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I had dreams of going pro until I realized I was doomed to be a manlet. Pretty hard to compete in this game if you aren't around 6 ft tall, especially if you aren't a baseliner.

Thank you! I'll remember this.
>you will never be Djokovic

You just need to video yourself serving (or playing at all). If you're a decent pitcher/thrower, the motion translates into serving. I'd say that since we've been able to tape tennis, the serve is the stroke that changed the least, yet people struggle with it more than any other stroke. Only the possibility to leave the ground was added.
You could check out Bollettieri's "Sonic Serve" video (actually made by Pat Dougherty mostly, Nick is wank as a coach). You could also start here if you notice your serve is complete hogwash on video and looks nothing like the pros.
>youtube.com/watch?v=t2xJg6wOprc

>You will never be hated with a passion
>You will never rub your trophies in front of a crowd that hates you with passion
Well I'm a 5'9" manlet so I'll never know indeed.

>Bollettieri's "Sonic Serve" video
I mean, the whole thing, which you can find on Russian trackers most likely, not the excerpt you can find on YouTube.

Exactly what I needed, have been getting shoulder pains recently.

I played 12 years in a club and played on a high college level bit I quit 2 years ago.

Probably best sport besides strength training. Fun as hell and like anons said before the competition is unreal 1vs1 man vs. man its addicting.

Really do record yourself playing. Obviously having a coach is nice too, especially if you can combine both. You'd be surprised at how wank you'll probably look like: I did it and it's an huge eye opener. It will bridge the gap between what you think you're doing and what you're actually doing.

I'm 23

Is it too late to pick up and get competitive at tennis? It really intrigues me

That's absolutely what I need, but how do you recommend I place a camera in the open to not be stolen?

Far, far too late to become a star. You will definitely win state matches in several years with excellent coaching and adamant dedication. But you'll simply be too old for top-tier internationals.

Oh I just want to be competitive at a club and local tournament level

I was asking because I know for certain sports like baseball you really have to get the batting down young if you want to be good and it's really hard to break into while older.

On the fence behind you, inside the court (so you can notice if someone comes in or not, on the side of the court where there's no door is possible. Avoid vertical videos, put the camera at least 6ft up the fence or you won't see anything valuable.

You can play tennis for a lifetime, just do it and see if you like it. Don't dream of being a pro player obviously; it's a miserable life anyway, there's 1.5k+ pro ATP players and only the Top 100 cuts even, barely at that. And you can bet your ass any of these obscure guys can show up at your local park and destroy anyone with their wrong hand.

Actually it's unlikely (if you're in the States) that you'll reach 5.0 either. Most rec players hit the ceiling at 3.5, but with good coaching and dedication 4.0 could be attainable no problem. And nothing prevents you from enjoying the sport at 3.5 anyway!

Oh then you're quite welcome aboard the amateur leagues.
If your coach knows his shit and you play at least 8 quality hours a week, I estimate you can get serious in a year.
You have to understand, the whole point of getting good at tennis is being unconsciously competent. You have to perform all the strokes in all variations as easily as dribbling a basketball.

used to play competitively in high school, now i just play kinda casually

Well you won't reach any top tier level probably but that doesn't matter.
If you play regulary and take some tennis lessons you will be able to "compete" on a local level. You don't need to play on a pro level to have fun anyways, aslong as you play with people that are on your level you can have intense games and fun.

Cool, I've never really pursued a competitive sport outside of swimming in high school and tennis really caught my attention

Im glad to hear I can still hop into it

Oh, absolutely. Just don't become that guy who stalls at 2.5 because just getting the ball in play is good enough for him.

That guy is phenomenal. Great coach.

What do these numbers represent?

usta.com/Adult-Tennis/USTA-League/ntrp/
Basically

USTA's ranking system. 5.0 would be a damn good rec level tennis player, 6.0 probably your local D1 college players, 7.0 is a pro (not necessarily Top100, but anyone with at least 1 ATP point to their name). I'm a dirty Frog so I'm not too familiar with it. It progresses by steps of 0.5 (but you can perfectly have a 5.27 rating), meaning that a 5.5 should or is able to double bagel a 5.0; at this level it rarely happens to win 12 games in a row but that the theory.

In terms of tournaments, over 5.0 you play in Open divisions, which are as the name implies, open to anyone within the system since there's so few 5.0 players and over that it becomes difficult to make a specific tournament just for them, excluding 5.5+ in the process. Depending of places (ergo number of tennis players available) you might not even see 4.5 tournaments, making these players play directly into the Open division.