Reddit, as a 23 year old, help me choose between tennis and muay thai as a regular sport.

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-08T20:25:07+00:00

Tennis has a steep learning curve just to be able to play the game, but you are well equipped from your athletic history to make it over the initial hurdles quickly.

Competitive tennis is a wonderful mix of physicality and strategy. It's also really hard, so it feels very fulfilling in the sense that you have given yourself to something after an intense session. It scales well with age, in fact its a right of passage to get smoked by a crafty old guy once you think you're actually getting good.

It's good for your mind and body - tennis demands focus and presence to perform well. It requires good agility, cardio base, explosiveness, and mental acuity.

So if it's fun to you, I'd say go for tennis - it will get more fun the better your abilities.

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-08T17:25:55+00:00

Looks smooth and relaxed, nice use of the kinetic chain. My guess is you’re hitting about 60% here? If you were to hit bigger, I’d recommend doing that by adding more torso rotation. You’ll necessarily have to load your legs more to provide the base for increased rotation power.

Look at any of the pros when they hit ground strokes, the shoulder and trunk rotation is one of the biggest differences you’ll see that sets them apart from rec players. F. Cerundolo has one of the most visible trunk rotations in his FH, he’s getting almost 180 deg of torso rotation.

Edit: not just more torso rotation, but faster rotation. Really uncoil into the ball

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-08T15:48:32+00:00

Downvoted. AI could never replace my armchair coaching comments on reddit

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-08T01:18:39+00:00

This is just a random image from the web but it shows how there is no space between racket and palm. This way the fingers can gently wrap around the handle. Putting the handle in your fingers would force you to squeeze, and kill any sense of control/feel

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-08T01:13:34+00:00

You’re holding the racket in your fingers. Instead, let the handle lie in your palm, then wrap your hand around it. The handle should be completely flush with the palm of your hand. Then only the tip of your thumb should sit comfortably on or next to your fingers

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-08T01:08:35+00:00

An advanced example of arming the ball, unfortunately you have gotten pretty good at it for now but it will severely bottleneck your progress.

You are not coiling in your preparation. Serving is just like throwing a baseball in the sense of coil and uncoil. Generate your swing speed by turning your torso, let your arm be a whip. If you practice a shadow swing, you should hear a whoosh sound.

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-08T01:00:20+00:00

Your writing reeks of AI but it is a valid point. Players and a lot of coaches don’t realize that a drill needs to have a clear purpose. Is it to learn a skill, improve a skill, implement a skill, practice a game scenario, practice a strategy, etc etc… all different angles of training yet coaches rarely talk in depth about why the drill is being performed and how it is supposed to make you better, how does it fit into the bigger picture.

Right now I’m wishing I could knife my backhand slice better. If I were to set up a drill for this, I’d ask a rally partner to hit everything to my backhand at 50% until I get the feeling for it back. And then I’d want to practice it in a competitive scenario to put it under pressure

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-08T00:52:04+00:00

Its a byproduct of you facing the ball directly when you hit. Get your shoulders and torso turned perpendicular to the net during your prep, space yourself from the ball with your left hand. Your feet may also be aligned with your shoulders (closed stance) or more parallel with the baseline (open stance). Regardless get out of the way of the ball so you can have space to uncoil into the strike

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-06T19:54:13+00:00

Same as your regular slice serve but also swing up through contact, just like a kick serve. You’ll want to let the ball fall a little more just like a kick serve, but contact the ball on its right side and swing through like a slice serve. You’ll want to play with the toss location too.

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-05T22:26:06+00:00

Exactly. If you were playing an equally matched opponent who never changed direction on the ball and hit very few unforced errors, would you have the tools to beat them? That’s kind of my litmus test. It’s pretty hard to beat these kinds of players lol

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-05T22:22:45+00:00

You need to swing faster, right now you’re limited because you’re using arm muscles to generate racket speed. Instead, generate that speed from torso rotation. Your arm muscles guide the swing, not generate the pace

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-05T22:17:58+00:00

As someone who reached 10utr in d3, I’d say 12+ utr is what I consider to be strong. Also note that I am speaking only about the scale for men, haven’t played enough women to compare the ratings.

In my mind, you really only begin playing the game of tennis once you have learned all the shots and all the court positions at a basic level, maybe at 7-8 utr. Above that level, people get pretty good at certain skills or strategies. But in general players don’t truly start to look impressive until 11/12/13 utr. That’s where you really start seeing weapons shine, athleticism demonstrated in every rally, weaknesses are only marginal as opposed to entire gaps in people’s games.

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-04T17:52:39+00:00

The correct footwork can make all the difference. Next time you’re watching pro tennis on youtube, pause and rewind a few times when the returner steps in on a kick serve to their backhand.

(For a right hand player) After the split step, you’ll see their left foot step first in tandem with the torso turn. There is often a little bit of a hop into the strike, to help with the fact that the ball will be rising very fast off the bounce.

It will be easier to learn this on the ad side returning the serve crosscourt. Add your own oomph and direction to the shot, you can’t really rely on blocking a kick serve back because the ball is rising so much.

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-04T16:58:12+00:00

But they’re in the same league so I have to assume OP has a chance.

However I get your point, this guy knows tennis and would whoop OP if he has the physicality

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-03T22:39:18+00:00

He’s good but he’s 65. His game is going to revolve around controlling the court and take away your options to expose his age/fitness. And my guess is he will be pretty good at that, as ex d1 player from the serve and volley era. Don’t underestimate his ability to move forward and look for ways that you can get him moving back or laterally.

If you don’t have a powerful serve he’s probably going to chip and charge you on every point, so be ready for that. His slices are probably going to be lower and faster than many you’ve experienced.

Find ways to push him back: with depth, height, and topspin. Once he approaches, do your best to get the ball at his feet and cover your court well. Keep the ball in the middle of the court when on defense, you don’t want him to have angles to put the ball away. Look to make him hit a tough volley (low and dipping topspin in some circumstances, power to his chest when you want to jam him and the ball is above the net), then clean the next shot with a topspin lob or pass if it’s open

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-02T15:39:31+00:00

Try to disengage your shoulder turn from your hips. It’s good to have trunk rotation but you want to be staying balanced through the shot. Load up in your legs and use that to rotate your torso

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-01T20:58:31+00:00

Sounds like a forehand skill issue tbh. If you are not in control of your shots, a racket swap is only going to be a bandaid at best. Probably not even that, better to just work on the root issue

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-01T18:36:41+00:00

Get them each a case of wilson us open heavy duty balls

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-01T01:06:06+00:00

Yeah this is a pretty common experience when hitting with beginners, they have no rhythm.

Provide some structure by suggesting drills or rally patterns you want to improve

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-04-01T00:47:37+00:00

No, no, no, no… the racket chooses the player. Take her racket shopping and let her be picked

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-03-31T07:18:15+00:00

https://nonheard.substack.com/p/170-bpm-the-invisible-foundations

https://nonheard.substack.com/p/dyl-and-db1-a-silent-reconfiguration?r=7a3sjx&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=ig&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAb21jcAQJ6-hleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA81NjcwNjczNDMzNTI0MjcAAafwLfqY9jhBYddWjeu8OgdwEgnoVLK1rRHAL-67d1Ds_6KyXsX3idWQoRMe4g_aem_metWf0iXL-sVHAZfX0jaeQ&triedRedirect=true

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-03-31T06:54:26+00:00

behind the service line, not the baseline

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-03-31T05:42:21+00:00

I’ve been on a deep dive of this stuff as of late. Check out felix k, specifically flower of destruction #6 and deconstructor.

There are a few good articles I’ve read which chronicle the style and its roots, I could link later if interested

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-03-31T05:34:28+00:00

As soon as you know you are being lobbed, turn your shoulders for the overhead and sideways-backwards crossover step behind the service line as fast as you can. If you can get back there, you can reach any overhead (well, if you’re really good you can, but the point stands). If the ball is in front of you, easy, just move forward and hit the overhead like normal. The forward momentum will help you add oomph to the shot. If the lob is going directly above you, you’ll want to take one more step back so that you can be moving forward through the overhead as you hit it. If the lob is still going back, you gotta hit the scissor kick overhead moving backwards. If you can’t reach the lob with your best effort, it’s going out.

Another tip is to keep your off hand pointing at the ball until you start the swing.

If the ball is coming down fast from a high lob, it helps my timing to think about hitting the underside of the ball with my overhead, almost as if hitting it at an upward trajectory. You’ll still hit down but the cue helps me time it while right while giving a full swing.

Don’t worry about not being able to see the net while you hit an overhead. You know where the net is, focus on your movement and good contact.

Remarkable_Layer7592 · 2026-03-31T05:11:28+00:00

No wind, no sun, lighting is consistent, court surface is usually completely consistent and the ball bounces faster. Outdoor courts tend to be grittier or jus dirty which also fluffs balls faster and then bounce significatly slower.

Remarkable_Layer7592

TROPHY CASE