Category: Stroke Library

The slice is the most under-taught shot in junior tennis. Coaches spend 90% of lesson time on topspin groundstrokes, so most kids reach 14 with a slice that’s either nonexistent or a panicked chop. Then they play their first opponent who hits heavy, deep balls, and they discover — usually mid-match, usually painfully — that…

The serve is the only shot in tennis where nobody interferes with you. No opponent rushing you, no bad bounce, no surprises — just your kid, the ball, and the toss. That’s what makes it both the biggest opportunity and the biggest frustration in junior tennis. A reliable serve wins free points and holds games.…

If your kid only ever learns one shot properly, make it the forehand. It’s the stroke juniors hit more than any other — most kids will run around their backhand just to hit one. A reliable forehand keeps them in rallies, wins them points, and builds the confidence everything else grows from. A broken one…

Here’s something most tennis parents learn too late: at every level of junior tennis, the kid with better strokes often loses to the kid with better feet. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your kid’s forehand is in a basket-fed drill. In a real rally, if they’re not in the right place at the right time,…

Here’s a pattern you’ll see if you watch enough junior tennis: at 10, every kid runs around their backhand to hit forehands. At 14, the kids who are still doing it are losing — because their opponents figured out that the backhand side is where matches are won. The backhand doesn’t need to be a…