New players need patience

Tennis is a game of skill.  As such, you need to keep in mind that skill takes time to develop.  Depending on your past athletic involvement, you may already have good hand-eye coordination and movement skills.  Even with that as a starting point, this is a new endeavor and will still take time to learn control and proficiency.

As you start to learn the game of tennis, you need to break it down into smaller pieces.  This will allow you to develop competency incrementally and confidence that you are making progress.

Start with shortening the court and focusing on feel.  Play mini-tennis within the service area.  This will strengthen you hand-eye skills and touch.  Focus on moving smoothly to the side of the ball and hitting a softly placed ball for you hitting partner to play back.  Remember, at this stage it’s about gaining racket control skills, not showing how hard you can hit the ball or “winning”.  The goal should be to keep the ball in play as long as possible.  The more times you can touch the ball, the quicker you will advance.

As your control improves, move mid-way between the service line and the baseline.  You’ll need to lengthen you swing, but keep the focus on controlling the ball, so your hitting partner can return it to you.  Finally, move back to the baseline.  At this point, you can start to shift your focus onto the fine tuning of your forehand and backhand strokes.

This method, of starting in the short court, can also be used for the serve.  Start at the service line and hit ball into the opposite service box.  As your control improves, move progressively back to the baseline for a full serve.

Remember confidence and fun come from being able to keep the ball in play.  Give yourself the best chance to improve by starting in a smaller area of the court.