New high school tennis player need some help

[pikardenz]

Ok so the tennis team at my high school is pretty unpopular despite have a few good players. The coach has been looking for more people to play and recruited a bunch of guys off the cross country team, one of those guys being me. I showed up to tryouts with my moms $15 racket and had a blast. I seriously was having the most fun I've had in a while, and I sucked. The coach is super young and cool and encouraged me to pursue tennis. Me and my friend have been going to the tennis courts almost every day after practice and hitting around with the coach. I can do topspin forehand and backhand https://routerlogin.uno/  https://192168ll.link/ , and I'm just now learning the basics of the topspin serve. We usually hit around with the ball machine and do some drills for 2-3 hours. I've been steadily improving and due to the lack of players the coach told me id be playing the no.3 or no.4 spot on varsity(I'm also a junior my friend is a senior). The problem is, I still suck. I'm nowhere near being able to play an actual match. There's still 5 months before the season, but I want to know if there's anything I can do to improve more quickly. My coach also told me to get a dampener or something for my racket ASAP, but that I'll have to purchase an actual quality racket soon. I don't even know where to begin but I'm passionate about the sport and would love to hear any advice!

Edited May 9, 2023 by pikardenz

[Turtle]

On 5/8/2023 at 12:23 PM, pikardenz said:

Ok so the tennis team at my high school is pretty unpopular despite have a few good players. The coach has been looking for more people to play and recruited a bunch of guys off the cross country team, one of those guys being me. I showed up to tryouts with my moms $15 racket and had a blast. I seriously was having the most fun I've had in a while, and I sucked. The coach is super young and cool and encouraged me to pursue tennis. Me and my friend have been going to the tennis courts almost every day after practice and hitting around with the coach. I can do topspin forehand and backhand https://routerlogin.uno/  https://192168ll.link/ , and I'm just now learning the basics of the topspin serve. We usually hit around with the ball machine and do some drills for 2-3 hours. I've been steadily improving and due to the lack of players the coach told me id be playing the no.3 or no.4 spot on varsity(I'm also a junior my friend is a senior). The problem is, I still suck. I'm nowhere near being able to play an actual match. There's still 5 months before the season, but I want to know if there's anything I can do to improve more quickly. My coach also told me to get a dampener or something for my racket ASAP, but that I'll have to purchase an actual quality racket soon. I don't even know where to begin but I'm passionate about the sport and would love to hear any advice!

Google is your best friend if you don't like Google, go to tik tok any help you need can be found on those two sites.  We started a program at the high school I cheer for and we're in the same boat as in finding players.  I'm glad you enjoyed the sport of tennis and hopefully you'll get better and continue to play throughout high school and beyond.  The best of luck to you and your friend.