Tennis - are you born knowing how to play? Or otherwise.

[User14March]

DH can play. Well. How did you learn? I asked.

He said, ‘ah, had lessons at school’ & nodded sagely.

Our lessons at school were rudimentary & in a group. The upshot was you either, seemingly magically, ‘got it’, or otherwise.

How did you learn?

From what I understand, your thumb and ring finger need to be able to touch round your grip, otherwise it's too big.

Many of the clubs I have involvement with run a 'Rusty Rackets' class or something very similar to encourage older players who are just taking it up or are re-starting after many (many) years.

Also @User14March quite a lot of clubs will let you have a small number of lessons with a coach without being a member (ie you pay the coach's fees but don't have to join the club initially). Alternatively the governing body are making a big push to promote park courts – if you have some near you that's another way you can play some tennis without having to pay joining/membership fees at a club.

I had lessons from about age 6, mum and dad played so it was natural for me to. Then lessons in school. I was on the school team not because I was amazing but because I had been playing a lot longer than most of the others.

In 4th and 5th year it was a thing to get to school early and play.

I'm useless at all other sports apart from swimming.

My dad played and we played in the summer term at secondary school. I know the principles of scoring etc but I wouldn't say I can play tennis 😄

One of my DDs - who never had any interest as a child or teen - took lessons in her 20s and enjoyed herself. She had played badminton though.

I'm sure if you look online you could find a club or organisation that offers beginner lessons for any age. I seem to recall my aunt and uncle in London decided to give it a try about fifteen years ago when they were semi-retired, and they had a blast.