You sit through hours of your kid’s tennis. Lessons, practices, matches. And most of the time, you’re watching without really seeing — you know a good shot when it lands in, and a bad one when it doesn’t, but you can’t tell why.
That’s what the Stroke Library is for. Five guides — one for each essential stroke, plus footwork, the invisible sixth stroke — each built around the same simple idea: here’s what a good one looks like, here’s what goes wrong, and here are the best free video lessons that show it properly.
You don’t need to become a coach. But when you can spot a late unit turn on the forehand, or a missing split step, or a waiter’s-tray serve grip, two good things happen: you stop worrying about the wrong things, and the conversations with your kid’s actual coach get ten times more productive.
The five guides
🎾 The Forehand: Your Kid’s Money Shot
The most-hit stroke in junior tennis. Six checkpoints from grip to balanced finish, the three mistakes behind most sprayed forehands, and four video lessons from Top Tennis Training, 2MinuteTennis, and former ATP pro Jeff Salzenstein.
🎾 The Backhand: The Shot That Decides Matches
At 10 they run around it; at 14 it decides who wins. Early grip changes, the full shoulder turn, spacing — plus four video lessons including a no-talking visual breakdown for younger kids.
🎾 The Slice: The Shot Juniors Neglect
The reset button every kid needs and almost nobody practices. Continental grip, the high-to-low-to-high path, fixing the floating slice — with lessons from Top Tennis Training, TeamForman, and a Patrick Mouratoglou masterclass on slice tactics.
🎾 The Serve: The Shot Your Kid Fully Controls
The most technical shot in the sport, and the one that develops slowest — be patient. Trophy position, the racket drop, fixing the wandering toss, building a real second serve. Four video lessons covering flat, kick, and slice serves.
🎾 Footwork: The Invisible Stroke
Better feet beat better strokes at every junior level. The split step, adjustment steps, recovery patterns — and drills you can do in the backyard with zero equipment. Includes kid-specific ladder and movement lessons.
How to use this library
- Watch the videos yourself first. Ten minutes per stroke. You’ll be amazed how much you start seeing.
- Watch one with your kid. Not as a lecture — as a “hey, look at this.” Let the coach on screen do the teaching.
- Film, don’t fix. Take 30 seconds of phone video from behind the baseline. Compare it to the checkpoints. Then tell the coach what you noticed — don’t run the lesson yourself from the sideline. (Ask us how we know.)
- One thing at a time. Pick a single checkpoint per month. Juniors improve fastest when they’re thinking about one thing, not six.
A note on the videos
Every video in this library is made by a third-party coach or channel — we didn’t film them, and we don’t earn anything from linking them. We link them because they’re genuinely good lessons from reputable instructors, and they’re free. If a video ever disappears or a link breaks, let us know and we’ll replace it.
We’re parents, not coaches — these guides are what we’ve learned from watching, filming, and asking better questions. When in doubt, your kid’s coach outranks a blog. Every time.
