|
TennisOne Lessons
One-on-One Practice Drills That Get Results By David Brouwer As I meet other teaching professionals and coaches around the country, the number one thing I hear is, "Got any good drills?” It seems that no matter how hard you try to keep things fresh on the tennis court, the reality is that we all end up reverting back to our favorite four or five drills on the practice court. In this series, I will share with you some of my favorite one-on-one practice drills. Hopefully these will a useful addition to your current arsenal of drills and you’ll have a lot of fun doing them too!
One-on-One Doubles This is my favorite drill to work on the first four shots of a doubles point. The game is played on a diagonal only with the doubles alleys being good. One player serves to the deuce box and the opponent returns crosscourt. As soon as each player strikes the ball, they both crash the net and battle out the point using volleys, half volleys, lob volleys, and overheads. The goal is for each player to end up inside the service box by the time the point is over. Repeat this pattern to the ad side and alternate servers. Play a game to 11 and the loser does 10 pushups. This game is great for work on the serve, the return and the first two volleys of a doubles point.
The Stan Smith Drill This drill got its name when Stan Smith himself ran me through it at a USPTA convention years ago. Unfortunately for me, it’s a volley drill and Stan Smith is better at volleying than I am! Anyway, the drill goes like this. Both players start on the baseline and one player feeds a high floater to the opponent. That ball is taken out of the air as an approach volley and both players rush the net. The first two balls must go down the middle (cooperative) and after that, the point is played out. The goal is for both players to work on their anticipation, split step timing, and quick hands on their way into the net. Play a game up to 11 with the feeder alternating every two points. Loser buys lunch. This game is great to work on transition skills, stretch volleys, and low volleys. A variation of this drill would be to play it only on ½ of the court with the doubles alley being good. This way, the rallies may last a bit longer because of the smaller court area in which to hit.
The Go Drill This is one of my favorite drills to work on depth on the groundstrokes. I think it’s fairly old, but it still gets the results when working on depth. Both players start on the baseline and a ball is fed into play up the middle. As long as the ball lands past the service line, both players must stay back and rally from the baseline. However, once the ball lands on the service line or in front of the service line, BOTH players must move forward in the court and attack the net. Play a game up to 21 BUT… if you’re the player who hits the ball short AND you lose the point, it’s worth 3 for the opponent. If you’re the player who hits the ball short and you win the point, it’s only worth 1 point. This is a great game to work on recognizing attacking opportunities, depth on the groundstrokes, and approach shot placement once the short ball does present itself.
Volley and Running Pass This is a great drill to work on your first step to the ball and your ability to recover and hit a running passing shot once your opponent has taken the net. Both players start on ½ of the court with a baseliner on one side (deuce) and a net player on the other side (ad). The net player feeds a ball to the baseliner’s backhand (right handed player) and they hit it down the line straight back to the net player. The net player then volleys the ball to the open court and the baseliner runs it down, hits their best passing shot and the point is played full court from there. In this instance, the right handed player would be working on the running forehand pass. You could also change sides and work on the running backhand pass. Play a game up to 11 and switch ends of the court. This is a great drill to work on controlling the volley to the open court, picking a target for the running pass, and reacting quickly to a defensive situation when your opponent is at the net stealing time. A variation of this drill would be that both players sustain the groundstroke to volley rally on ½ court for an undetermined amount of shots. At any time, the net player calls out “now” and volleys to the open court and then the point is played out. This makes the baseliner anticipate even more and also makes it a little tougher to make that first step to the passing shot.
Serving Horse Remember the legendary game “Horse” for basketball? Well, this is the tennis version. It can actually be played with a number of different strokes, but serving works the best. Here’s how you play. Each service box is divided into three lanes, therefore giving you lanes 1,2 and 3 on the deuce side and 4,5, and 6 on the ad side (left to right across the service box). The racquet is spun to see who will serve first and the winner of the spin calls out a number between 1 and 6. If they hit the serve to the number that they have called, the opponent must copy that serve to that target. If they fail, they receive a letter “H.” Play this way until one player spells the word “Horse.” Of course, if at any time a player calls a serve target and misses, the opponent gets the opportunity to call the target. Variations on this game would include calling the spin (slice, flat, kick, topspin) along with the target number. This is one of the games that I’ve found keeps players interested in serving for long periods of time, therefore getting them the repetition they so desperately need to build confidence and consistency on the serve.
Return for Points This is one of my favorite games to work on focus and placement on the return of serve. Arguably the least practiced shot in the game of tennis, the return of serve can be boring to the point that many players don’t get the repetition they need. This game fixes that. Here’s how you play. One player is the all time server and the other is the all time returner. On the server’s side, there are depth markers placed in the court (cones or poly-spots work well as well as hoppers or empty ball cans or anything else you can find). The targets are placed on the service line and three feet inside the baseline, therefore creating three target zones: 1. in front of the service line (worth one point) 2. In between the service line and the line of cones behind it (worth two points) and 3. in between the baseline and the line of cones in front of it (worth three points). The server stands on or near the service line so as to get the ball to the returner in a hurry and cranks out the serves. The goal is for the returner to score 15 points within a specified number of balls. In other words, a perfect score, if working on depth, would be a 15 in five balls, because all five balls would be three pointers. For an intermediate player, they might take nine balls and an beginner might take fifteen balls. Whatever the case, this drill gets your focus off of your technique and onto the placement and depth of your return of serve. Whether you’re a weekend warrior, or a pro on the tour, I believe that these one on one drills can serve to tune up a number of areas of your game. I hope you’ll find them as fun as I have! Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about David Brouwer's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.
David was voted the USPTA Michigan Professional of the year in 2002 and has won two USPTA Outstanding Education awards. David has been a speaker at the USPTA Midwest and National conventions and is the Director of the West Michigan Tennis Academy. David coaches USTA league players of all levels and finds great joy in coaching strategy and tactics to build smarter tennis players. |
David Brouwer, USPTA is the Director of Tennis for three major health clubs in Grand Rapids , MI.