This is my 5 year old nephew. He got a tennis racket for his 5th birthday this past weekend.

I was super impressed. Am I just pissing my pants cos I’m not the sporty one in the family?

I’m looking to purchase a Gelinshi GLS-16401 drop-weight stringing machine.

It costs around $400 USD, including shipping and automatic clamps. Brand new.

I’m leaning toward a drop-weight because it’s relatively cheap, simple, and I wouldn’t have to worry much about maintenance.

The thing is, I have zero experience stringing rackets, so I’m not sure if I should actually go through with it.

My current costs
Stringing labour: ~$4 per racket
Diadem Pro X: ~$7 per racket

Solinco, Head, etc strings cost more: ~$15+ per set

I currently have 3 rackets and have them strung at least once a month.

I should theoretically be able to recover the $400 in 12 months or so as I’m looking to use those cheap chinese poly strings($30 USD/reel) which are quite good btw.

But I’m wondering if the learning curve and hassle are actually worth it.

Questions for people who string their own rackets:
How long did it take you to learn how to string properly?

1. Did you buy a machine first and then learn, or did you learn how to string before buying a machine?

   1. Roughly how many string jobs did it take before you felt comfortable stringing without constantly watching tutorials?
   2. For those who started with a drop-weight, do you still think it was a good decision?
      What are the biggest reasons I should NOT buy one?

So… talk me out of it.

Is buying a $400 machine when I only string ~3 rackets a month actually a good idea, or am I just looking for an excuse to buy another tennis-related piece of equipment?

I am worried that this question will come across bad, so please be gentle. Appreciate any perspectives from more experienced tennis players/parents. I am relatively new to tennis tournaments for my child, and she is nose traveling to level 3/4/5 tourneys. We are from the Midwest, and it is the norm that there opponents she faces call lines fairly, with close calls being called in for the most part. There are certainly exceptions (ones that call so tight), but those opponents are notoriously known and have reputations in our Midwest area. When we go to the coasts to play, in particular Florida, the line calling in younger ages (12U and 14U) is wild. Anything close is called out. Is this a regional thing that anyone else has noticed? Do Midwest kiddos give opponents more latitude out an I crazy? Thank you for any feedback.

Posting the video for a friend because she doesn’t have enough karma to post here. Any help is highly appreciated. Thank you in advance to everyone

Been playing for about 7 months and recently started to practice serves more, but I frequently experience pain along the right side of my lats down to my lower back, and also in my right shoulder after serving for a while. Not sure whether if it’s caused by incorrect technique, lack of mobility, or insufficient stretching/warmups.

Other than that, am also open to any critique/feedback and tips about my general serve technique. Thank you!

How much is one hour of indoor court time in your area/city? I will go first live in Albany, NY and 1 hour is $65 for member and $100 for non-member.

Sweating was and has been easily manageable in the past. A simple towel wipe and the wrist band to catch the sweat from dripping into my hands to prevent slips in my grip. However, recently I started to play tournaments. Now playing multiple hour long matches and I’ve noticed a major problem from playing long hours in the heat of summer. My whole body is covered in sweat and my shorts are drenched completely. When that happens, the towel wipe no longer helps and it will drip down to my socks and make my whole shoes wet.

Does anyone have this problem and how do yal go about managing your sweat aside from changing clothing multiple times?

What new racket releases are you looking forward to trying?

I'm excited to try the Solinco M99 which is rumoured to be coming out in November. There looks to be a new spin racket from Technifibre on its way too...

My friend has this racquet and I’ve played with it several times. I just love it. I normally play with a Vcore 2023 98, and I’ve also spent a lot of time with the Pure Aero 2023 98. Both are strung with Head Lynx Tour, so the difference was pretty noticeable. The feel is great, my one handed backhand feels so precise (that might just be in my head), it feels very whippy and the launch angle is really easy to manage. I also noticed how easy it was not to overhit the ball. I felt like I could take a full swing and still keep the ball in. His racquet was strung with Tour Bite, so I’m sure that had something to do with it too. I know it’s a pretty unforgiving racquet, so I realize it might not be the best option for me.

I got a lot of great responses here a while back about what to work on with my serve. Is my updated technique moving in the right direction? What should I focus on improving from here?

Blue shorts = Before
Black shorts = After

Anybody who saw the documentary can explain to me his routine of meditation/stretching shown, were he is slapping his various muscles and pulling his ears etc like in a massage? Does it have a name?

EDIT: This is being downvoted so much but if you read to the bottom I literally say my serve still isn’t good and asked for advice! I’m just happy that the ball was going in. Thank you to everyone for the tips so far 💛

I’ve been playing tennis for 4 months now. I do a mix of playing a few times a week (singles or doubles), plus group coaching and have had one 1-1 coaching session which I’ll be doing more of when I can afford to.

Anyway I try to spend a couple of hours a week on my serve and felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere, but today I could actually see improvement.

I know it still needs a lot of work - so any tips welcome!

(Side note I’m 5”2 so at a slight disadvantage ha)

Does anybody know of a tennis club that offers group classes or liveball games in Georgia? Preferably one that accepts guests. I (29F) will be visiting GA for a week and would like to try playing some tennis there. TIA!

I think the problem is I'm not getting closer to ground and it makes my body tilt to right most of the time, i appreciate any advice.

Are these worth trying? Even for a couple of hours of play?

im 15 and im just wondering to go pro whats a good utr in the right direction

same as title

My son (14 yr old UTR 6) recently got new 2026 pure aero. He used head speed with hybrid solinco hyper g/alu power before. Can he use same setup on pure aero? What’s recommended tension?

4ish month of playing tennis.Too broke to hire a coach. Help me Reddit, thank you!!

Head Extreme MP 2024, 300g.

I’m a 3.5 and would like to become more consistent with groundstrokes.

Hitting against the wall seems fine for a warmup, but I seem to develop bad habits in two areas.

1. Preparation. It’s literally impossible to split step. And the ball comes back so fast that the unit turn is very difficult to execute.

2. Dealing with high, heavy balls. The wall gives me flat low balls all day. But I have to unlearn that when I play with anyone who hits with spin.

Am I just not doing it right?

Anyone have similar experience, or tips?

Hi all!

Recently I’ve been getting back into tennis and I’m probably at a 3.5 level.

I played tennis semi consistently in high school and college but didn’t play for 15 +years afterwards (jobs, marriage, kids, etc)

Now I’ve found some friends that hit and falling back in love

I bought a Wilson Prostaff v11 97 used about a year and a half ago. When I hit it well it feels great, but because I’m inconsistent I also mishit a bunch as well.

I can probably rally for 5-7 hits on average before I mis hit.

That being said I recently demoed the Ezone 98 and 100.

The 100 felt very powerful but I could also see myself hitting it out more because of the upside in power.

The 98 felt good with more control but less power and less of a sweet spot.

If my goal is to become more consistent, rally longer, less mishits and to improve my overall game, which one should I choose?

I use a vcore 95 which I like my groundstrokes with. I tried my friends prostaff and I like my serve and volleys with it. Is there an in between racket where I can get the best of both worlds?

Beginner here. I'm starting private lessons 1x/week plus beginner group classes 2x/week, but I want to play more than that. I don't have many friends who play, so I usually just go to a court by myself, toss a ball up, and hit forehands and backhands to build some feel.

My worry is that a self-tossed ball isn't a shot I'd ever see in a real point, so I'm not sure this transfers to anything, or if I'm just creating bad habits my coach will have to undo later.

Two questions:

1. Does self-toss practice have any real value at this stage, or is it mostly wasted time?

2. What's the best way to practice alone as a beginner without wrecking my technique? Wall, ball machine, shadow swings, footwork, something else?

Thank you!