Lesson Plan
Learning tennis from scratch.
What a new player actually works on, in what order, and what you can see from the fence. Written for parents deciding whether their kid is making progress, and for adults starting the game late.
The plan below isn't organised by age. It's organised by one question — can this player hit with topspin yet? Everything else follows from the answer.
Why Topspin First
- 01
Most beginners are taught to keep the ball in. That means a flat, careful, abbreviated swing — and it works, right up until the player wants to hit the ball hard.
- 02
Then the swing that kept the ball in is the swing that sends it long. Power and safety start pulling against each other, and the player is asked to pick one.
- 03
Topspin is what ends that trade. The racket travels up the back of the ball, the spin drags it back down, and it lands inside the line at a speed no flat swing could hold.
- 04
So it isn't an advanced skill added later. It's the mechanism the rest of the game is built on. Taught late it doesn't get added — it replaces the swing the player was given first, and that unlearning is the slowest thing in tennis.
Which is why I teach it as early as a player can physically produce it, and to players other instructors would hold it back from. The gate isn't age and it isn't talent. It's whether someone can move the racket fast enough to brush up the back of the ball and still send it deep. A five-year-old usually can't yet. Most people can — far earlier than they're given credit for.
Before Topspin
Some players aren't strong enough yet. That's the only reason to wait, and it changes what we do, not how we do it. The swing keeps the same shape — slower, and closer to the body: tracking the ball with the eyes, arriving early enough to have a choice, meeting it out in front. Nothing here has to be unlearned later. It's the same stroke at the speed the player can currently produce.
The Path
01
The shape
Grip, and a swing that starts below the ball and finishes above the shoulder. Fed balls, no rally, no pressure — the only goal is the same shape twice in a row.
From the fence
The ball leaves the racket on an arc rather than a straight line, and the follow-through ends high.
02
The contact point
The same shape, but now the feet do the work: arriving early enough that the ball is met in front of the body every time instead of beside it.
From the fence
They start moving as the ball crosses the net, not after it bounces.
03
The rally
The first time it's actually tennis. Holding the shape against a ball that wasn't fed — one arriving at the wrong height, the wrong speed, slightly out of reach.
From the fence
Two in a row becomes four, then ten. Misses start coming from being late rather than from the swing itself.
04
Height and depth
Using the spin for what it's for — hitting higher over the net, not harder through it. Almost every player with a new topspin swing still aims at the tape.
From the fence
The ball clears the net by several feet and still lands deep. It looks less aggressive and is considerably more.
05
Direction
Choosing where the ball goes, and being able to say so beforehand. Crosscourt on purpose, down the line on purpose.
From the fence
They call the target before they hit it — and they're annoyed when they miss, which is how you know they meant it.
06
Under pressure
The same swing when the point counts. This is the only real test, and it's why match play belongs here rather than at the beginning.
From the fence
The swing doesn't shorten in a match. Everything before this stage is preparation for that one observation.
The serve runs on its own clock. It's the one stroke that doesn't depend on what the other player does, so it gets built alongside any stage above rather than waiting its turn — and it's usually the last thing to become reliable.
The Lessons
The path above is what changes over months. This is the material itself — the plans I teach from, in the order I teach them.
More lessons go up as they're written.
Where This Happens
These are private lessons.
Which means the pace is set by the player rather than by a class — a stage takes as long as it takes, and nobody moves on before the one underneath it holds up.
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