The Rules of Tennis EXPLAINED (scoring, terms and more)

If you're new to tennis and you're so confused

about the scoring and the rules of tennis,

why they say love and they count really weird,

well,

this is the video to watch,

so we're gonna hop right in and explain the court.

OK,

let's get started.

The first thing you need to understand is that there's two sides of the tennis court.

There's your opponent's side and

your side.

We're only gonna talk about your side,

but guess what?

It's a mirror image.

So, whatever we talk about on this side is the exact same side or thing on that side.

So, let's get started.

The first thing you need to

understand is the tennis court is split down the middle,

so there's two different sides and the very first line we're gonna

talk about is this line right here which is the baseline.

This is where you start every single point. And the other thing about

the baseline is that if you hit the ball past the baseline,

then the ball is out,

so you gotta remember that.

The next thing we're gonna talk about is the

single sideline which is this line right here.

So, if you're playing singles,

this is the limit of where you're gonna hit the ball.

You can't hit the ball pass.

Because it's out.

The next

line we're gonna talk about is the double sideline.

So, if you're playing doubles,

you get this extra line to hit to which makes the court even bigger.

So, the next line we're gonna talk about is the service line.

Now this divides the court from the back half to the front half,

and we have the center service line which divides the service

boxes so you understand which box you have to serve in.

Now let's talk about the net a little bit.

So, you have this net that's strung across by two net posts.

And in the middle of that net post you have the

net strap and the top of this is the net tape.

This divides your side from your opponent's side and

as you're doing that,

you want to make sure you don't hit the ball in the net.

Every point in tennis begins with a serve that has to be aimed

towards the appropriate box that Megan will talk about in a second,

and you get two tries

to try to hit the correct box.

The only wrinkle in that is if your serve hits the net,

goes over,

and lands in,

then you get a redo, and we call that a let.

If it hits the net and doesn't hit the appropriate box,

then that's a fault,

it's a missed serve and you get a second try.

If you miss both serves, then you actually lose the point completely.

If your serve goes into the box and you start to hit back and forth,

now there's three different ways

that the point could end.

Either you or your opponent could hit the net,

which means the point is over immediately,

or

one of you might hit outside the lines of play,

which we'll talk about in a second,

or a winner might get hit.

That's a ball that lands in play and bounces twice

before the other person can get to it.

Any time the ball bounces twice,

the point is immediately

done,

and the side of the court that it landed twice on,

that player loses the point.

And by the way,

you can also hit the ball out of the air.

It doesn't have to bounce,

but if it does bounce,

you only get one.

So, as the ball travels back and forth,

there's different boundaries depending on if you're playing singles or doubles.

This is called the singles sideline.

So, if you're playing one

player against another single player.

This is the boundary for the courts.

If the ball lands outside of the single sideline,

then that's out and the point is over

and the line is in in tennis.

So, if the ball lands and touches any part of the line,

then it's a good shot and the point continues until

somebody misses or if it was a winning shot.

If it's 2 against 2,

if you're playing doubles,

then this part of the court,

the doubles alley,

is now part of the field of play.

And now the court goes all the way

to the edge of the doubles sideline.

And again,

if somebody hits the double sideline,

that's in,

but anything outside of the double sideline would be out and the point is over.

Whether you're playing singles or doubles,

the baseline is the back boundary for the courts.

Singles would go all the way up to this corner here.

Doubles would go all the way up to this corner here.

And again,

any part of that line is in.

So, if it hits the line,

you have to do your best to try to

play it back.

If you're gonna go out and play tennis,

you must know how to keep score and we're gonna start from the very beginning.

So, when you start,

you start at 0 to 0,

and that it means "love" in tennis.

We say love instead of 0.

So, we start always on the right side for every game,

and this is called the deuce side of the court.

So, when I served,

let's say I win the points.

Then we would go to the other side of the court

and I would get that point,

so it would be 15

to love.

You always say the server score first.

Then I would come to the left side of the court,

which we like to call the "ad side" of the court,

because when you're serving from the ad side,

someone always has the advantage.

So, it'd be 15 love.

Let's say I win the point again,

then I would come back to the deuce side of the court,

and the score would be 30. Again,

my score first, server's

score first to love of my opponent,

he or she has 0.

Then let's say I win the point again and I come back to the ad side of the court,

so it would be 40

love.

Then if I win the point again,

I win the game.

Now

there is a point to where when you're tied and I have 30 and my opponent also has 30,

we like to say "30 all" instead of 30-30

anytime the score is tied,

but the exception to that is when it's 40 to 40,

we like to say deuce, and at deuce you have

to win two consecutive points to win the game.

So, at deuce,

I'm always serving from the deuce side of the court.

Let's say I win the

point,

then I would go to the ad side of the court and

you would say "ad in" meaning add in to the server.

Okay,

if I win that point,

that's 2 consecutive points,

and now I've won that game.

If I lose the point at ad in,

then I go back to the deuce side and the score is now deuce again, 40 to 40 deuce.

If my opponent wins the point at deuce,

then I come to the ad side of the court,

and the score is now ad out,

ad out away from the server.

And if they win

that point,

that's 2 consecutive points,

so they win the game.

If not,

you can go back to deuce again, so you can see how it can keep going for a long time.

Now you need to win its first,

that's a game,

and then you need to win first to six games, win by two games

to win a set.

And then you need to win two sets out of three

to win a match.

So, now let's talk about singles movement.

It's really important that you understand that you start on the right side,

which is the deuce side and after every point you switch sides,

so you go from the deuce to the ad site in between

each point and you keep doing this until the game is over.

After the game is over,

after the first game you switch sides,

and after that every odd number of games you switch sides.

So, you switch at 1 and then at 3 and then at 5 games and so on until the set is

finished.

Now it's time to talk about doubles movement.

Just like singles,

you start on the right side if you're the server,

but it's opposite of the person the net.

So, the server starts at the right side,

the net person is opposite on the left side.

After each point,

the serving team or the server will switch to the ad side

and the net person will switch to the opposite side.

So between each point,

each server and net person is constantly switching to the opposite side.

Now we're gonna talk about the returning side.

The return is gonna start

at the baseline and the net person's at the net,

they'll take turns after each point.

The returner on the baseline will come up to the net position,

and the net person will switch back to the baseline position to take returns.

And again,

after each point,

they'll alternate this movement between up of the

baseline person and back of the net person,

and they'll continue this until the game is over.

Now that you know the rules of the game and how to keep score,

you know how to go out and play a tennis match.

So, if you have any questions or comments,

leave it below and we'll see you in the next video.