How to Play Tennis: The Complete Beginner's Guide
Never picked up a racket, or not since school? This is the one guide that takes you from zero to your first proper match: the gear, the grip, the strokes, the scoring, and how to actually find someone to play. Everything in one place, with links to go deeper on each part.
By Two brothers in Melbourne, co-founder of RallyHub.
Tennis looks complicated from the outside and is wonderfully simple once you start. You hit a ball over a net, into the lines, one more time than the other person. Everything else is detail. This is the one guide that takes you from never having held a racket to playing your first real match, with links to go deeper on each part when you are ready. Deuce, our resident club-legend tennis ball, has pulled on his coaching cap to walk you through it, and he promises not to make you run laps.
What you actually need to start
Less than you think. A racket, a few balls, shoes you can move sideways in, and a court. You do not need whites, a fancy bag, or a coach on day one. A sensible first racket is light, forgiving, and cheap enough that you are not precious about it. Our beginner racket buying guide covers exactly what to look for at the $50, $150, and $300 marks, and our guide to what to wear keeps you comfortable on a hot afternoon.
Hold the racket properly first
Almost every beginner habit that needs unlearning later starts with a bad grip. The grip decides what spin you can hit and whether your wrist survives the season. The good news is there are only a handful that matter. Start with the Continental grip (the "shake hands with the racket" grip) for serves and volleys, and an Eastern or Semi-Western for your forehand. Our guide to tennis grips shows you where to put your hand for each, no coach required.
The strokes, in the order to learn them
You do not need ten shots. You need a few that work. Learn them roughly in this order:
- Forehand: your bread and butter, the shot you will hit most. Start here. See how to hit a forehand.
- Backhand: the side everyone gets picked on, so make it solid. One hand or two, we compare both.
- Serve: the only shot you hit entirely on your own terms, and the one that decides the most social matches. Our beginner's serve guide gets you a reliable one.
- Return and volley: the two shots nobody practises and everybody needs. See returning serve and volleying at the net.
If you want the short version of which shots to prioritise, Deuce points you straight at the five shots every social player needs.
Learn the court and the rules
Tennis has a few quirks that make total sense once someone explains them and feel like a foreign language until then. Two quick reads sort most of it: our tour of the tennis court (so you know where the lines are and what no-mans-land is), and the rules for beginners (faults, lets, tramlines, all the everyday calls).
Understand the scoring
Love, fifteen, thirty, forty, deuce, advantage. It is the part that scares people off and it takes about ten minutes to learn. Our scoring explainer walks through it from the first point to the tiebreak, and if your club plays the short format, the Fast4 guide covers that too.
Find someone to play with
Here is the part most "how to play tennis" guides skip, and it is the part that actually matters. You can learn every stroke on YouTube and still never play, because you have nobody to hit with. That is the whole reason we built RallyHub. You set your availability, and Friends Ready Live shows you who near you is free right now, so you can sort a hit without the group-chat spiral. If you are not sure how to set one up, our step-by-step on arranging your first hit and the broader how to find a hitting partner have you covered.
Play, then track it
The fastest way to improve is to play real matches and pay attention to what happens. RallyHub records your matches and turns each confirmed result into RallyRank, a real rating that moves the moment a result is locked in. It is built so a rough first month never wrecks it, which is exactly what a beginner needs. Pair that with tracking your matches and you can actually see yourself getting better.
Mind your manners
Social tennis runs on a handful of unwritten rules. Call your own lines honestly, give your opponent the benefit of the doubt, and do not coach uninvited. Our etiquette guide makes you the person everyone wants to hit with.
Your first four weeks
Want a structured start instead of figuring it out as you go? Our adult beginner plan lays out a four-week path from your first racket to your first match. And if the whole social-tennis scene feels mysterious, start with social tennis in Australia, explained.
That is the whole game. Grip, a few strokes, the scoring, and someone to play. Everything after that is just reps. Deuce hangs his coaching cap on one thing: the players who improve are the ones who keep turning up. So sort your next hit, get on court, and let the rest take care of itself.