Racket sports
Soft Tennis
Soft tennis adapts lawn tennis to a softer ball and permits broad freedom in racket design. The slower, less explosive ball tends to produce extended exchanges rather than serve-dominated points.
At a glance
- The sport is particularly established in Japan and Taiwan.
- It has appeared at the Asian Games since the 1990s.
Player profile. Rewards consistency, anticipation, mobility, and touch more than pure serving power. The softer ball sheds speed, extending exchanges and giving recovery, placement, and anticipation more influence than a single overpowering serve. Touch is especially valuable when changing direction without supplying the opponent with pace.
Where it happens
Uses indoor or outdoor tennis courts with the normal net and court markings. The familiar tennis rectangle is paired with an air-filled rubber ball about 6.6 cm across. Rackets may vary widely in material, mass, size, and shape, although both striking faces must use the same surface.
- Uses indoor or outdoor tennis courts with the normal net and court markings. The familiar tennis rectangle is paired with an air-filled rubber ball about 6.6 cm across. Rackets may vary widely in material, mass, size, and shape, although both striking faces must use the same surface.
What you need
- unrestricted-shape strung racket
- air-filled rubber ball approximately 6.6 cm in diameter
How to play
- Serve underarm or overarm.
- Rally over the net within tennis boundaries.
- Accumulate games to win the match.
The essential rules
- Tennis-style in/out boundaries apply.
- Both underarm and overarm serves are allowed.
- Singles is played as best of seven games.
- Doubles is played as best of nine games.
- Singles tiebreaks begin at three games all.
- Doubles tiebreaks begin at four games all.
- The ball must be rubber and air filled.
- Deliberate grunting is prohibited under the summarized rules.
How the result is decided
Game scoring resembles lawn tennis; matches use shorter best-of-games formats with specified tiebreak points. Singles uses a shorter seven-game match and introduces its deciding game at three-all; doubles extends to nine games and reaches that stage at four-all. Either an underarm or overarm delivery may begin play.
Fouls and penalties
- serve outside the box
- ball out
- double bounce
- prohibited vocal distraction
Techniques
- controlled serve
- topspin rally ball
- soft-angle return
- lob
Tactics
- extend rallies
- move the opponent laterally
- use the slower ball for placement
Disciplines and variants
- singles
- doubles
Competition landscape
- Asian Games soft tennis
- International Soft Tennis Federation events
Records in the reference
No stable record table is published here. Records change; use the current governing-body source before acting.
How the sport developed
The game became strongly associated with East Asian school and club sport. The game established a strong school and club culture in Japan and Taiwan before spreading across Asia. Its inclusion in the Asian Games from 1994 reflected a regional competitive base distinct from lawn tennis.
- Racket construction is unusually unrestricted compared with lawn tennis.
Play it in India
A dated public source documents an Indian federation, programme or centre for this sport. Current local intake, price and availability still require confirmation.
- Amateur Soft Tennis is the current organisation reference and is matched to a dated MYAS recognition source. This does not establish local intake, price, schedule or availability.
- Organisation reference
- Amateur Soft Tennis
- Recognition state
- MYAS recognition list matched
- SAI NCOE discipline rows
- No matching centre row found
- Khelo India discipline
- Not established
- Olympic programme
- Not a current core-programme sport
- India Olympic medals
- No sport-level total in current sources
Evidence and currency
This is an original KhelPath explainer assembled from editorial research. It is orientation, not an authoritative rulebook.
Current governing-body rules link: not yet verified.