How do you start playing tennis as an adult?

Tennis has the most glamorous wardrobe in sport and a reputation for being difficult to start. Both are a little overstated. Adults pick up tennis all the time, and the early stages, chasing balls around and occasionally hitting a glorious forehand, are tremendous fun.

Lessons or social play?

Start with lessons. Tennis has a few technical basics, the grip, the swing, how to move to the ball, that are far easier to learn from a coach than to work out alone. Bad habits are easy to pick up and slow to shed.

• Group lessons for adult beginners are sociable, affordable and full of people as uncertain as you are. Many clubs and public courts run them.
• Private lessons progress faster and suit people who want attention on one particular stroke, but cost more.
• A beginner course of a few weeks gives you a structure and a group to play with afterwards.

Once you can keep a rally going, social play takes over: club social sessions, round-robins, mix-ins and friendly doubles. This is where tennis becomes a habit, because it is where the friends are.

Rackets and kit

• Borrow first. Most clubs and coaches lend rackets for early sessions.
• When you buy, a mid-weight, mid-priced racket with a reasonably large head is forgiving for beginners. Ask the coach or a specialist shop to check the grip size suits your hand.
• Shoes matter more than the racket. Tennis involves lots of sideways movement. Court shoes are designed for that; at the start, trainers with flat, non-marking soles will do. Running shoes are built for forward movement and can feel unstable side to side.
• Balls: new balls bounce better and make learning easier. Some coaches use softer, slower balls for beginners, which give you more time.
• Clothes: anything comfortable you can move in. Check the club's dress code; a few still have one.

Finding a hitting partner

• Your lesson group is the obvious place: you already know each other's level.
• Club social sessions pair you with people of similar standard.
• Online club boards and apps help you find partners and book courts.
• A friend who is also starting is ideal. Learning together is half the fun, and nobody minds fetching balls.
• Doubles is a great format for new adult players, with less running, more chat and more laughter.

Your first sessions

• Warm up gently, including a few easy rallies; see our guide to a good warm-up.
• Keep it short. An hour is plenty at first.
• Aim for rallies, not winners. Hitting the ball back over the net five times in a row is a lovely achievement at the start.
• Play on smaller courts or from the service line if full-court rallies feel impossible. Many coaches start adults this way.
• Don't keep score for the first weeks unless you enjoy it.

Tennis, padel or pickleball?

If tennis feels like a big leap, two of its cousins are often quicker to pick up. Our guides to padel and pickleball explain how each one works. Both are friendly ways to fall in love with racket sports, and many players happily do more than one.

Being an adult beginner

The hardest part of starting tennis as an adult is often the feeling that everyone else learned as a child. Plenty did not. Most clubs have members who started in their thirties, fifties or seventies. Tell the coach you are a beginner, be patient with your forehand, and enjoy every shot that lands in. Our guide to trying a new sport as an adult covers the nerves.