The Speed/Feel Method

Brandon Fallon

As competitive tennis players, we are always trying to copy the best players in the world. We want to move like them, play like them, and most of all, hit like them. Hitting like a professional tennis player takes more than hours on the court and hitting thousands of tennis balls. There are some definite commonalities between top 100 players on the tour, and in this article, I will be talking about how to develop two of them, feel and racquet head speed.

At the pro level, today’s tennis ball feels much heavier, travels higher over the net, and spins at revolutions never thought possible. Top players are able to create tremendous spin and power and still hit targets in the corner of the court over and over again. And at slams, the men keep this up for five sets! How do they do it?

Racquet head speed is not about muscle strength or aerobic capacity, it is more about developing timing and fast twitch muscle fibers. To develop these timing and fast twitch fibers, a player must deliberately practice drills that work on those skills. Training everyday and hitting hundreds of balls will not necessarily develop a player with a world class forehand or serve. Players who want to keep improving and eventually hit a world-class ball must deliberately practice racquet head speed as one of the main components of their training.

The second part of the training equation is the development of feel. Just developing the racquet head speed is not enough. Pro players have to harness all this speed, in other words, they have to learn to control it. 

Feel is becoming more and more important in a game that has been dominated by power. Today's players are able to neutralize 140mph serves, and hit short dipping shots that frustrate big powerful opponents. Federer is a prime example of a player who can feel the ball and control a point without always having to hit a huge forehand or 140mph serve. Feel based training is also very deliberate; a player must focus on feeling the ball not just hitting it to spots on the court. Some of the drills in this article, will actually make the player hit the ball inside a target or focus on depth control, not just the direction.

So how do we develop two opposites, feel and racquet head speed? Simply put a player must deliberately switch off in practice between accelerating and feeling the tennis ball.

Top players are trying to consistently hit a better ball with more action (spin, height, acceleration, with out losing the feel and consistency they have worked so hard to develop. To accomplish this, top players have learned, for example, to switch back and forth between working on only swinging fast for a set of three or four drills and then ending the day with a drill that emphasizes feel.

Below are a few examples of drills that develop either racquet head speed or feel. Switching back and forth between these two skills will create an environment of deliberate practice which will help the skills develop faster. Players must deliberately practice racquet head speed drills to develop the heaviness, spin, and power, yet at the same time work on feel in order to develop control, depth, and most of all consistency.

Racquet Head Speed Drills

Start with the idea “it is okay to make some errors for this part of the practice.” Try some new shots, go bigger, be more aggressive, and most of all accelerate. Points can be scored five points for a swinging volley winner, three for a volley winner, two for any other winner, one point for forced errors. Zero points for unforced errors.   

Drill #1 Waiting, waiting, go – In this drill, the coach will be responsible for hand feeding a slow ball to the player’s forehand groundstroke.

The player must perform a unit turn and wait for the coach to give the “GO” cue to swing at the dropping ball. In the turn, the player must wait at the top of his swing, so the most racquet head speed is possible. Coach will yell out, "wait, wait, and finally GO" at the last possible second, so the player will learn to catch up and hit the ball out in front. The player will learn to accelerate faster and faster as they get better and better at the drill. In turn, the coach will make the player wait longer and longer as the player progresses.

Variation: Coach will occasionally not say GO, so he can test if the player is actually waiting for the coach’s cue.

Drill #2 Rapid feed low – In this drill, the coach hand feeds 5-6 balls in rapid succession, so that the player must swing fast to catch up to the next ball. Balls are fed low and out in front of the player, forcing the player to bend and hit the ball out in front.

The coach must emphasize getting the hips through on every shot and maintaining proper forehand technique. As the player improves racquet head speed, balls are fed faster and faster.

Drill #3 Out of the air rip – In this drill, the coach hand feeds high balls to the player right into the racquet. The player must focus on accelerating, so that the ball has topspin and height over the net. The coach is responsible for making sure the player is accelerating fast and every ball is clearing the net. Coach and player want to focus on where the ball bounces on the second bounce. A good goal is half way up the fence on a ball that lands near the baseline. Coach will feed 5-6 balls in succession and every ball must be ripped out of the air.

Variation: Player starts in the deuce court alley and moves along the baseline hitting forehand swinging volleys all the way across to the ad court alley.

Drill #4 Nadal Progression – Nadal started focusing on these drills at the young age of 12-13 years old and still to this day you can see him working on his racquet head speed with these drills at pro events.

In these drills, the coach will hand feed low balls while moving forward, and the player must more forward and rip the ball over the net into the corner either crosscourt or down-the-line.

Part 1 – the coach feeds balls inside the service box only, but the player must still move forward and accelerate on each ball.

Part 2 – The player starts at the baseline and must move forward fast and efficiently while accelerating and trying to generate as much racquet head speed as possible. The player will hit four balls and the last ball will be 4-6 feet from the net.

Part 3 – The player will move forward, but at some point, the coach will toss a ball behind the player. The player will have to move back and hit a heavy ball while loading on his back foot.

Feel Based Drills

Start with the idea that “consistency and target training are the only concepts that count for the next hour of the workout.”  Do drills with players counting their longest streak of balls without an error, figure 8 drills, Federer drill of moving the opponent without missing, and points that include zero points for winners (forced errors and unforced errors win points).

Drill #1 European Mini Tennis – Most top junior and adult players in the United States spend 2 or 3 minutes hitting up close before they play a match or hit with their partner. This usually involves hitting down the middle of the court and lacks intensity and focus. European Mini Tennis in many cases is the opposite. I’ve experienced workouts in which half the workout was devoted to hitting inside the service box (mini tennis). European Mini Tennis develops feel, which many US players lack.

In these drill, the coach is responsible for making sure the players are trying to feel and control the ball to specific targets and areas of the court.

Part 1: Angle to Angle – The players are trying to get their partner as far off the court as possible with an angle forehand groundstroke. Players should accelerate and hit a quality topspin ball that lands inside the service box.

Part 2: Figure 8 drill with mini tennis – One player will hit cross-court the other player will hit down the line. This is a cooperative drill and players switch roles after two good rallies. Players should start out hitting slow and controlled shots and progressively hit faster and with more spin on each ball.

Drill #2: Into the Target – Hitting targets is an important part of playing tennis at any level. Players must learn to direct the ball, but to develop feel, players must take this concept one step further and try to hit the ball inside a target area. By hitting inside a target, the player will develop feel, height, and depth control. I find with my players that when they try to hit inside the target they are much more likely to hit consistently close to the target over and over again.

Part 1: In this drill, the coach will feed a ball and the player will try to hit the ball inside a target. The target can be a trash can, ball hopper, or storage container, either way the goal is to hit inside the target, so the ball will have to be hit with height and feel.

Part 2: In this drill, the player will hit inside the target from six feet inside the court and then will have to adapt and hit from six feet behind the baseline.

Drill #3: Depth Control Drill – Most of the time, tennis players work on hitting the ball to a specific direction. For example, players will do a workout that involves 5 minutes of crosscourt hitting, then 5 minutes of volleys down-the-line, followed by figure 8 drills. These are all directional drills. Depth control is just as important as being able to hit to a specific direction. The drill below works on a tennis player’s depth control.

In this drill, the player will have to alternate between hitting a ball deep crosscourt and a short angle. Each ball must have a specific depth target and must be within 1-2 feet of that target. Targets can be setup anywhere in the court, but depth must be emphasized over directional control.

Alternating between racquet head speed and feel is the key to developing a big forehand that you can still control when it comes down to crunch time. Use these drills within the same workout or switch off each day, but make sure you focus on developing both racquet head speed and feel.  As we can see with the top 100 players in the world, tennis players must have both the ability to hit a big heavy groundstroke, yet they must be able to hit their targets over and over again under pressure. And that's how you play winning tennis.

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Brandon Fallon's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.

Brandon is the Director and Head coach at Advantage Tennis Academy in Irvine, CA. Brandon was a former D.1 #1 player, (-30) French club player, and achieved a career high ATP ranking of 893

He has developed many junior tennis players that have gone on to get an ATP ranking and play top level Div.1 tennis. Two of his players reached the round of 16 at Kalamazoo in Boys' 18s.

As a Div.1 college coach at both San Diego State and Cal Poly-SLO, Brandon coached 2 All-Americans, teams in the top 35 ITA rankings, and multiple top 100 college ranked players.

Brandon is a USPTA P-1, USTA High Performance Coach (2006), and 2010 Orange County USPTA coach of the Year. Among other things, Brandon has spoken on player development at 2 USPTA conferences and is responsible for coaches development at Advantage Tennis Academy. 

If you would like to contact Brandon Please email him at Brandon@advantagetennisacademy.com