If springtime is coming and you’re looking to fulfill your New Year’s Resolution of exercising more, consider an old standby: tennis. Now is a perfect time to pick up a racket, brush up your skills, and get in shape.
For starters, tennis is widely accessible – most communities have free public courts available for people of all skill levels and one-on-one or group lessons are easy to come by. Equipment is easy: you can buy a racket and tennis balls for minimal cost. Most sneakers will work fine for tennis, but remember that jogging or running shoes can be a liability – they’re designed for forward motion, and they lack proper stability for the quick lateral movements of tennis.
If you don’t have a willing tennis partner, you can play alone by hitting the ball up against a backboard until you polish your forehand and backhand strokes, as well as your aim and timing. Most beginners who do have partners just practice hitting the ball back and forth over the net, trying to keep it in bounds and under control. Once you’ve done that a few times, then learning the game rules and playing competitively are the best ways to improve your technique. As you’ll quickly learn, it’s an intensely physical game requiring enormous concentration and a lot of running – chances are you’ll be worn out after just an hour.
In case you do want to keep score, here are the basics: the same player will serve the ball for the duration of one game. He or she stands first to the right, then to the left, of the hash mark at the top of the court – switching with each serve. Note that a tennis court has four marked boxes bordering the net, two on either side. A serve must drop into the box on the opposite side from where the server is standing; i.e., if he or she is standing to the left of the hash mark, the serve must clear the net and fall into the right-hand box. The serving player has two attempts at each serve.
Points are scored any time that either player fails to return the ball – whether because it doesn’t make it over the net, because it drops out of bounds, etc. The ball can bounce no more than once before a successful return. Points are also scored by the non-serving player when a server fails to serve into the marked box after two separate attempts. The score is as follows: first point = 15, second point = 30, third point = 40. A score of no points is simply called “love.” A game must be won by two points; therefore, if both players have 40 and one of them scores, it will be his or her “advantage” until the winning point is scored. If the opposing player scores first, the score returns to 40-40. Therefore, tennis games can go on for hours…all the better for getting in shape!