Tennis as a sport and culture is rules on rules on rules, be they written or unwritten. Many of them are for the better but some of them, if you ask us, can be for the worse; especially so if you are new to the sport and in the midst of learning the techniques of the game while identifying and conforming to the social codes of the culture can be overwhelming.

So, don’t. Don’t follow the rules to a tee. Be who you want to be on court; not who you feel that you have to be, to fit in. To get started, we’ve pondered aloud our thoughts on some of the rules within tennis that we feel like you don’t have to follow, if you don’t feel like it.

THE ACTUAL RULES OF THE GAME

You don’t have to follow them, you know? Particularly so when you’re first starting out playing where hitting inside the lines, serving correctly and reading the trajectory of the ball correctly can be difficult, as your body is not yet at a point of doing all the small things that make up a good hit in tennis; the footwork, the preparation, the step forward, the split jump, the swing-through, everything.

So, throw out the rule book for a while and play the game however you want. Hit balls that have bounced twice. Chase volleys that fall on the outside of the sideline and return it to your opponent anyway. Plow across court to hit a ball that has almost fallen flat to keep the game alive. Serve outside of the box. Do whatever you want; whatever allows you to get some amazing rallies going and get a lot of hits in to finetune your technique before moving onto playing actual games.

It may sound dumb but trust us when we say that it is a loooot of fun. Plus, you get a lot more movement in for a great amount of exercise.

THE APPROPRIATE ATTIRE

We will forever applaud wearing all-whites on a tennis court; it looks coooool as ever and we sometimes do it ourselves as well. But you don’t have to, ever, if you don’t feel like it. So, unless you find yourself playing at the All England Lawn Tennis Club or some other facility that strictly requires you to wear all-whites, do whatever you want.

Wear whatever makes you the most comfortable; that which makes you feel like yourself and no one else. Wear clothes in loud colors. Wear all-black. Wear dress shirts. Wear knitted sweaters. Wear jeans. Wear anything you feel like.

NO SCREAMING, YELLING OR CURSING

Honestly, fuck that. If you feel like yelling from joy after having hit a cross-court screamer, do it. Want to scream “FUCKING SHIT” from the top of your lungs after having smashed a picture-perfect ball straight into the net? By all means, do it. Want to flip off your opponent after they’ve just sent you running into the ground with a dropshot? Flip them the fuck off then. At Palmes, we believe that tennis is a way of showing our character; who we are as individuals; the emotions that we go through on a daily basis. And to us, the tennis court is the last place in the world where you should ever keep these emotions bottled up inside of you.

DON’T SMASH YOUR RACQUET

This is by no means an encouragement to smash your racquet as it is both a waste of money and a non-sustainable-way of dealing with your aggressions. But, if it is your only resort left for letting out all of the emotions that can bottle up inside of you during a game of tennis, then by all means, smash the thing to pieces.