My first tennis lesson

The highlight of the day is definitely my very first private tennis lesson with a coach!

I had gotten the coach’s number from the club sometime ago but never reached out because I kept thinking it would be expensive, plus I didn’t even have a racquet yet. Three days ago, I finally decided I should do something because I was bored out of my mind. So I got in touch with the coach. The fee was not cheap and slightly more expensive than expected. But I had a total budget and I figured there was no harm going for the first lesson.

I arrived early and walked to the tennis court gates. I could see a barrel of tennis balls but no one was in there. Then a man got out of a car that was parked in front of the gate. I recognised him as the coach and greeted him.

We are going to start with these green dot balls, he said. They travel at a slower speed than the normal balls, so it would be easier for beginners to react to them and gain control. Coach first threw the balls at me in different directions and I had to catch them and throw them back. Next, we moved on to using the racquet, where I just “tapped” the ball back to him. Finally, he showed me the proper swings and grips for forehand and backhand.

Gripping the tennis raquect is slightly different from gripping the badminton racquet. I had to grip at the very end of the handle such that a bit of my palm overflows. For backhand, I had to stack my left hand right atop my right hand, and slightly adjust the angle so that the racquet head was facing frontward. As for the swings, I was to “catch” the ball slightly in front of me, rather than when the ball is parallel to me. After contact with the balls, there must be a follow-through of the swing, so that the tip of the handle ended up facing forward. For the forehand, the extra step is to “catch” my racquet with my left hand, giving my right arm momentary support and rest.

We started with swing practices as coach fed the balls to me and slowly increased the distance. Then we moved on to proper rallies as I tried to get used to the proper swings. There was one particular rally where I could get that “pop” sound that you hear when the professionals play. I was secretly happy but didn’t really know why I had that sound or how to duplicate it again.

Throughout the entire session, we only stopped to pick up balls in the middle and at the end. Coach said that this was a thing he made sure of in his sessions, so that no time is wasted. I also found out that my coach was actually the head coach of the national tennis team! And that he lives at Jalan Ipoh, which is quite far from the club. The fee didn’t seem too expensive anymore.

I thoroughly enjoyed the session today and I am looking forward to learning more and getting up to speed!