Starting Tennis as an Adult: What your First 90 days should look like

I teach adults for a living, and the single most common thing I hear in a first lesson is some version of an apology. Sorry, I’m terrible. Sorry, I haven’t played since high school. Sorry, I’m probably too old for this.

You’re not. But I understand where it comes from, because most adults’ only experience of learning tennis was being handed a racquet at a group clinic, fed twenty balls, and left to figure it out. That doesn’t work, and then people conclude they’re bad at tennis when what actually happened is nobody gave them a plan.

So here’s the plan. Ninety days, three phases.