Jorge Capestany - TennisDrills TV

Color Code your Shots and Reduce Errors

Many players struggle with what the proper level of aggression or power should be for tennis. For many players this means they make predominantly “decision’ errors when they play because they hit the ball either too hard or too soft for the situation at hand.

Years ago, I heard a great way to help players with this. The concept was called “color-coding” your shots. This theory has explains that balls that are coming towards you with:

• Fast pace are considered red ball, because you are in a defensive situation.

• Medium pace are yellow balls, because you are in a neutral situation.

• Slow pace are considered green balls, because you are in an offensive situation.

A simple drill to practice this color-coding is to rally with another player while each player calls out loud (before they strike the ball) the color of the situation they are in. In other words, if my opponent leaves a short ball in the court I would call “green” before I strike an aggressive shot because I would be in an offensive situation. This drill has been very helpful to many of my students in reducing their “decision” errors.

Next time you practice or play a match color-code your shots and watch the number of errors you make plummet.

Jorge Capestany - TennisDrills TV

Jorge is the Founder of www.tennisdrills.tv - a video based website that shows more than 700 videos of tennis drills and tips. Jorge is one of only nine people world-wide that is a Master Professional with both the USPTA and PTR. Jorge is a 6-time Michigan Pro of the Year a 2-time Midwest Pro of the Year. Jorge has coached hundreds of ranked juniors including 3 national champions.