I just started a new hobby, well I began a couple years ago, but I started up again. I started playing tennis. The first times I played tennis were when I was a kid. My parents used to take me to play. I could never get it down though. I would always hit the tennis ball so hard it would go flying out of the tennis courts, over those high fences. No matter how much I played, I couldn't get better. I always liked it though and thought it would be fun to play tennis better. Then, in college, many years later, some friends of mine took a tennis class. They invited me once to go and play with them. I thought I would still play exactly how I did as a kid, since I hadn't played since then, so I was a bit apprehensive.

Well, we grabbed our tennis rackets and our tennis balls and headed to the tennis courts to play. Fortunately for me, the people I was playing with weren't that good either. They were beginning tennis players themselves, hence their reason for taking the beginning tennis class. When we started playing, I was surprised. Everything just suddenly came naturally. I wasn't real good, but I was returning everything. I was hitting everything right on, and didn't hit a single tennis ball out of the tennis courts.

I had a hard time with my serves at first, but since they were taking a class, they taught me how to do it. After I learned the technique, it was surprisingly easy, and then I just did the same thing every time, and all of my serves were right on. I even got a couple hard serves across, after a few tries, although, I am still cannot do that well. It is one of the best feelings, though to hit a hard, fast serve over and make it land exactly where you want it to, and to watch the other tennis players scramble to get it and miss.

I kept playing often with those friends and began to start playing tennis pretty well. We all started playing well. I think they were upset because they were taking a class to learn to play, and I would just go play with them and I was getting better than them. Tennis is a lot more fun when you can play well enough to have a nice volley, where you can hit the tennis ball back and forth for a while.

Playing with those friends lasted for several months, but then ended when I moved away. I didn't play much for the next couple years after that, but I just started up again. My wife and I played tennis a couple times while we were dating. She had never played before, so I had to teach her. I also bought her a tennis racket. One nice thing about playing tennis while we were dating was that it didn't cost anything. Once we had our tennis rackets and tennis balls, we could go play whenever we wanted. Fortunately, she lived right next to a city park with several tennis courts. Most cities in the US have free public tennis courts where anyone can go play.

Just last week my wife and I started playing tennis regularly. We were trying to exercise every day by running or doing some work out, but it wasn't that fun. We wanted to do something fun while we exercised, so we decided to play tennis every day. She has now improved surprisingly fast, like I did at first. I think if you just go regularly and have someone explain some of the technique, you should be able to pick it up rather quickly. Tennis is a good hobby for a number of reasons. It is something that gives you good exercise. It is fun. It is something you can do with friends, and even compete in if you get good enough. It is also free once you have your inexpensive equipment.

This article was written by Peter Jay, Owner, President, and CEO of Variety Access, Your Online Tennis Hobby Store and More! For more information about Tennis, Tennis Balls, or Tennis Rackets, please visit Variety Access at VarietyAccess.com/tennis.php