Tennis Tip #24

There are different ways to hit the high backhand, one we previously discussed was the backhand slice. However, there are two other options so you do not lose power: hitting on the rise and letting the ball drop. Hitting on the rise is harder, and a lot of players do not use it, instead they wait for the ball to drop. First, hitting on the rise means that you will be hitting the ball as it is rising. If you master this, it will make hitting high balls much easier however, the downside is there are a lot of places for you to make mistakes. This is because the ball is a lot tougher to hit when it is jumping straight up. However, waiting for the ball to drop is a lot easier to hit, and people feel more comfortable hitting that ball because you can control the timing, and will have more time to hit the ball. In addition, you are also hitting up as you hit the ball. So why would you ever be hitting the ball high with these two options? Well this is because sometimes the ball bounces and backs you up too far, which means there isn’t space behind the baseline. And believe me, it happens a lot; so working on hitting on the rise will help you out a lot with this shot. So give this tip ago and starting working hard on your backhands!

Tennis Tip #23

The high backhand. This is the kryptonite shot for just about every tennis player, especially juniors. You hit the ball as a backhand because you are too far wide, or reacted late. The first thing you need to do is not panic. All junior players, and even professional players see this as their weakest shot and this is why all of the players try to run around their backhands. Therefore, before you hit this shot, there are a couple things that you need to think about. Most important, it's not all about power, hit it in, and play smart. Your goal in hitting this shot is to play a neutral ball. If this cannot happen, then you want to hit the next best shot to keep you in the point for as long as possible. Remember, tennis isn't just about hitting hardest, you need to hit the ball in the court, and many players miss the easy shots. If you give yourself the opportunity to win, you will! In addition, when you hit this ball, you get most of your power from your legs, so bend and launch up as you hit the shot. The other thing that you need to do is get torque, which is something many players forget. You also need to remember to bring your racquet all the way back, and hit through it with your entire core. If you do these two things you will have the power to continue the point. There are also other ways to master this shot so, check in tomorrow to find out how!

Tennis Tip #22

Now that you know how to hit this shot, which we know comes from preparing early and disguise; lets discuss how to perfect it. The best way to practice this is to have a friend or coach at the net, and for you to be on the baseline. On the coach's side of the court, there will be three different markers on the left, middle, and right inside the court. When you are about to hit the ball, you will be told where to hit it (which of the three locations). As you see in our image, there are target practices for serve, volleys, and ground strokes. We should focus just on the blue X's for this drill. Since, you will have no time to prepare for the shot, you have to be in the right position for any of the three locations. In addition, you will notice that you cannot hit this ball when it is coming at you quickly. Therefore the best time to hit the shot is when you receive a high, looping ball meant for your backhand, but was not wide enough. While this shot is not easy, and it takes practice, when you master it, you will have a leg up on most of your opponents.

Tennis Tip #21

The inside-outs, and inside-ins all stem to one important thing, positioning. When you hit these shots, you will hit the ball as a forehand because of the power that you can get from this shot. So, lets discuss positioning, just like a drop shot, one important piece stressed was disguise. When you hit these shots, you don't want to make it obvious where you will hit these shots. Looking at the woman to the left, you see her preparing for a forehand, but you have no idea where she will be hitting the ball. This is how you can tell if your preparation is at a high level. You will either hit cross court (inside out), down the middle, or down the line (inside in). When you are about to make contact with the ball, you will make your decision where the ball will go. This will provide less time for your opponent, and more time for you to prepare for your next shot. When you hit this shot, you will be in a closed position; this is when you are perpendicular to the net. If you are open, or parallel to the net, you will have a tough time hitting down the line. So now that you have an understanding of this, tomorrow we will discuss good ways to work with your inside-out / inside-in shots, and to perfect like a pro.

Tennis Tip #20

Now lets talk about the backhand slice, which is used at all times of play. High shots, low shots, approach shots, you name it. So lets get going. Your opposite foot should have all its weight on it, and you will continue to do the "bowl" motion mentioned yesterday. If you see that your shot is beginning to sit up, then it is because you are doing too much of a bowl, and need to straighten out your stroke. As a junior, you will find that it will be a lot easier to hit a slice that is high. However, there is nothing wrong with this, all you need to remember is to keep the ball deep, especially for these shots. Staying balanced is key as you hit this shot and you want to be balanced, and flexible. Being stiff just doesn't work. While this shot is definitely not easy, when you master it, it will be one of your favorites. This is especially so when you keep it really low for those tall, hard hitting tennis players. Just remember to stay down and keep your weight going forward. As long as you make sure to use the backhand volley motion, you will be in good shape.

Tennis Tip #19

As mentioned earlier, drop shots are not the easiest shots to hit. So lets learn how to successfully hit them! First, the forehand slice is just like a forehand volley, you prepare just like a volley. You can see how Donald Young is hitting his forehand slice here. Forehand volleys as a whole you won't hit as much as a backhand volley, because your forehand can provide a lot more wrist snap and power in comparison to a backhand. However, you will mostly hit this shot as an approach shot, a chip-and-charge, or on the run. If you were to hit a normal baseline slice, you would make sure that all of your weight is on your opposite foot (righty: left foot, lefty: right foot) as you step in. You would also have this leg bent as well. In addition, you want to keep this stroke as simple as possible. Ideally you should be making the movement of a dinner bowl, not too curvy, but not straight. You also want to keep your racquet on the same side of your body. Lastly, you don't want to return the racquet across your body, this is so you will hit the ball straight, and not just down the line. If you find things starting to get long, or a little "loopy", start from the beginning, and you'll get it right. We promise.

Tennis Tip #18

The drop shot is used throughout the game of tennis. You can hit drop shot volleys, or drop shots from ground strokes. There are many different rules when you hit the drop shot. First, you don't want the ball to sit up. Why? Well if it sits up, it will allow more time for your opponent to get to the ball. Next, there is the two bounce rule. What I mean by this, is that the ball must bounce two times inside the service line before going past the baseline. You would want for this to happen because if it only bounces one time in the service line, then it will give your opponent more time to get to the ball. Many players though elect to hit this shot when they get tired, or are tired throughout the match. This is not when you would want to hit the drop shot. You should be inside of the baseline as you are hitting this shot, the farther you are, the farther the ball must travel, and the more time it will give your opponent. Lastly, is the art of disguise. The difference of your stroke from a drop shot to a top spin or flat ball is extremely different. When someone prepares for a drop shot, it looks like they are hitting a slice, which means there is no power coming from this shot. If you hide your intent of the drop shot until the very end, it will make you a very successful drop shotter. Now that you have received an overview of these shots, its time to discuss how to hit them!

Tennis Tip #17

As of now we have completed our discussion on groundstrokes, so lets go over the slice. The slice is one of the most interesting shots in tennis, because you can hit it in many situations. For example, when you are trying to neutralize, attack, or defend. More or less, you hit the ball the same way, however, you will hit it a little differently depending on the type of slice that you hit. The key to the slice that is attacking or neutralizing is to keep the ball as low as possible. The slice is completely opposite from a topspin shot, in other words, the ball rises in a slice, and dips for topspin. So, when you are attacking, you will be stepping into the ball and aiming at the white part of the net. The ball will rise steadily after being hit, so aiming at this point is safe. You want to keep it low, because this means that your opponent will have to "hit up" when they hit their shot. Usually when it is attacking, you will be come up to the net, so this will put even more pressure on your opponent. The next type is neutralizing. This is when you are in a rally position with your opponent. You will not want to have the ball too high, because you will then be defensive. This shot is used to change up the pattern of the point to hopefully ruin your opponent’s rhythm. The next type is defensive; this is when you hit the ball high in the air, and slowly. You use it when you are out of position and need to change the speed of the ball to get yourself back into the court, and into position. Many tennis players feel forced to hit it hard, but that gives you less time to get back into position, and more court for your opponent to hit a winner. Tomorrow we will discuss the drop shot, and after, we will discuss how to hit these important shots!

Tennis Tip #16

The follow through is something that will help you hit the ball in to the court. Without this, you will lose a lot of control. But what is a follow through? This is what you do after you make contact with the ball. When you follow through, you want to continue your motion up; this will also help add topspin. Many tennis players have their follow through "forced" but is the last thing that you should do. After you make contact with the ball, your arm should be loose, and your racquet's momentum should carry your arm. Moreover, your follow through should go across your body, and go upward. Some tennis players, notably Rafael Nadal, follow through without going across their bodies. He is able to do this with the racquet speed that he generates, and the spin he adds with his wrist snap. Following through can also make sure that you are hitting up, because without a correct follow through, you may be hitting down, or hitting with less spin. Lastly, you cannot forget to continue moving after your follow through. Just because your racquet stops, doesn't mean that your body should stop moving! In addition, for slices, it is a completely different motion, which we will discuss at a different time. However, when you hit these shots, you will go up, but not follow through across your body. But stay tune because in the next tip we will discuss slices.

Tennis Tip #15

Let's continue where we left off with our previous post. As you are swinging to hit the ball from your "C", there are a couple of things that could happen: you could slowdown, you could fall backwards, or you could jump in the air. All of these mentioned are not things that you should be doing. When you hit the ball, you will always try to go "full speed on contact". Now, when you are learning something new, I would recommend that you hit the ball at about 50% power, and as you get more confident, to start swinging harder. However, keep in mind that full speed on contact doesn't just mean to hit it as fast as you can. You don't want to slow down as you are hitting the ball because you want to maintain your momentum. If you slow down as you make contact, you will lose your power and control on the ball. Other mistakes include players jumping up or falling backwards. This would happen if you are a little nervous and are playing "tight". Whenever this happens you are most likely going to miss, and continue to get frustrated with yourself on the court. You should try to bring your body weight forward, and go into the ball. This will also help to give you power as you hit. The last thing that you will need to do after you bend your knees, is to launch up as you are making contact with the ball. To avoid any, and all injuries, you want to delegate the stress throughout your body. Too many tennis players use too much arm, and that is what causes a lot of injuries. We would like to prevent that, so you can where our clothes every day. Come out tomorrow and learn about follow throughs.

Tennis Tip #14

Now lets talk about the two different ways you can bring your racquet back. The first is a "C” and the second is bringing the racquet straight back. A "C" is when you bring your racquet back in a "C" motion. This is recommended for a lot of junior players to make sure they get their racquet below the ball allowing them to hit with top spin. Your other option is bringing it straight back, however this is not recommended for novice players because they may bring the racquet back too high. While there is no exact position of your "C", you want to refrain from using a big "C" because it needs to be controlled and as small as possible. Your "C" depends on the height of the ball that you are going to hit and the higher the ball, the higher the "C" that you will have to start with. In addition, you want to make sure that you have a short back swing. If you have a long back swing, your strokes will suffer when you are playing with players that hit a fast ball (and we would not want that!). Now that the racquet is back, you will also have to use your wrist. Your wrist will twist, and you will have the butt of the racquet facing the other side of the court. By doing this, you will also roll your wrist to give you the top spin that keeps the ball in the court. Your wrist is extremely important, if you don't do this, you will have a lot of trouble hitting a topsin shot. All of the pointers can also be applied to the backhand shot. But next we will talk about making contact with the ball!

Tennis Tip #13

I am going to jump in with the forehand, and how you should hit this ball. When you get ready to hit this ball, you will be coming out of the ready position, and split step, both which were talked about in our previous posts. From this position, you will begin the forehand. Ground strokes can be extremely detailed, so I will be breaking this stroke up through a couple of tips. I will discuss the beginning of this stroke. You will begin with having your non-racquet-hand infront of you, and your racquet hand will be behind you. You can hit a ball like this, and it is recommended for beginners, but at NU Formal Tennis we have all types of tennis players, and want to help all of you out. If you want to be a little bit more advanced, and to add more power (who doesn't want more power?) You will have to change how you will be bringing your racquet back. You will first garner your core by turning your hips, as you are turning your hips, you will also bend your knees slightly. Adding your core and legs to your forehand will provide you with a lot more power. If you have ever been told that you are using too much arm, then you should try this, and you will see a difference quickly. We know that this is a lot of information all in right now, so we'll give you a day to think about everything before we move on. See you tomorrow!

Tennis Tip #12

After a brief hiatus we are back. We are going to begin discussing ground strokes, but before we get there, we would like to talk about the type of spins that are involved in a ground stroke. The first is a slice. This is when you would "chop" the ball, and the ball produces an underspin. On this shot, your racquet will be open. The ball rises as it leaves your racquet so you must make sure to keep the racquet low as you hit the ball. The next shot is top spin. When you hit the ball on this shot, you will be hitting low to high. Your racquet will be closed for this stroke, unlike the slice, and you will be hitting the bottom of the ball. This is the most common shot in tennis for tournaments and on the tour. The top spin gives the security for the ball to land in the court. When hitting a top spin shot, you can expect your ball to drop faster then other shots. The last shot is flat, this is when you hit the ball "square". On this shot you will hit the ball straight through as opposed to up or down. You can hit this ball as long as the ball is above the net. However, you cannot hit this ball when it is below the net because there is no security for the ball to stay in the court. Look out for our next post where we will discuss the best times to hit each shot.

Tennis Tip #11

Continuing on with the net shots… let’s go with the swinging volley. Sometimes you are about to hit an overhead, but it’s just too low for you to hit. What do you do? You do a swinging forehand, or backhand. This shot is mainly hit while approaching the net, and the ball is almost always above the net, so there isn’t much restriction in hitting the ball hard. Also , you need to hit forward, not up like groundstrokes. Lastly, just like overheads, it is extremely important to keep your body up. The moment you drop your shoulder, the ball will be in the net. Sometimes, when you’re about to hit the ball, you may see the ball is coming faster than anticipated. If that is the case, you should revert to hitting the volley. With all of the power coming from your opponent, you should have no problem hitting an offensive volley. As fun as this shot can be in a practice, or match, there is not a lot of room for error, so you must play smart.

Tennis Tip #10

Thanks to Miller. We saw the perfect form for the overhead. We discussed that you should have your feet pointed at the net, and your opposite hand held high. What we need to discuss is what will be done if the overhead is hit too far back. And where you should aim if you hit the overhead. Just like a serve, you can hit a flat, and slice overhead. When you hit the overhead far back, you will be in the air, and your weight will go backward. The best thing to do in this situation is to hit the ball straight, as opposed to down. Second, you will want to hit the ball deeper. The other shot is the slice overhead. It is used when you need to do more of a finesse shot. Often placement is key when you’re hitting these shots. Many times you want to hit the ball as hard as you can, but that will sometimes lead to mistakes. The overhead shot is often taken lightly, however, this is the shot that everyone messes up. So remember, never slowdown on the court, especially for the overhead!

Meet our player

Miller McLure, One of our young, up-and-coming tennis players found time to out of his busy tennis day to do a brief interview with us.
When did you start playing tennis?
I was 6 years old. I am 9 1/2 now and will be 10 in May.
What is your favorite shot?
My forehand is my favorite, but also my best.
What is your ranking?
I'm not sure. I play in the b12's. We just moved to Texas from Florida so I've only played one ranking tournament.
What is your best tennis memory?
Aside from playing Little Mo, it's when I hit an inside out forehand WINNER on a friend of mine from Arkansas. He's really good.
What do you hope for your tennis?
I'd like to play like Roger Federer at the US Open.
Why do you like Nu Formal Tennis?
Because it's attractive and a little funky, just like me.
Who inspired you in playing tennis?
My mom introduced me to tennis but I want to be a professional tennis player. It is a challenge.
What is the best thing about being sponsored?
Someone besides my family believes in me. It means a lot and is a big responsibility.
All of us at Nu Formal Tennis are super excited to have him on our team, and wish him the best with his tennis future.

Tennis Tip #9

One of our juniors decided to share with us some of his awesome strokes to help us with our tennis tips. Miller helped us show all of the good points in an overhead. This first of these tips will discuss the preparation for the overhead. When you are up at net, you can get passed by two different ways. One, is an angle. We will discuss this in another tip, but the other is the lob. Many tennis players handle this stroke with countless errors. They look unprofessional and confused. This is not what Nu Formal Tennis is about. We want to look stylish, and play composed. When you see that you have been hit a lob, you should prepare by shuffling backwards, no running is allowed! As you shuffle back, you will have your opposite hand up. If you can see Miller, his opposite hand is straight up. You point for two different reasons. First, you don't want to lose the ball in the sun, so pointing helps with this. The second reason is so you keep your body up. For my last point, when you back up, you will want to back up and get behind the ball, so as you hit the ball, it is in front of you. Hitting the ball behind you will cause for the ball to go long. Remember you cannot hit down. If you do this, you will always hit the ball in the net. Come by tomorrow and check out Miller's profile, one of our top junior players!

Tennis Tip #8

Our final post about the volley will be more for your safety. Nu Formal Tennis Attire is all about looking stylish and fresh, but bloody noses, is definitely not stylish or fresh. You can get this very common injury because of one reason, you dropped your racquet. The ready position in a volley is to have your racquet up with your grip being in the "shake hand" grip. This is because you have no idea if you are hitting a forehand, or backhand, so preparing in the middle is the best decision. You also prepare for this for all of your shots on the base line as well. So after you hit your volley, remember to bring your racquet to the ready position! Lastly, remember to get back to the middle, to be in the best position on the court. If you hit your shot and you are on top of the net, don't stand there, back up. You want to be like a soccer goalie. Try to think of that as you are up at net volleying! Our next couple of posts will be about hitting overheads. Stay classy, and wear something Nu

Tennis Tip #7

A lot of the past couple of posts have been about volleys including where to hit them how to prepare for them. But now, we are going to discuss how to hit the volley. First, you will need to make sure that you are using a continental grip. As many teaching pros will say, hold the racquet like shaking its hand, and slide your hand down. This is how you know that you are using a continental grip. Next, as I said in earlier posts, make sure you don't swing, it's a block! You want to keep this shot as simple as possible, the minute you try to complicate it, you will start missing the ball. As you get ready to make contact with the ball, you must make sure to step forward, and be controlled. As you move forward, your weight should transfer forward as well. Your forward motion, and racquet should move together. Now, in regards to racquet preparation, you want to have your racquet at a 30 degree angle, and the racquet should always face angled to the other side of the court. This is so that if you are ever late, or early getting to the ball, you will give yourself the best opportunity for hitting the ball in. As you hit the ball, you will use a chop motion, but try to continue on the 30- 45 degree angle. You must lead with the grip of the racquet, not the racquet. Lastly, you want to keep your elbow bent as you hit the volleys. This is because you don't want to allow any room for your arm to be pushed back. You need to always have forward motion on every part of your body for when you hit volleys. We hope this tip helped!

Tennis Tip #6

Sometimes you will not be able to take the ball in the air, whether you are on the way to the net, or at the net. The shot to use is the half volley. This shot is all about timing and focus, mostly because you are hitting the ball on the rise. Hitting the ball on the rise means you are hitting the ball as it is still coming up. The benefit of this is that you are giving your opponent less time to get back into position. When you hit this shot you are not delivering a little chop like the volleys (This will be discussed fully in the next post.) nor will you be hitting the ball like a ground stroke. You will be pushing the ball. You will be squeezing your grip, and trying to keep the ball as low as possible. Obviously you will want to take the ball in the air, but half volleys will suffice as well. To continue being on the offensive, try to keep your body weight moving forward. Making contact, you'll be providing momentum. Also, you have to remember that the shot will be very low as you hit the ball. You must be able to hit this ball in the court while bending! Bending is extremely important with this shot. If you don't bend, you cannot expect to hit and place the ball precisely in the court. I know we haven't gone into exactly how to hit the volley, just a few primary things for now, but I promise, if you check on us later, you will be able to hit volleys just like Federer! But, we can look more stylish than Federer. How? Check out some of our clothes that we are presenting right here.

Tennis Tip #5

Continuing with the volleys, we are now going to discuss where to exactly hit your volleys. The closer you are to the court baseline, you need to hit the ball deeper. You don't want to add any more time for your opponent to get to the ball. Many tennis players think it is all about hitting the ball as hard as you can, but the volley is different, you block, and need to place the ball correctly. On your first volley that you hit coming to the net, you will most likely be hitting the ball a couple of feet behind the service line. The best place to put the ball now is deep and low. This deprives your opponent a chance to attack you. It's a given when you began taking lessons, a coach would say to you, "if you hit it high, you die", so make sure you keep your stroke low! The idea here is to still press your opponent, but also to force the receiver to hit a shot that you will put away. After making your first volley, move closer to the net. The closer you are to the net, the more angles you can hit when volleying. This doesn't mean the closer you are to the net, the more reason to hit an angle. The other deciding factor is the height of the ball. If the ball is coming in low, it is much tougher to hit an angle. Remember, you don't want to be on top of the net because it will be very easy for someone to then hit a lob over your head.

Can this be the next tennis champion?

One of our youngest fans of Nu Formal Tennis Attire.

Tennis tip #4

After discussing split steps, what is better than going into volleys. The volleys are quite possibly the most simple shot in tennis, but it is also the most problematic shot. There are a couple things to consider. First, you have to remember to squeeze your grip. This is the only shot where you would have to squeeze your grip. The other thing that you cannot do, is swing! When you volley, you block, not swing. So this is the basic of the volley. The first stop in this group of tennis tips in regards to the volley will be the serve and volley. This is very old school tennis, but it is extremely useful nowadays. The piece that makes it so great is the fact that you can cover around 75% of the court when you come to the net. This puts a lot of pressure on your opponent to hit a nice return on your serve. After you hit the serve, you want to come into the net. Depending on your opponent’s return will determine how fast you run in to make the volley. Sometimes you will see that it is easier to hit a half volley (will be discussed in the next post) which is okay, but you just don’t want to have to hit the ball behind you. As you come in, you will make a split step right when your opponent hits your serve, then you will run to where the ball was hit. We hope that you try this tip in your games, and would love to hear how our tips have helped! Want to see some cool clothes, check them out here.

Tennis Tip #3

Split stepping, what is the point? Here is another fun tennis tip for today from Nu Formal Tennis. The idea of split stepping is to get your body moving, but in the right direction. For example, if you are running to the net, how do you prepare to move right or left? Do you guess? Obviously you cannot guess… Can you slow down? Well, if you do that, you will be too slow to the ball. You must split step! It will cause your body to only have forward motion. After you split step, you can move either left or right without a problem. A question some of you may be thinking is, when should I split step? Well it's all about timing. You want to split step right when your opponent makes contact with the ball. When this happens you would do a small hop. You should do this no matter where you are on the court. It will help your reaction time, which will help you reach more balls. If you have any questions, or would like to have a tennis tip on something please let us know. If you want to look stylish, please go to our website

Nu Tennis Clothes

Nu tennis clothes! Hey everyone, we have just designed some awesome new designs, here are a couple! If you like what you see, go check out our website here

Tennis Tip #2

When you step on the court, what is the first thing you should do after you are done stretching and warming up? Should you jump to the baseline? NO WAY! Instead, you should warm up by playing mini tennis. But what is the benefit of warming up on the service line? There are a couple things. You can work on your feel, timing, and strokes. All of these are integral pieces to improve your game. When you hit the ball, you should always try to over exaggerate by bending your knees, working on your timing, and adding a lot of topspin. If you think you are hitting with a lot of spin, try to add more. You should also work on your slice shots as well. A good drill is to place a ball on you and your partner's service line, and try to hit the ball while warming up. Once you feel confident with your timing and how you should hit the ball, you should work on volleys. Remember, you should hit the volleys at the service line, because where do you think you actually hit your volleys in a match? A foot from the net? Lastly, remember that you are still warming up, so you should be focusing on getting into a rhythm, not hitting winners!!! Winners are for game time only!! We hope this Nu tip will help your game.

Tennis Tip #1

Here at Nu Formal Tennis we would like to help you become better tennis players.  This is the first tip of our hopefully very many. Our first tip will be discussing tennis strings and the new fad of polyester string.  So, about string, there is a large variety of them. All of the string can be broken down into three different types: synthetic gut, natural gut, and poly-gut (polyester).  They all have their pros and cons.  But let’s go into polyester, it’s a new type of string that a lot of advanced tennis players have been playing with.  It brings power and spin, but it also comes with a lot of stress on your body.  It is recommended to string the racquet a couple pounds lesser because the string is so stiff.  If you do not, you can be out weeks, or months from your favorite sport!  Me personally, I do a hybrid with a very soft synthetic gut string.  This helps my racquet last longer, and it puts a lot less stress on my arm.  Some of you may ask: what string should I play with?  And in reality, there is no right answer, many people like one more then another for many different reasons.  You just have to remember that you have to do what is best for you and your game!

Our First Blog

As we are currently expanding into the ecommerce world, we have decided to start a blog. We will include content from tennis tips, styles, and updates about our company. So who are we? We are a newly established tennis clothing company selling shirts, shorts, and many more! You can find some of our clothes on our website by clicking Tennis Store. Whether you are a just starting out, or an advanced player, you will find relevant information to help you become a better tennis player.