one hit wonder… he held the trophy 5 times in a row, until Patrick McEnroe came along. Now significantly McEnroe is another remarkable player with excellent touch and ball control. Naturally, a serve-volleyer, and by contrast, he used to string his racquet in the mid-fifties to 58 lbs. tension.

It is an accepted belief that a higher tension gives one a better control and low tension gives one more power in their game. So between the two you can work out your tension for the next restringing.

Don’t Waste Your Time Playing Tennis!

Seriously! Before you step onto the court next time, decide on what you would like to focus on the day. Try out new strokes, or hone existing ones, particularly on the warm up. It maybe the serve you may want to improve on… the ball toss, the back swing, the point of contact and the follow-through. It could be the volley – the easiest stroke in the game with the least amount of movement – a matter of keeping your eyes on the ball, a firm grip, an appropriate opening of the face of the racquet to meet the direction of the oncoming ball and the direction you want to send the return. So don’t waste your time next time.

Watch your steps!

Another important aspect of the game is the footwork. It is the difference between generating power from sound footings or returning a shot without conviction. One coach in the Association has taken players of different levels through a footwork dance routine during the Association’s Sunday Tennis Social and in particular the Family Days.

Groups of young children were taught footwork; serious players to senior adults also joined in. There were skips, shuffles, turns and lunges. Short bursts, and accelerations, recovery back to position, exercises to groove a player into good footwork and in a better position to hit out at the ball.

It is much easier to learn a new craft rather than to correct a faulty one. So the next time you step onto the court, think of your footwork and be mindful of your steps for a better return.