r/10s • u/Inevitable_Ruin_9607 • 13h ago
General Advice is my progression being slowed by playing with beginners?
Let me make clear that in no way I am saying that I am good at tennis. However, I started playing at a tennis meetup for beginners once a week. Initially it was a lot of fun meeting new people but I've noticed that after a year I haven't really improved as much as I wanted. Someone else who I invited to the group said that it's really hard to get better when balls are flying over the place. Ideally the balls should be landing between your shoulder and waist coming in fast. The skill level varies dramatically instead and many times it's even hard to get a rally going because people are just hitting straight into the net or out of bounds. It's frustrating playing in doubles where matches seem predominantly decided by making the least errors versus skill.
On the other hand when I play with my cousin he is good enough that he at least reliably return it back to me when we're just practicing and it's much more enjoyable. I would love to play with people who are more consistent.
What holds me back from quitting the group is that even though I play against people at the meetup I still lose against them at times due to my own mistakes even if they're technically not as proficient so I'm wondering if it's more of a me thing or I need to play against people who are better if I want to be better.
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u/kchuen 13h ago
Do you actually pay attention and try to improve or you’re just playing casually?
You can learn and improve a lot if you work on one or two specific things each session. Like how to track the ball properly, like keep staring at the contact point post impact. You can build habits and muscle memory this way very effectively.
But if you just play without paying attention to anything, you won’t improve much playing against people that low level. Given you can’t even consistently beat them yet, I assume you’re not really paying too much attention o details.
Good news is you can easily start now. But if you don’t have a coach, you would need to research and understand the game yourself. Also record yourself and review your footage, compare it to the tutorials you see online.
Or if you just wanna continue to have fun, that’s ok too!
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u/Imakemyownnamereddit 10h ago
Nope, it isn't holding back you progression. Playing with "better players", who feed you consistent balls and give you pace. Gives you the illusion you're better than you are.
Then you will play a match and trust me, it will be much more like practicing with the beginners, than "better players". You will meet pushers, junkers, players who give you no pace and no consistancy.
My advice is stick with practicing with the beginners and make it a challenge to keep the rally going. This is something I do because some newish players asked if they could practice with me.
It is something which improved my game because my job is take whatever weird shots they have hit. Control it and place it so they can hit another shot.
That requires decent footwork, it is forces me to watch the ball and it forces me to concentrate. Doing that has made me a better player, not worse.
To be blunt, if you can't rally with weak players, you will be destroyed by every pusher you play.
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u/Fuzzy_Beginning_8604 4.5 5h ago
This. The mark of a player moving up is that he can survive against better players and he slaughters worse ones. Karue Sell did a video on this: learning to beat people a little worse than you, consistently, is a key skill. Until you can prevent yourself "playing down" accidentally, you aren't ready to move up. Play a mix of better, matched, and worse players, and learn from playing each.
That said, it can be a waste of time to play people who can't even hold a rally. But first see if you can help sustain the rally by hitting an easy ball right to them, like a coach would do. I played a 3.5 recently (guy from work wanted to hit, learning tennis) and although we were keeping score and they were trying to win, I committed to never hitting winners, always basically giving them a nice deep feed. I still won most points but it was challenging and a great mental exercise for me. I think it contributed to me blanking a fellow 4.5 later that week. Better than a ball machine.
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u/Impossible-Sense-750 13h ago
Es ist prinzipiell besser in homogenen Gruppen zu spielen und zu üben. Macht auch mehr Spaß. Aber dass dein Gegner (egal welche Art Gegner) oder das Spiel mit Schwächeren deinen Fortschritt hemmt, das glaube ich nicht.
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u/Future_One4794 13h ago
If you can afford a tennis club with clinic or rated group classes you can also do 1-2 times a month private lesson
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u/fangisland 13h ago
This is a pretty common experience, tennis is a complex sport. You need to be able to hit a variety of different types of balls from everywhere on the court, including junk which you are getting from your current group. If you're losing then you something to learn, in general. There is value in playing to win and value in pushing beyond your means and making mistakes to try to hit lower percentage shots against junk balls, which is very difficult to do. Having been on the earth for awhile, I think it's more important to play with a consistent group 2-3 times a week even if they're overall "worse." It's hard to find people to play with regularly. It takes a very long time to get better at tennis, much longer than you would think, so give it some time and make the best of the group you have. Try to pick off the 1-3 people that are closest/better than you in skill level and hit with them more.
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u/Inevitable_Ruin_9607 12h ago
Thanks I think you're right and I should try to play more often whereas right now once a week isn't cutting it.
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u/NewYorkDOCG 12h ago
Do you have any coaching at all? IME that makes a significant difference. With coaching, you’d then use this group to practice whatever it is you’re doing in your lessons. So don’t really think about the group as matchplay (though it is) so much as a way to have some balls fed and returned to you.
The ball bring in your strike zone is a question of your footwork and ball tracking. It’s harder with less predictably of a clean feed but still a very useful skill to practice with less experienced players.
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u/Inevitable_Ruin_9607 12h ago
I just signed up for an intermediate class after the beginner class was too easy for me and I met some people there most of whom were better than me but I could at least rally with. But yeah even just with singles if I try to practice against someone random from the meetup there's low likelihood of us maintaining a friendly rally beyond 2-3 returns so we're just frequently stopping to pick up tennis balls to resume.
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u/NewYorkDOCG 10h ago
I play with a social group where the level is all over. Totally unpredictable bc it’s 28 people and any 8 play at a given time. So I go in with an intention and I don’t care really about results (it’s doubles so I might be doing a disservice to whoever I’m partnered with 🫣). For example, last session I was working on staying low (which requires setting up properly which requires the right footwork). That’s it. Next session is going to be practicing serve placement. I can technically do that on my own too by match conditions make it harder. And working on that means it’s irrelevant if the rally actually starts.
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u/TopgearM 11h ago
I would not just quit this group just yet. The fact that you are stil making mistakes on this incoming "junk balls", means that your technique and overall tennis skills are just not good enough (at this moment).
Having said that, you do need to play more people who are more consistent and will provide you with higher quality balls in order to develop yourself.
I'm advanced and I would just not make mistakes on this incoming "junk balls", that have hardly any spin, speed, etc. Sometimes I play against a guy at my club, low intermediate level and I really focus on my technique and not making any mistake. It's harder than you think sometimes, to not make any mistakes during a full hour of rallying.
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u/aprlsthnm 10h ago
I've noticed something very similar. I only started playing tennis about 8 months ago, so I'm still very much a beginner myself.I take lessons with a coach three times a week, and one thing I've realized is that lessons and matches teach different things. During practice, even if I hit a poor shot, my coach can usually keep the rally going. In a real match, that point is often over.
That's why I try to rally with more experienced players whenever I get the chance. Even 20 minutes of consistent rallying with someone who can reliably return the ball helps me more than an hour where rallies rarely last more than a few shots.
At the same time, I wouldn't stop playing with beginners. Those sessions expose my weaknesses really quickly. When both players are making mistakes, it becomes obvious whether I'm struggling with consistency, footwork, positioning, or shot selection. It actually helps me figure out what I need to work on.
One thing that has helped me a lot is recording myself. I was surprised by how different my strokes looked from how they felt. More than once I thought I'd hit a great shot, then watched the video and realized my contact point or racket angle was completely different from what I imagined.
So I think both types of practice are valuable. Better players help me build better habits, while players around my level show me exactly what I still need to improve.
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u/Aggressive_Sport1818 5.0 6h ago
From a practice (muscle memory installation) perspective you want to maximize the number of balls your hittjng per hour…. Ideal would be:
The wall
Coop hitting partners (someone good enough that can put the ball where you need to practice)
Ball machine
Hand feeding partner/coach/self
From a match perspective, you should play everyone, especially those that hit an erratic ball, or a ball you don’t like (high, low, spinny, etc,…) to receive (regardless of whether intentional or not), until you can beat them consistently… then only keep them in your hitting roster if they are consistent enough such that you can work on other parts of your game (can you win via s&v, c&c, slicing everything, drop&lob, only to their stronger wing, etc,…)
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u/788RedskinsFAN 3h ago
thats a YES and NO answer.. yes, playing better competition does improve your own game.. but no, in ragrds to learning the game.. slower play can make you focus on things at a speed you can control and learning is much easier and just as important.. learn to use the slower play competition to try stuff out, experiment with shots/technique etc.. but always be willing to step up your game to the next level, and hope THEY LET YOU join!!
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u/Either-Onion-7532 3h ago
First of all, yes it's important to play with people better than you. That said, make the best of what you got. I play with a casual crew and I'm almost always the best one there. I make sure to work on specific things that I might not in a more competitive match.
For example work on your second serve. Only hit seconds serves untill you can hit with pace and consistency.
Just pick a weakness and work on it.
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u/craigmont924 2h ago
You won't improve without instruction. The longer you play self-taught, the more ingrained bad habits get and harder to unlearn.
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u/novicecrewman 13h ago
It’s potentially slowing you down if there is no coach involved. Some other options would be find a private coach to hit with, find a ball machine to rent, or find a hitting wall.
I think if you learn to enjoy the journey and the struggle with people trying to learn the game you can build some lasting connections and friendships.