Tennis is simple terms is hitting a ball with a netted bat. But is it that simple? No, it's not. Tennis is a very challenging game. Easy to learn but hard to master. If you ask a veteran tennis player, what aspects should I keep my focus on?
He/She would ask you to keep a keen sense of your posture, the ground you are standing on, the racket in your hand, the wind blowing through the court, your mental fitness, the ball tightly grasped between your fingers, and much more.
Even though for an untrained eye it seems like hitting a ball across the net. For a seasoned player its something much more in-depth. So how do you go about mastering such a physically and mentally demanding sport?
Well, the first thing you can do is hire a coach. But can you do that? Are there any accomplished tennis coaches around your residence? If so then that's great. But if there isn't any then this is the 21st century. Everything is on the internet.
An avid spectator can live stream Serena Williams smashing through The Grand Slam. Similarly, a dedicated student can learn from her through online lectures. And not just Serena Williams for a tennis practitioner there is a multitude of online lectures to learn from. But from the sea that is the internet which ones are worth your time?
11 Best Tennis Lessons for Beginners Review
1) MasterClass: Serena Williams Teaches Tennis
What more can a student ask for than to learn from one of the greatest to have played this sport, Serena Williams the number one ranked women's tennis player. With 23 Grand Slam singles titles, 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, and three Olympic doubles gold medals she is the dream coach.
But as every other human being a woman with her accomplishments, how much spare time does she have? Is it worth your money to subscribe to her lessons?
Well yes. It is worth every penny. Serena Williams Master Class is truly a masterful experience. With nine video lessons translating into two hours of total time. Her lessons cover topics ranging from an individuals focus and desire for the sport to technical lessons regarding groundstrokes, controlling the court, mental toughness, netplay, how to train like a pro, game-day preparation, mastering the serve, and her lecture about reforming your emotional state in Making Of A Winner.
Her dialog in every lecture is coherent. With no wasted words. Everything she says and does provide you with a new technique to learn. Also as expected of every Master Class the videos are well shot and the sound design is top-notch. All in all paying 180 dollars to learn from one of the greats is worth it.
2) Udemy: Andre Agassi's Elevate Your Tennis Game
Andre Kirk Agassi, although retired, is still a legend of the sport. Having held the number one rank for almost two years, his achievements include eight Grand Slam championships and a 1996 Olympic gold medal.
This maestro of the sport offers an extensive tennis learning course through the Udemy website. Claiming a bestsellers spot and a catalog of 16,503 students this course is a one of a kind learning experience.
Agassi being the genius he teaches with sharp precision. All of his lectures are short, concise, and to the point. Everything is clearly explained and in some instances with animated graphics. At first glance, the number of lectures seems a lot. With a total of 62 lectures covering 10 topics.
But that's because Agassi takes his time to explain every single detail about the sport. His tips personal and tricks plus a few shortcuts to maximize the effectiveness of your training regiment. Agassi's course also holds a topic called Andre's Mental Strategy. Where he gives you the tools to better control your emotional state, helping you in conquering your inner demons.
With regards to its production value. The whole course is masterfully shot in a well lit indoor courtroom. The editing on the course is superbly intuitive which enhances the learning experience. All in all this course on Udemy is always on sale. So an individual can buy it for 20 to 30 dollars which are a bargain.
3) Udemy: Tennis Nutrition
To maintain a healthy body one of the most essential components required is a healthy diet. Tennis is a physically taxing game that demands a well-conditioned body. So how do you achieve a body like Rafael Nadal? By eating burgers and going to the gym for two hours?
Yes, if all you want is to play a game of tennis with a 50-year-old in a wheelchair. But if your goal is to play like a professional you have to eat like a professional.
To help you tackle this issue, Jeff Rothschild, a certified sports dietary specialist has released a course on Udemy. Holding a master's degree in Nutritional Science and being an Ironman triathlete himself, Jeff has worked as a nutritionist for other Ironman triathletes, tennis players, Olympians, and Grand Slam winners.
His course Tennis Nutrition being the highest-rated already has more than 600 students. Through his course, Jeff covers a wide range of topics starting from how sleep affects an athlete's performance to daily food choices, post-workout, on-court nutrition, match day food timings, supplements nutrition for female athletes, playing in the heat, and travel.
All of his topics are extensively explained and are easily digestible. His course is offered on Udemy is always on sale so you can buy it for 15 to 20 dollars which are well worth all the information you are getting.
4) Udemy: Master Your Tennis Serve: Ultimate Tennis Serve Blueprint
What if you want to truly master a specific tennis skill. What if you want to improve your serves. Jan Metelka brings you his Master Your Tennis Serve course to help you with the process.
Jan is an experienced veteran coach with over 15 years of coaching experience. He has worked with players of all levels helping them and in the process creating a blueprint that does it all. With 15 lectures totaling a sum of 2 hours 7 minutes his course already has 183 students.
Throughout the course, Jan tackles multiple issues a lacking serve possesses and gives valid coherent explanations on how to fix them. The topics go from position and stances to grips, weight transfer, hips and shoulders rotation, different serve motions, efficient ball toss, timings of the contact point, the difference between serves, second serve with topspin, balance after contact point, placement exercises, aim and accuracy and, kick serve.
Aside from the lectures, there are a few articles and download-able resources for you to explore. These are also well written and easy to comprehend. The course is always on sale and can be bought for 15 to 20 dollars which is worth its price.
5) Udemy: Top Outdoor Tennis Fitness Exercises - Tennis Blueprint
Another informative course by Jan Metelka. Where he goes about teaching his students outdoor fitness exercises to help with their tennis exercise regiment.
Similar to his previous course he words everything properly. His instructions are extremely clear and concise. Concerning his physical explanations, the whole course is shot in an open-air court on a bright sunny day. The sound design is expertly handled making every one of his words clear and sharp to the ears.
In this course with 34 individual lectures spanning for a total of two hours and ten minutes, Jan tackles a large number of exercise techniques. The topics go from fitness exercises to strengthen your legs and move to stretch, skipping, stretching with elastic, tennis hexagon, short intensive sprints, walking squats, short sprints in the low position, cross over and sidestep recovery, beach tree exercise, 40x50 meters sprints, skipping, walking squats, sprints up the hill, side to side movements, knees up the cones, resistant band training, and many more.
For a tennis player both beginner and professional, this course provides an extensive outlook into multiple exercises. Similar to the video explanations there are a few articles and download-able content for the student to explore.
Jan Metelka being a veteran coach truly shows his expertise in this course leaving no stone unturned. This course always on sale can be bought for 15 to 20 dollars which is a bargain for the amount of content you get.
6) Udemy: Get Tennis Champion Mindset Program a Tennis Winning Mindset
What do need when you have a far-reaching goal? When the path you have tread is filled with thorns? When do you need to be the best of them all? An extremely powerful state of mind. So that it will not be swayed by the temptations of mediocrity.
Alan Kirwan an accomplished hypnotherapist brings you his course through Udemy to help in creating that mindset. His course with over three thousand students gives an individual the tools to battle their inner demons, desires, and temptations. Alan shares with you hypnotic techniques that will impact how you perceive your game plan thus increasing your output efficiency.
The course comprises of thirteen lectures spanning for a sum total of one hour and two minutes. The course covers topics like the advanced technique for feeling good anytime to language has the power to heal or harm and many more.
All of his lectures are well produced and soothing to the mind. Helping you relax and concentrate on the things being told. The audio and video quality leaves a lot to be desired, though not great it still does the job. The techniques provided are well received by the community and truly has a wonderful impact on your daily routines. The course can be bought on sale for 15 to twenty dollars.
7) Udemy: Tennis 101 - How To Play Tennis
What if you are a beginner wanting to learn the sport? What if you don't want to spend a lot of money? To help you solve these issues an accomplished head tennis coach Adrian Gonzalez has come up with a beginner's training regiment the Tennis101 on Udemy.
Adrian had been a high achieving tennis player during his junior high school to University days racking up multiple awards. His course's only requirement is a good network connection. The course itself will allow an individual to polish up his basic skills. The lessons overall give you a little insight into everything.
The entire course is well shot, well-edited with high production value. A lot of graphic elements have been added to help with the explanations. The sound design is superb allowing you the listener to keep track of every word making the learning experience more enjoyable.
The entire course comprises of forty lectures spanning to a sum total of forty-one minutes. Every single lecture is short, concise, and to the point. The course covers topics ranging from how to warm up to grips, forms, forehand, backhand, serve, volleys, and lastly some tips and tricks to tie everything up.
This course is available at a discount most of the time and can be bought for 15 to 20 dollars.
8) Udemy: Learn to Play Tennis: Beginners to Advanced
Learn to Play Tennis a course brought forth by Alex Barbat an elite tennis player present itself as an instructional guide to level up your game.
For any tennis practitioner who wants help in advancing his game may find this course somewhat helpful. Though the course's layout is not bad, it's not that good either. It's painfully average. The production quality is good. The sound design great. Everything Alex says is coherent and understandable. But nothing he does or says brings anything new to the table.
Well although its nothing new, what it does sparsely it does perfectly. As a beginner, it does enough for you to level up your game thus giving you your money's worth.
Having forty-seven students and a run time of one hour and ten minutes. This course has a total of twelve lectures explaining different techniques ranging from Groundstrokes to net game, serve, return, and a few rudimentary tips on the grip. The course overall does enough.
It also comes with two download-able resources and a person can buy it for 15 to 20 dollars as the course is mostly on sale.
9) TennisEvolution: Lessons for Beginners
Tennis Evolution a website founded by the former top 100 ATP Pro Jeff Salzenstein. As accomplished he was professionally Jeff has done much more to further educate people on the sport of tennis.
His website is a hub to learn beginner and advanced tennis techniques. The website itself is properly designed. Allowing a user to easily interact with its facilities.
As for the courses, there are two levels. Free courses that give you a little bit of beginner's knowledge of tennis and membership subscriptions. Although there are quite a number of free videos that are well shot and well-edited. The real gem that Jeff presents is his membership courses. Where he delves into much more advanced techniques and provides a one to one teaching lesson for his subscribers.
Every one of his videos are well choreographed with no wasted moments as he goes straight to the point. Explaining each and every technique properly and providing tips and tricks along the way.
10) OnlineTennisInstruction: Lessons for Beginners
As implied by its name is a website that deals with providing instructional videos for avid learners. Both beginners and advanced players.
The layout of the site is clear and easily comprehendible with a large number of well-produced videos that allow you to level up your game The site also provides some blogs to further enhance your knowledge of the sport.
11) EssentialTennis: Lessons for Beginners
Essential Tennis is originally a youtube channel helmed by a number of highly skilled teachers and analysts who deconstruct tennis techniques and comment upon whatever's new. They have made this website in order to help avid tennis players and enthusiasts in learning more about the sport.
The website itself is well constructed. With clear instructions to help a learner. The lessons displayed on the site cover a variety of topics ranging from forehand masterclass to serving tips, forehand, and volley, etc. The site tries to cover almost all parts of the sport and does it extremely well.
All the videos are well shot, well-edited. With great sound design and well-spoken instructors who make their voices heard. There is a coaching program displayed on the site which allows for a one to one coaching experience. It also comes with a number of other worthwhile perks that make buying the subscription worth it.
For people uninterested in learning the site provides other entertainment facilities from blogs to podcasts all of which are superbly produced. All in all, it is a very good site. Whether you want to learn or make yourself entertained this site does it all.
Choosing the Best Tennis Lessons for Beginners
Hopefully, everything written in this article has helped you improve some aspects of your game may it be big or small.
Learning online is not only easy but it is efficient. It takes less time to master more things. Though not comparable to live coaching it does enough to serve your purposes.
Finally to have such legendary players like Serena Williams and Andre Agassi coach your training progress is a dream come true for any tennis player. Learning from them is not only a joy to experience but having the luxury to learn their ways, tricks and techniques are a once in a lifetime experience that will forever change how you approach your games.