If there’s one sport that people don’t get, it’s got to be tennis. A lot of people think that tennis is something that is easy…until they pick up a tennis racket and try to deal with a ball speeding their way at up to 80mph or better. That can be a fast paced challenge that you might not be ready for. Maybe you’re thinking about coaching someone that wants to be a tennis rockstar or you’re a proud parent that hopes their child will develop an itch to play tennis all the way up to becoming a pro. On the other hand, you could be just trying to figure out how to tweak your tennis game so that people look at you with awe at the gym.

Either way, here’s what you need to know about playing tennis well.

First and foremost, it’s really all about practice. You want to make sure that you truly are handling your tennis game from start to finish. This means having a set practice schedule and sticking to it. If you’re playing for fitness, then you obviously will have a less demanding schedule than someone who is practicing their tennis game so that they’ll turn pro one day. It’s all a matter of figuring out what your goals in tennis are and then adapting accordingly. Of course, you don’t have to stay in cone category for the rest of your life. Some people start out just doing tennis as a hobby and they then morph into someone that wants to play more competitively. Even if you don’t want to turn pro, there are tennis championships and competitions that you can enter in. These can also sharpen your skills because you’ll be playing against a wide variety of people. It’s hard to let your tennis game get lazy when you’re up against those types of odds, right?

Right. So practice is a big deal, but would you believe it’s also the equipment that you choose? Now, this is a point that could cause some debate and we’re definitely prepared for that. However, the truth is that you will come to a point where you have to get better equipment. If you’re serious about playing tennis well, you will want a great racket that you can control. You will need to think about both price and material and realize that tennis can get expensive very quickly. Would this be advice that you give to a beginner? Definitely not — when you’re starting out you want to make sure that you play as hard of a tennis  game as you can with the most economical and affordable tennis racket that you can. Otherwise you’re going to end up sinking money into a hobby or sport that you don’t really like.

The final ingredient that it takes for you to play your best game of tennis yet is simply time. You can’t expect to be Monica Seles in her glory days just after a week of tennis practice. It can take years — which is why most professional tennis players actually went pro when they were very young. If this is your dream though, all we can tell you is good luck and keep practicing — you’ll get where you want to be eventually!