The Chinese Students and Scholars Tennis Club at Northwestern University (CSSTC-NU) 西北大学中国学生学者网球俱乐部 Platinum Sponsor: Asian Bistro (雅轩) I Gold Sponsor: SqushProShop (Re-stringing)

Tennis Info's & Tips

Get started <> How to advance <> Where to buy equipment <> Polls and polls results <> About our club logo <> Group Message Archives

Get started

1. "I want to play tennis! But, can I really play and have fun?"

Relax. Everybody can play tennis (just like every Chinese can play Pingpong);

2. "I have a tennis racquet..."

You need a right racquet (many things about the racquet should be right for you). Believe me, this is the most important thing for a beginner. Many beginners fail to advance mainly becasue they do not have the right racquets. Bring your racquet to our weekly lessons and we can share our opinions with you.

3. "How should I start to practise?"
Find out the answer at our Yahoo! group.

4. "Where can I find hitting boards?"
Find out the answer at our Yahoo! group.

5." Do I need tennis shoes?"
Find out the answer at our Yahoo! group.

6. "Do I need the USTA lessons taught by professional tennis tutors?"
Find out the answer at our Yahoo! group.

7. "Do you mean the CSSTC free lessons are better than the USTA lessons?"
Find out the answer at our Yahoo! group.

8. "Do I need to look for private lessons?"
Find out the answer at our Yahoo! group.

How to advance

1. "How many times should I practise a week?"

Well, you can play everyday if you have time. You need to play at least two times a week with your partners. Besides, you need to practise serves as often as you can.

2. "I do not have much of a serve and I do not know how to improve it. Is serve important to me?"
Find out the answer at our Yahoo! group.

3. "How should I practise with my partners?"
Find out the answer at our Yahoo! group.

4. "I can not find a partner to play today..."
Find out the answer at our Yahoo! group.

5. "Why I can not hit the ball?"
Find out the answer at our Yahoo! group.

6. "Why does the string of my racquet slide so much?"
Find out the answer at our Yahoo! group.

7. "How can I advance faster? "
Find out the answer at our Yahoo! group.

Equipment

Racquet, performance racquet, and demo

There are two kinds of tennis racquet: recreation ones and performance ones. "Recreation" does not mean entry-level or beginner level while "Performance" does not neam advanced. They are two totally difference ways to play tennis. Recreation tennis is usually appreciated by senior people. Performance tennis racquets are not necessarily more expensive: there are a lot of good racquets under $100. To find the right one, you should always give a try before you buy (normally called demo).

At our Yahoo! group, you can find out a lot useful informations about internet tennis store as well as local tennis stores. We have already compared them by our own experience.

String and re-string

If you play tennis a couple of times a week, you might breake your string every often (every other week or every other month). You can conveniently have your tennis racquet re-strung by our recommended stringer who is right located in Evanston.

Tennis shoes, apparel, and bags

Coming up soon in our Yahoo! group

Polls and polls results

Results of closed polls:

Poll 1: [For all] Watching tennis match is fun. Do you think we should have a routine tennis video show playing those old match tapes, DVD's, or tennis instruction programs (like the CSSA weekly movie show)?

CHOICES AND RESULTS
- No. I just like fresh matches., 0 votes, 0.00%
- Yes. What a brilliant idea!, 6 votes, 100.00%

Poll 2: [For all]Do you think watching tennis matches will help you improve your tennis level?

CHOICES AND RESULTS
- Yes. It helps a lot. , 3 votes, 50.00%
- Yes. It helps some., 0 votes, 0.00%
- No. Almost no help., 0 votes, 0.00%
- Depends on which level you are at. Maybe helpful for advanced players but won't help beginners much., 3 votes, 50.00%

Poll 3: [For all] What is stopping you from playing tennis in winter?

CHOICES AND RESULTS
- No outdoor courts!, 1 votes, 16.67%
- I can pay for the indoor courts at NU, but I do not have a wildcard to enter the gym. I just hate to pay for the admission to enter the gym., 2 votes, 33.33%
- No partners., 3 votes, 50.00%
- No tennis atomosphere. No one is even talking about tennis!, 0 votes, 0.00%
- I don't know. Maybe I just played too much in the summer. I need some rest., 0 votes, 0.00%

Poll 4: [For beginners] We are going to offer the free beginner's lesson in 8 courses (one hour each course).How do you think we should arrange these 8 courses?

CHOICES AND RESULTS
- once a week (during weekdays), 2 votes, 25.00%
- once a week (during the weekend), 1 votes, 12.50%
- twice a week (one on Saturday, the other on Sunday), 1 votes, 12.50%
- twice a week (one during weekdays, one during the weekend), 4 votes, 50.00%
- more than two times a week, 0 votes, 0.00%

Poll 5: [Club Logo] Which one do you like the most?

CHOICES AND RESULTS
- Candidate 1, 6 votes, 75.00%
- Candidate 2, 1 votes, 12.50%
- Candidate 3, 1 votes, 12.50%
- Candidate 4, 0 votes, 0.00%
- Candidate 5, 0 votes, 0.00%
- none of them., 0 votes, 0.00%

Open Polls

Poll 1: Question [For beginners] If you are a beginner, what frustrate you the most when you are trying to learn playing tennis?

CHOICES (vote now!)
- Embarrassment from being a beginner.
- No one to hit with. I just can not go to the court by myself.
- I only have a crappy racquet, and I do not want to waste my money to buy tennis shoes and other equipment simply because I don't know if I can ever learn to play tennis.
- I tried so hard last summer. But I am still a beginner now!
- Too many things I do not know about tennis. What's "stroke", "volley", "grip size", "advantage", "set", "grand slam", "ATP"...
- I am a tennis nerd, I know I can never play tennis.
- I played tennis occassionally. I do not think it is fun.
- No one offers me a little bit instruction.

Poll 2: Question [For all]Have you demoed (tried) your racquet before you bought it?

CHOICES (vote now!)
-Yes. I seriously demoed it.
-Yes. I tried it.
- No. I do not even know I can try it before I buy.
- No. My friend recommended it to me and I do not need to demo it.
-No. Why do I need to try it?

Poll 3: Question [For all] How did you learn about our tennis club?

CHOICES (vote now!)
- friends
- CSSA group email
- CSSA BBS

Poll 4: Question [For beginners] If you are on the court for the free beginner's lesson, would you mind if the there are over 6 members (including yourself) on the same court for the same lesson?

CHOICES (vote now!)
- No, I do not care. The more, the merrier.
- Yes, I do care. I want the class size to be 4-6.
- Yes, I do care. I want the class size to be 2-4.

About our club logo

-Tennis ball;
-Red/yellow colors from Chinese National Flag;
-Purple color represnts Northwestern University;
-CSSTC-NU;
-The introductory website address.
Members voted (Poll 5) and chose this one out from 5 candidates.

Group Message Archives

Grand opening message (02/13/06)

Group message
1 (02/17/06)
2 (02/24/06)
3 (03/17/06)
4 (03/24/06)
5 (04/03/06)
6 (04/13/06)
7 (04/20/06)

Group messages are dielivered to our members routinely. We will only show non-members group messages delivered one month ago. If you want to get posted with all the tennis information around NU on-time, please join our Yahoo!Group.