Kyle Plemmons Plemmons 1

Mr. Robert Arnold

English 1101-Explaining Draft 1

9/29/10 A Game of Tennis

Roger Federer is one of the fastest tennis players out there. Did you know Roger can hit a

tennis ball between his legs? Tennis is a game of quickness and agility and it takes a lot of work

in order to perform like the pros. Not only does it just take hard work and practice, it takes

experience in tournaments for you to become comfortable playing in front of a crowd. For all

your sports fans and athletes out there, I will display steps to explain how the game of tennis is

played and for those of you who play tennis, maybe you will learn something new.

First off, tennis is played with pretty light attire and good shock absorbent shoes. Any

shorts that are made of mesh or that sort of material will do just fine. A nice light t-shirt or for

the fancy people out there, a collared shirt is appropriate. There are shoes that are made

specifically for tennis and they are typically the best if you are trying to excel at the sport. A

racquet is the next step. Really anything will do but once you begin to understand the

techniques and hit the ball harder with more control, a racquet of higher quality of

recommended. The tennis ball is obviously required to play the sport. Usually you have 3 balls

for a match, although you have more in your bag just not on the court with you. This is all that

is needed in order to play the sport.

There are many different techniques to playing tennis. I remember when I was taking

private lessons three times a week as well as a clinic Mondays and Wednesdays. It was

extremely hard work but it paid off when I won our community’s tennis championships for my
Kyle Plemmons Plemmons 1

Mr. Robert Arnold

English 1101-Explaining Draft 1

9/29/10 A Game of Tennis

age group. My coach would always tell me not to hit an open stance but it just seemed to work

for me. In most cases, you want to turn your body to the right for a forehand and to the left for

a backhand. A forehand is your single right handed stroke if you are not left handed. The

backhand is when you turn your body to the left and you can either hold the racquet with one

hand or two. Right handed, you will put your right hand on the bottom and left hand on top of

the grip. The stance is left foot forward for forehand and right foot forward for backhand. To

get more power, you step into the stroke with either foot. Your racquet needs to be low and

behind you and you swing up and across your shoulder and follow through. If you do not follow

through, you will get no topspin and the ball will soar out of bounds. Topspin is where the ball is

spinning forwards and it forces it down faster. Backspin is where the ball spins backwards and it

will not bring the ball down. The ball will kick back with backspin and kick forward with topspin.

This is really what you need to know about the stance and stroke of tennis. Foot movement is

also very important. You must keep your feet moving so that once you stop to hit the ball, you

can quickly return to the middle of the court and prepare for the next shot.

The scoring system in tennis are a little confusing at first. A match is composed of best

two out of three sets or in professional it is best three out of five sets for men’s and two out of

three sets for women’s. A set is made up of six games. One game is played like so. If it is my

serve I will hit the ball and if I win the point, the score is 15-0. If I proceed to win another point,
Kyle Plemmons Plemmons 1

Mr. Robert Arnold

English 1101-Explaining Draft 1

9/29/10 A Game of Tennis

then the score is 30-0. Another point won would make it 40-0. Then I would win that game is I

won one more point. After I serve that game, the other player will serve a game. It goes on like

that until you get to six games and win by two. If it comes to 6-6, you would play a tie-breaker.

It is composed of seven points, win by two. So if I win both sets, I win the match. 2-2 would be

another set played.

Andy Roddick can hit the ball up to speeds of 150 mph with his serve. That is one fast

tennis ball coming right at you. The serve in tennis can be a very deadly tool. You get two

chances to get the ball on the opposite side of the net and into the left front box. It must land

on the line of the box or in the box in order to be considered “in”. The two outside lanes of the

court are used only for doubles. In singles, the ball is in if it hits the doubles line. The first serve

is usually a much harder serve than the second. There are many stragedies to serving and I will

explain a few. Many players like speed and they just crush the ball. It will typically have no spin

if it is coming that fast at you. These players will strike the ball at the top of the throw and must

bring their racquet almost to their shoulder on the backswing. Hitting at the peak is where the

most power is generated. Some players prefer spin on first serves. So the ball is coming at you

and you just know you are prepared for it and are going to crush it down the line until it hits the

ground. “Uh-oh”, you mutter when the ball kicks to the right and over your head. This is called a

topspin serve and it is very effective. It kicks the ball whichever way you spin it when you come
Kyle Plemmons Plemmons 1

Mr. Robert Arnold

English 1101-Explaining Draft 1

9/29/10 A Game of Tennis

in contact with it. Most players use these two for their first serve. The majority of second serves

are topspin serves or slices. A slice is when you, in a sense, chop the ball and it puts backspin on

it, therefore when the ball lands it will stop instead of bouncing towards you. It can be pretty

tricky sometimes.

So, you think you can just go out and whoop up on Roger now? I think not! Tennis is a

lot of running and you must be in pretty decent shape to perform well. Running outside or on a

treadmill can really help improve your endurance. Also, doing sprinting exercises can help a ton.

Most of tennis is sprinting to the ball and then sprinting back to the middle of the baseline. It

isn’t like soccer where you must have excellent endurance as well as speed. If you are in good

shape and are ready to bust your butt training, I think anybody can be a tennis star one day.