Every morning my older son goes out to the drive way before school and hits tennis balls against the garage. A practice wall is a great way to improve your tennis game and work on your consistency. But the problem was the top part of our garage is glass windows and he knocked out five of the windows in the course of about six months. So I decided something needed to change. Enter… the tennis wall!
Even better than the garage, this wall was built with tennis in mind. It is angled 8 degrees providing a perfect rebound for your hit. It mimics the timing and rhythm of rallying with another player. It gives you an opponent who never misses. And best of all, there are no broken windows.
So. let’s get into ti. Here is how we made our tennis wall:
Materials Needed:
- three sheets of 4×8 plywood (3/4 inch thick)
- four 2x4x12
- three 2x4x8
- two 2x3x8 for the angled brace
- three 2x4x2 for the “base”
- exterior grade screws
- 2 quarts of exterior primer paint
- 1 quart of “Green Court” by Behr exterior paint in a flat finish
- painters tape to mark your white line
The Process
step one:
Place your three pieces of plywood on the ground butting up next to each other. Place three of the 2x4x12 inch boards on top across and screw into place.
step two:
Add your your three 2x4x8 perpendicular to the other boards to add stability to the back to the wall, two along the ends and one down the middle. Next add your 2x4x2 base pieces as “feet” equally spaced out.
STEP THREE:
Add your final 2x4x12 to the back of the feet as the final brace piece. You can now stand up your wall. The last step is to add the 2x3s at an angle from the top of the wall to the back of the brace creating a triangle.
STEP FOUR:
Paint the wall! First add 1-2 layers of a thick white primer. Once dried, add a strip of painters tap 36 inches in height along the wall to net line. Then paint the wall your final top color.
PRO TIP:
Add a layer of primer on top of of the painters tape first to ensure the top coat green paint does not bleed underneath the tap, giving your white line a crisp clean finish!
Our final dimensions are 12 feet across and 8 feet in height which is perfect for these two brothers to both hit against the wall at the same time. Yes it is currently blocking our garage but we do not park our cars in there and there is still room to get bikes and lawn mower out when needed. One final note, although the wall is pretty sturdy on its own, we added sand bags to the back along the base for added protection. And that’s it!
Whether you and your kids are just staring out or already have a love for tennis, a practice wall can turn everyday into a mini tennis lesson – no tennis coach or court required! Message me on Instagram at @priscillatbrown if you end up making one, I’d love to see the final results! xx
Best idea