Grip, Footwork, And Learning The Strokes In Tennis.

Correct, spontaneous footwork is the key to positioning your whole body in a well-balanced position to make the most effective stroke warranted by a moving ball. This applies to all sports where you are required to hit a moving ball such as Tennis.

You can never play a stroke correctly or even serve effectively without a proper and firm grip on the handle of the racquet. When you go for a forehand drive, a natural grip is ideal whereas a weaker grip would suit better for a backhand drive, with a chop stroke being the most natural shot.

In order to get the proper forehand grip, the racquet should be held with the face perpendicular to the ground with the handle is pointing towards your body and the frame end towards the ground. With a comfortable and natural hold on the handle your arm, hand and the racquet should form one straight line. As you swing, the racquet head should be aligned with your arm so that the racquet acts purely as an extension of the arm.

A change in the grip is required to play a backhand by rotating your arm about quarter of a full circle anticlockwise (for right-handers) as you simultaneously turn your body, and position yourself properly to meet and dispose of the incoming ball. This would entail bringing your hand over the handle with your knuckles pointing upwards making the shot travel literally across your wrist.

Although the above form the basis for the best grips for different drives, you may slightly depart from them to suit your comfort and playing style while keeping as close as possible to the dynamics involved.

Once you become familiar with the basics of gripping the handle properly, the next step is to learn to position your body. Stroke play should be learnt in a proper sequential order and not in any haphazard order. 

There is a “must” for any shot and that is to have your body at ninety degrees to the net while having your shoulders parallel to the flight path of the incoming ball. Your body weight should be transferred to your front foot from the back in the same directional angle as the stroke at the exact moment of impact. While the swing of your arm determines the “speed” of the shot, the weight that you transfer to the stroke at point of impact decides the “pace” that the ball acquires.

Let us examine the difference between speed and pace as used in terminology above. Speed is actually the rate (such as feet per second) at which the ball is moving in the air; whereas “pace” is the force with which the ball bounces off the ground. Sometimes a ball hitting the ground at a relatively slow speed could bounce back with a surprisingly vicious force due to the weight behind it.

Some players may only have either speed or pace in their shots while some strokes may be packed with both.

Tennis strokes need to be learnt in a particular sequential order starting with the Drive immediately followed by Forehand and Backhand. Putting the cart before the horse could lead you in to serious trouble since you cannot counter a net attack without knowing how to drive, which provides you with the only chance of success as a passing shot. Further, unless you have a good ground stroke to lay the foundation by opening the way, you could never come to the point of building up an effective net attack.
Once you have a good grasp of the above fundamentals, you can step on to the Service. Next on your list of sequential study should be the Volley, the Overhead Smash and the Half Volley also known as the Chop Shot culminating with some incidental ornamental strokes. 

Related Websites:

Learn Tennis Techniques Grip Footwork And Strokes In Tennis

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/22779_grip-footwork-and-stroke-in-tennis

http://www.teachingtennis.com/site/backhand.htm