The importance of tennis shoes

If you are serious about tennis then you will need a good pair of shoes to back you up. Tennis shoes are specifically designed for vertical and horizontal movement around the court, and as so, will have more cushioning in the arch and sides of the shoe. Because tennis is a sport of running not just forward, but side to side, running shoes or other types can leave the foot uncomfortable, leading to blistered, or raw feet at the end of the day. A good pair of tennis shoes are not cheep, but they will last you. I've had my pair of Adidas barricades for about two to three years now and they are still in great shape. I would recommend either the barricade by Adidas, or Nike air max or city court shoes.
               
Either way, as long as it has sufficient ankle, arch, and side support, your feet will thank you if you plan to play more than once a week.

How to choose your first racquet

Your first racquet can be tough to chose, however, it doesn't have to be so hard.

Keep in mind that if you are buying your FIRST racquet, then you are most likely new to the sport.

So, lets look at beginner racquets. A beginner racquet will be about the same no matter what brand you buy, note however that some are better then others though. I recommend something that doesn't feel too heavy and that you can tolerate swinging around for an hour to an hour and a half. Ideally the racquet should be from 5 to 9oz, light enough so that until your technique develops, you have a harder time over-hitting the ball and spend more time hitting it in. I would also suggest a racquet with a large head size which is the area that the strings cover inside the frame. I would go anywhere from  100" to 110".

 For example, the Wilson Pro Limited 110 BLX (below) is just such a racquet, with a head size of 110" and its weight just over 9oz. The weight is a touch high for a beginner, but is still in the realm of playable for newbies. Keep in mind that this racquet is still designed as a performance racquet and its price of around $90 to $100 reflects that. Be at ease though, because a racquet like this will easily carry you through a long time of development and should physically last a long while. A cheaper alternative would be a racquet from the (K) series. The (K) series is before BLX and while most of the racquets aren't 'state of the art,' they are more than capable of getting the job done, especially for a beginner/intermediate player.  Importantly, make sure you buy a racquet with the right grip size! If you don't know if the racquet grip you are looking at is too big or small then check out my post here.

My Racquet

My racquet of choice is the Wilson Six.One Tour BLX. It tailors to the advanced player with its heavy weight of 12oz and its small head size of 90". For me it is perfect. With a shock absorber to couple it, I feel almost no vibrations when hitting. I would recommend this to only the advanced players (5.0+) because of the size and weight. For those of you just starting out, I would suggest a racquet with a larger head size and perhaps a tad lighter.