Ingas Tennis School

A guide to understanding our grading system. This will help you understand which class might be the most suitable for your level, what tournament to sign up to or if you might be ready to play in a league.

Hopefully you find this helpful and simple to understand, however if you have any questions or are still unsure what your grading is then please don’t hesitate to contact me on IngasTennisSchool@gmail.com

BEGINNER (STARTER 1)

Starter 1 grade would be assigned to someone who has never played tennis before and is starting to learn tennis from scratch. Also Starter 1 would be someone who hasn’t played tennis for a very long time and needs to brush up on the basic technique and basic footwork and other skills. Starter 1 is unlikely confident to play points and serve consistently yet. LTA and Club courses labled ''Tennis Express'', ''Beginners'', ''Novice'' would all fall under this category - Starter 1. 

IMPROVER (STARTER 2)

Starter 2 grade would be assigned to someone who is quite new to tennis and is still learning basic techniques. However at Starter 2 level we expect that the player can rally a consistent 10 ball (forehand & backhand) rally from a baseline. At Starter 2 level a player would start understanding how to play a simple point, understand boundaries and can perform a basic over-arm and under-arm serve cross court. A Starter 2 level would be assigned to someone who is playing friendly games in a Starters ladder. LTA and Club courses labled  ''Rusty Rackets'', ''Advanced Beginners'' would fall in this category - Starter 2. 

INTERMEDIATE 1

Intermediate 1 grade would be assigned to someone who is demonstrating an understanding of good technique on forehand, backhand, serve and volley and can execute this technique at least 50% of the time. Intermediate 1 grading would be assigned to someone who has recently won the Starter’s ladder or is playing at the bottom level of the Intermediates ladder. Intermediate 1 player can confidently rally from the baseline and is able to demonstrate decent ball placement (can place the ball in a particular place on a court). Intermediate 1 would also have a decent footwork, such as a use of split step, know how to use their bodyweight in shots, etc. Intermediate 1 would also be very confident understanding tennis game scoring as well as tie-break scoring. LTA and Club courses labled ''Drills & Skills'', etc . would fall in this category - Intermediate 1. 

INTERMEDIATE 2

Intermediate 2 grade would be assigned to someone who is demonstrating an understanding of good technique on forehand, backhand, serve and volley and can execute this technique at least 75% of the time.  Intermediate 2 grading would be assigned to someone who is in the middle or at the of top of the Intermediate’s ladder, someone who can demonstrate use of good tactics as well as good technique in their game. Intermediate 2 grade would be assigned to someone who understands and can implement with some success open and closed stance, split step, body weight transfer, chopper grip, forehand grip, knows how to take the ball on the rise, has decent volley technique and is starting to execute topspin and slice with 50% success rate. Intermediate 2 can hit a variety of shots from different places on the court and rallying the ball over the net consistently is a second nature by this stage. Intermediate 2 grade would be also assisgned to someone who is considering to play or already plays in Ladies D team and occasionally C ,  Men's F team player would also fall in this grade. 

ADVANCED 1

Advanced 1 grade would be assigned to someone who has won/or is at the very top the Intermediate's ladder or competes in Advanced ladder. This grade would also be assigned to those women who comfortablly play in Plymouth & District league B or C  team or those men who comfortably play in Plymouth & District league D or E  team.  Advanced 1 player can execute more advanced techniques and advanced shots with more proficiency, greater power and greater consistency that at Intermediate 1 level AND they are starting to implement these techniques and shots during their matches (advanced techniques and shots such as taking the ball on the rise, closed/open stances, topspin, slice and flat groundstrokes; has good serve placement in corners of the service box, understands kick serve, slice serve and flat serve uses; can execute decent lobs, smashes and dropshots in a competitive situation.)

Advanced 1 level player will also have good tennis footwork, including split step use, good recovery step use such as side shuffle, sidestep, good reaction skills, etc.

Advanced 1 level player will also have a very good understanding of doubles and single tactics and a desire to learn and implement more advanced tactics. 

LTA and Club courses labled as 'Team Training' and such would fall into this category - Advanced 1. 

ADVANCED 2

Advanced 2 grade would be assigned to someone who plays and competes at the top level in our Club, someone who plays for A, B or C team (men) and A team (women). Advanced 2 player would have an excellent all round technique on all shots, and would know when to implement various techniques in different game situations and will be working on their individual strengths and weaknesses, and their individual style more that at other levels. Advanced 2 player would be comfortable using more advanced singles and doubles tactics in their game and their technique would be very sound at this stage.

LTA and Club courses labled as 'Team Training' and such would fall into this category - Advanced 2.