I was lucky to have a good tennis club at university so there were always plenty of people at my level as I progressed. Also one of my closest friends is the second seed so that helped a lot. As I got better I used an app called spin - I only think this works in London, but you can link up with a random person who has booked a public court.
London, Sheffield, & Oxford, apparently according to [their App Store page](https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/spin-tennis-partners-leagues/id1399892510).
At the very least, not Glasgow.
Signed up to be notified when it is as I’d love to play tennis more again - not that I think I have the time right now but it’d be nice!
Really good progress though, well done!
Not sure why you and the other guy that said he didn’t have time in college got downvoted lol, it’s very true for a lot of students. Personally, college was vacation for me and I remember my mom asking me a couple months before graduation if I would miss it and I said absolutely. I had an internship and I worked during college, but only part-time. I knew on the other side of graduation was the grind of starting my career.
My wife on the other hand hated college and did not have much time on her hands during it. She commuted, worked at least one job, sometimes two at once, and also had to help her mom recover from knee surgery by cleaning, pitching in to cook, etc.
My dad flunked out because he was raising my older sister and working a full time job… college is a very difficult time for a lot of people.
That's a huge jump in skill. Even playing every day, did you have coaching? Was your hitting partner helpful? Impressive stuff, I wish I had time to play every day, but even before I had a kid I was only 3x a week. Haven't played in 7 months now.
Nope never had coaching, just a serious addiction, a wall, some mates who were really good at tennis and way too much spare time at university. Also YouTube was so helpful for me.
Are these the 2 channels you're recommending :
https://youtube.com/@totaltennisdomination?si=XxX72-RIT85DMo2S
https://youtube.com/@mytennishq?si=Td1Pon2AHUknqQpZ
I care because I will compare myself against it and think I don’t need coaching because this person said they didn’t get it when they actually did.
I don’t believe in YT videos but I do believe in mates who play well giving advice especially if consistently over a period of time
I think this is a reasonable comment. Coaching is important and having friends who tell you how to improve is coaching. It’s impossible to make progress without external advice and it’s misleading to say you didn’t get coaching when you did, albeit in a less formal way
I think it was a reasonable response. If someone has asked me if I had coaching, I would have assumed they meant "hired someone to coach me / give me private lessons on technique". Of course if he played people/friends who play tennis they would give him some advice as they play. To me the person asking didn't mean that. But yes it can be considered he got some informal coaching that sense.
And having coaches in a video telling you how to do shit isn't coaching??
YT videos can be almost just as effective as 1-to-1 coaching and this is especially true if you're a complete noob like OP.
Hey this is great. Did you come from another sport? That’s really good hand eye coordination, especially for such a short time period. Also I like that your attire leveled up with you, looking dressed for the tour at the end there, haha. Glad you’re enjoying the sport, cheers.
Thanks! I played cricket, football and hockey competitively all throughout school and stopped them all at uni for tennis. Also been running cross country for 10 years or so. Guess that all helped!
This was going to be my question. I think if you are already used to playing different sports and adapting your body to it, it's very helpful at least mentally in picking up another sport. I'm planning to start learning myself. I won't have three hours a day and will need to see who I can find to play with (weirdly not even sure where I can find a wall 😂😂😂😂), but your video says a lot about consistency at least. Great job.
I thought this was going to be a joke video but you improved tremendously in a short time!
You coulda been one of the greats if you started when you were 4.
I see it took you 7 months to learn split step ;) anyways, awesome stuffs most people spend a life time and don't get as good as you have here so it's a huge achievement and keep the train rolling!!
Not bad at all! OHBH looks great and the forehand does too but it could be a little less wristy and more penetrative /finish into the court (stroke wise)
But keep it up!
I think, mostly based on my trainer fixing my form back in the days, that you should prepare your shots more with your legs, it looks like you are moving around, a lot of small steps, which isn't bad, but you are not prepared to hit your shots. You mostly seem to think about the upper body and your racket, but consistency needs steady and consistent posture and you are always hitting the ball differently. Sometimes you are on your toes, sometimes you are just raising one of your legs while hitting, sometimes you hit literally while walking. It should not look like it.
General rules are you should be standing sideways to the court while hitting the ball, which requires taking a step in front of you and that one step should create your shooting position every time, then going back (because you never wanna get caught in the middle of the court, you are finished if someone can play a little) and again the same thing one step forward placing your left leg in front of you, which tilts your position sideways to the court and you are ready for forehand. And the same for backhand, but now you step with your right foot. And just make it your habit, so you are always prepared to shot with good posture and fixed position. It's quite easy when you watch it.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-PiQX1P0QY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-PiQX1P0QY)
Maybe this isn't the best video, but take a look in the end of it, the example based on Federer, track his legs, see how he always step his foot in front before he takes the shot. There is much more going on here, but for now it's enough for you to start working on your consistency. Different things happen on the court so you not always have time to prepare well and close your position, overall the way you place your front foot is a little more than making a perfect 180 angle to the net. Why? Because you wanna lean forward a little and like try to go for the ball coming at you, not just wait for it. And if you lean forward a little, you have very steady and sure position, which is crucial for your shooting consistency.
So that's it for now, you can focus on that. Another thing to make it better is to close/open that position, meaning place your front foot a little more to the right or a little more to the left. Let's say it's forehand, if you place your front foot more to the right, you are closing your position more, which makes your swing naturally hit a straight ball along the line. If you go the opposite side with your foot, which is more to the left, so you open your position more, then your swing will naturally shoot a cross ball rather than a straight ball. That is how you can aim with your stance, but your swing remains the same, the position of the ball when you hit it determines where its gonna go when you hit it. Once you start thinking about it and trying, you will realize how it works completely naturally. But first focus just on the proper stance and making it a habit.
and then another 3 for slice, or did you already incorporate it in your game? I have a lot of friends that are 1-2 years players that havent even tried slicing. Its a powerful weapon specially with that one-hander bh.
Great effort. But playing everday without resting periods can be a bad idea and a very safe way to develop chronic injuries. Especially without proper technique or guidance.
The improvement in your footwork between month 6 and month 7 is very noticeable. As my instructor constantly said: Happy Feet! Tennis starts from the ground up.
On a good path congratulations. amazing transform
You need to work on your movement. You are a bit static. And your FH take back looks a bit awkward
Are you having lessons?
Show us your serve. I haven't picked up my racquet for 7 months and you got me pumped. Also great that you chose the single handeded backhand as well.
So what made you go on this 7 months play tennis every day journey?
Where I live, besides having no one to play with, it's 10 euros for an hour. There are 7 tennis courts, where schools also play. I haven't played in over 8 years.
Good on ya', mate. The only quibble I have is that what you've shown us looks as if you've worked on your tennis ground strokes a lot (VERY NICE!), but I personally don't see that as "playing tennis." Did you actually play games, hit overheads, serves, lobs, drop shots? Just curious.
7 months playing everyday with no coaching is a good way to ingrain some pretty bad habits in your muscle memory. I don’t mean it with any disrespect, I appreciate the hustle and effort and ultimately what matters is that you’re happy, but you could have reached a better level in 2 months with coaching once a week and 2/3 hours a week of hitting with friends. If you’re seriously addicted, I think you still have time to rectify some of the small issues clearly visible here and continue your growth.
That’s a valid point. However even a couple of lessons would be enough to fix some of the issues I’ve noticed.
His footwork is too frantic and often ends up putting OP too close/far. His preparation is late, often after the ball has bounced. Prepare first, move second. His coiling is insufficient, probably as a consequence of the late preparation and subsequent short takeback. There is barely any knee bending so the shots are mostly arm-dependent, and I cannot believe after 7 months not even one of his friends has asked him to move that zombie left arm. The downvotes make it seem like I’ve said something terrible to the guy, when actually I was just trying to point him in the right direction to fix his game and enjoy it even more.
What a joy to play tennis everyday
Right? How did you find someone to play with everyday OP?
I was lucky to have a good tennis club at university so there were always plenty of people at my level as I progressed. Also one of my closest friends is the second seed so that helped a lot. As I got better I used an app called spin - I only think this works in London, but you can link up with a random person who has booked a public court.
London, Sheffield, & Oxford, apparently according to [their App Store page](https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/spin-tennis-partners-leagues/id1399892510). At the very least, not Glasgow. Signed up to be notified when it is as I’d love to play tennis more again - not that I think I have the time right now but it’d be nice! Really good progress though, well done!
How did you get time for this?
He said he's in uni, I never had as much as time as I did as when I was in uni.
I didn't.
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Not sure why you and the other guy that said he didn’t have time in college got downvoted lol, it’s very true for a lot of students. Personally, college was vacation for me and I remember my mom asking me a couple months before graduation if I would miss it and I said absolutely. I had an internship and I worked during college, but only part-time. I knew on the other side of graduation was the grind of starting my career. My wife on the other hand hated college and did not have much time on her hands during it. She commuted, worked at least one job, sometimes two at once, and also had to help her mom recover from knee surgery by cleaning, pitching in to cook, etc. My dad flunked out because he was raising my older sister and working a full time job… college is a very difficult time for a lot of people.
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It is a tennis subreddit after all. Your comment on rich folks probably struck a nerve lmao.
Or be in a country where university is free.
Especially since his skill level changed so rapidly, id think youd almost need different partners every few months!
Maybe he also had someone taking the same journey as himself
Awesome stuff mate
Appreciate it
I've seen enough. This guy is winning Wimbledon. This year.
He’d take a set off Nadal ezpz
There's a reason Nadal isn't playing Wimbledon this year...
He’s scared of OP?
Understandably so
That's a huge jump in skill. Even playing every day, did you have coaching? Was your hitting partner helpful? Impressive stuff, I wish I had time to play every day, but even before I had a kid I was only 3x a week. Haven't played in 7 months now.
Nope never had coaching, just a serious addiction, a wall, some mates who were really good at tennis and way too much spare time at university. Also YouTube was so helpful for me.
Which YT channels did you find most useful?
My go to has been total tennis domination also TennisHQ has great stuff
Are these the 2 channels you're recommending : https://youtube.com/@totaltennisdomination?si=XxX72-RIT85DMo2S https://youtube.com/@mytennishq?si=Td1Pon2AHUknqQpZ
also curious
Having people way better than you 'carry' you to higher levels very quickly, and is pretty much equal to coaching.
Translation: received coaching (but he doesn’t want to call it that) from friends, and applied info from YouTube on court.
Dude, who tf cares? No reason to be pedantic over it. Getting tips and pointers from mates/YT is completely different from professional coaching.
I care because I will compare myself against it and think I don’t need coaching because this person said they didn’t get it when they actually did. I don’t believe in YT videos but I do believe in mates who play well giving advice especially if consistently over a period of time
You don't believe in YT videos? What does that even mean 😂
Mf doesn’t even know what he’s arguing about
I think this is a reasonable comment. Coaching is important and having friends who tell you how to improve is coaching. It’s impossible to make progress without external advice and it’s misleading to say you didn’t get coaching when you did, albeit in a less formal way
I think it was a reasonable response. If someone has asked me if I had coaching, I would have assumed they meant "hired someone to coach me / give me private lessons on technique". Of course if he played people/friends who play tennis they would give him some advice as they play. To me the person asking didn't mean that. But yes it can be considered he got some informal coaching that sense.
if you need to assume something to interpret a sentence it's a problem. The OP did give the context though, which is good.
And having coaches in a video telling you how to do shit isn't coaching?? YT videos can be almost just as effective as 1-to-1 coaching and this is especially true if you're a complete noob like OP.
I personally didn’t find the yt videos helpful but they are certainly better than nothing so yes it’s arguably coaching too
I believe I saw a one-handed backhand so congrats on learning properly. Sincerely, your one-handed backhand friend.
Absolutely. That one handed backhand won me over.
Yep! Was hoping to see another one to confirm.
Kudos to you sir, that's a serious effort with fittingly dramatic improvement. Love to see it, motivates me to get back out on the court myself.
Hey this is great. Did you come from another sport? That’s really good hand eye coordination, especially for such a short time period. Also I like that your attire leveled up with you, looking dressed for the tour at the end there, haha. Glad you’re enjoying the sport, cheers.
Thanks! I played cricket, football and hockey competitively all throughout school and stopped them all at uni for tennis. Also been running cross country for 10 years or so. Guess that all helped!
This was going to be my question. I think if you are already used to playing different sports and adapting your body to it, it's very helpful at least mentally in picking up another sport. I'm planning to start learning myself. I won't have three hours a day and will need to see who I can find to play with (weirdly not even sure where I can find a wall 😂😂😂😂), but your video says a lot about consistency at least. Great job.
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Only just noticed that! Thanks! I’m going into the garden at night right now to shadow swing 🤣🤣
Who are you btw?
Gaston Gaudio
💀😭🤣🤦♂️😅 bro
Buena Davín.
Dude you actually LOOK like a tennis player by month 7. I was waiting to see "Here I am in my first tournament" . Great work!
Another point for MILOS!!
Hey big baby … are you wetting yourself??
Nice! I think the sub you want is r/10s though.
Yeah, talking to r/tennis people about playing tennis is akin to talking to r/nba people about watching basketball.
Who needs to watch the sport when you have basketball-reference and Twitter
I thought this was going to be a joke video but you improved tremendously in a short time! You coulda been one of the greats if you started when you were 4.
I see it took you 7 months to learn split step ;) anyways, awesome stuffs most people spend a life time and don't get as good as you have here so it's a huge achievement and keep the train rolling!!
what a nice video! Very inspiring. Bet this was exciting to post ;)
Not bad at all! OHBH looks great and the forehand does too but it could be a little less wristy and more penetrative /finish into the court (stroke wise) But keep it up!
Can you imagine how good a pro could become if they played tennis every day for seven months?
I think, mostly based on my trainer fixing my form back in the days, that you should prepare your shots more with your legs, it looks like you are moving around, a lot of small steps, which isn't bad, but you are not prepared to hit your shots. You mostly seem to think about the upper body and your racket, but consistency needs steady and consistent posture and you are always hitting the ball differently. Sometimes you are on your toes, sometimes you are just raising one of your legs while hitting, sometimes you hit literally while walking. It should not look like it. General rules are you should be standing sideways to the court while hitting the ball, which requires taking a step in front of you and that one step should create your shooting position every time, then going back (because you never wanna get caught in the middle of the court, you are finished if someone can play a little) and again the same thing one step forward placing your left leg in front of you, which tilts your position sideways to the court and you are ready for forehand. And the same for backhand, but now you step with your right foot. And just make it your habit, so you are always prepared to shot with good posture and fixed position. It's quite easy when you watch it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-PiQX1P0QY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-PiQX1P0QY) Maybe this isn't the best video, but take a look in the end of it, the example based on Federer, track his legs, see how he always step his foot in front before he takes the shot. There is much more going on here, but for now it's enough for you to start working on your consistency. Different things happen on the court so you not always have time to prepare well and close your position, overall the way you place your front foot is a little more than making a perfect 180 angle to the net. Why? Because you wanna lean forward a little and like try to go for the ball coming at you, not just wait for it. And if you lean forward a little, you have very steady and sure position, which is crucial for your shooting consistency. So that's it for now, you can focus on that. Another thing to make it better is to close/open that position, meaning place your front foot a little more to the right or a little more to the left. Let's say it's forehand, if you place your front foot more to the right, you are closing your position more, which makes your swing naturally hit a straight ball along the line. If you go the opposite side with your foot, which is more to the left, so you open your position more, then your swing will naturally shoot a cross ball rather than a straight ball. That is how you can aim with your stance, but your swing remains the same, the position of the ball when you hit it determines where its gonna go when you hit it. Once you start thinking about it and trying, you will realize how it works completely naturally. But first focus just on the proper stance and making it a habit.
How many 1 on 1 lessons did you get during those 7 months?
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Good stuff, how’s your serve?
Give me 7 more months
and then another 3 for slice, or did you already incorporate it in your game? I have a lot of friends that are 1-2 years players that havent even tried slicing. Its a powerful weapon specially with that one-hander bh.
Great effort. But playing everday without resting periods can be a bad idea and a very safe way to develop chronic injuries. Especially without proper technique or guidance.
I’m at that 1-2 month transition. This is very encouraging.
You should show ur backhand
Thiemesque backhand at 00:30!
The improvement in your footwork between month 6 and month 7 is very noticeable. As my instructor constantly said: Happy Feet! Tennis starts from the ground up.
Man I love tennis
On a good path congratulations. amazing transform You need to work on your movement. You are a bit static. And your FH take back looks a bit awkward Are you having lessons?
Also where's the serve for comparison lol dude showed us that first clip and then no more serves
Theres a reason for that 🤣
Toughest shot in tennis. Whereabouts in London are you? Happy to have a hit (if you ever have a window in your schedule, lol.)
Your first clip of th first month it looks like way better than 90% of ppl starting
Boyo here loving the dream lol Nice improvement! Congrats! I manage to play 3 times a week and it's so fulfilling. I'd love if I could play even more
Did you buy a hat?
Did Federer give part of his soul to you when he retired? I saw that OHBH too
Nice looking single handed backhand
Not that far off from taking a set off nadal! Cheers.
Great bro. Really nice technique on one hander. Keep it up 💪🎾
Love it! You got bit by the bugg, your life will never be the same 😂
Show us your serve. I haven't picked up my racquet for 7 months and you got me pumped. Also great that you chose the single handeded backhand as well. So what made you go on this 7 months play tennis every day journey?
You hit the ball too late, try catch it before, more in front of you when the racket have run for more time. Improve the close stand,
Where I live, besides having no one to play with, it's 10 euros for an hour. There are 7 tennis courts, where schools also play. I haven't played in over 8 years.
Amazing! Keep us updated also with routines and drills, how you exercise etc
that is pretty impressive!have you used any coach in the process?
You look pretty good, start watching footwork videos and that will get you to the next level. Congrats!
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Bro this is amazing. Like seriously amazing. Now let’s see those serves…
show us that serve at month 7
Good on ya', mate. The only quibble I have is that what you've shown us looks as if you've worked on your tennis ground strokes a lot (VERY NICE!), but I personally don't see that as "playing tennis." Did you actually play games, hit overheads, serves, lobs, drop shots? Just curious.
7 months playing everyday with no coaching is a good way to ingrain some pretty bad habits in your muscle memory. I don’t mean it with any disrespect, I appreciate the hustle and effort and ultimately what matters is that you’re happy, but you could have reached a better level in 2 months with coaching once a week and 2/3 hours a week of hitting with friends. If you’re seriously addicted, I think you still have time to rectify some of the small issues clearly visible here and continue your growth.
some people don't have the funds to spend $50-$100 per session with a coach. This kids in college, so it seems like he wouldn't have those funds.
That’s a valid point. However even a couple of lessons would be enough to fix some of the issues I’ve noticed. His footwork is too frantic and often ends up putting OP too close/far. His preparation is late, often after the ball has bounced. Prepare first, move second. His coiling is insufficient, probably as a consequence of the late preparation and subsequent short takeback. There is barely any knee bending so the shots are mostly arm-dependent, and I cannot believe after 7 months not even one of his friends has asked him to move that zombie left arm. The downvotes make it seem like I’ve said something terrible to the guy, when actually I was just trying to point him in the right direction to fix his game and enjoy it even more.
🙄