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TennisOne Lessons 
More Effective Groundstroke Practice Training an 8-Year Old—Part Five David W. Smith, Senior Editor TennisOne For those of you following the patterns and philosophy of how I am training my 8-year old daughter, Kyla, I first want to report that she and I won our first tournament playing together in an age-generation gap event (One that had to have at least 25 years between the two partner’s ages. we had 40 years between us!). We beat seven teams to win the event, a tournament that was a lot of fun and a good test for Kyla’s first taste of tennis competition! She held serve several times, hit some exceptional passing shots and, of course, made many errors as could be expected from someone having really only played tennis for six months. But, those errors and good shots executed in competition, as I tell all my students, create a learning environment that can’t be reproduced outside of tournament play and develops experiences that likewise can’t be matched in practice. Most importantly, the errors she made were what I call, “Good Errors.” That is, she used the form she has been working on (as this is the form she is most familiar with), and did not resort to dinking balls back or using remedial form that we so often see other beginners do. The fear of losing did not invade her desire to hit more effective shots. As mentioned in my last article discussing the groundstroke progressions, Kyla (as well as all beginners I teach), is being taught a foundation that focuses on advanced stroke patterns and skills. She hits with significant topspin on both sides, is learning to hit open stance forehands, developing her overhead, and improving her slice and now a kick serve. These things take time and I am willing to forgo a lot of playing and competing in favor of her gaining competency and mastery of such shots. I felt that playing doubles with me in a tournament was the perfect time to give her a feel for competition in an environment where I could encourage her to use the strokes she had learned and where she had a built in coach while she played. I also found that my daughter likes competition, something that I wasn’t aware of nor was I sure she would embrace. After a miss by me, her remark: “Dad, come on. You need to do a lot better!” was unexpected! In addition, after I offered some advice to our opponents—opponents who I also teach—she pulled me to the side and whispered, “Dad, don’t help them!” I told her that while we are trying to win, I also want all players to do well. Groundstroke Progressions Part II In this article, I wanted to share some of the drills that Kyla and I do when we work on groundstrokes. I think these drills will offer some new ideas to many of you as to ways to improve the groundstrokes of any tennis player. Understand that I use these same drills with many of my advanced players too! In addition, I will describe the purpose of these drills as I believe every drill should fulfill specific improvement criteria. These criteria include:
Because of her mastery of groundstrokes as they apply to the Advanced Foundation, we are now able to take that competency and apply them in more and more challenging and strategic situational opportunities. The objective is to get her more and more comfortable with the higher degrees of criteria I listed above. Drill I: Sharp Angle, Down the Line, Across the Middle Drill This drill combines the geometric concepts for the student so they gain a feel for sharp angles, drawing the ball from outside-in or down the lines, and then the outright drive crosscourt to the largest part of the court. The balls are fed near the net post on one side of the court.
The sharp angle crosscourt shot teaches the student how to get a ball up and down with spin. The down the line shot gives the student the feeling of how to draw a ball back into the court when aiming down the line. The third progression, hitting deep to the crosscourt corner gives the student the feeling of being able to rip the ball as the spins used in the sharp crosscourt and the down the line are then used to hit to the largest part of the court. Drill II: Moving Forward Drill Here the pro drops balls ahead of the player so that the player must move forward to each ball. In this drill, the player starts at the back fence and must learn to lift the ball deep from this deep position and then add more topspin to each shot (or aim lower across the net…or both!), as they get closer and closer to the net. This drill teaches the player to add spin to a ball to keep it in instead of simply ‘dinking’ the ball softer as they get closer to the net.
Drill III: Inside Out and Forward Drill Like the previous drill, we are working on two main elements: hitting the inside out topspin forehand and learning to hit this shot on shorter balls. As players are faced with a short ball, they must get up to the ball to hit an effective inside out forehand. In this drill, I drop balls successively shorter and have the player move up for each to create an understanding of this footwork pattern. This drill also teaches the student how to change the direction of the ball significantly, one of the more difficult, more advanced stroke elements a player must master. Drill IV: Lateral Movement Drills
It is important to work lateral movements with players from different locations on the court. While many pros work back and forth drills from the middle of the court, it is important to use other angles for the student to address these lateral attempts too. Using the far side of the court (as in this video clip), the player learns how to create optimal topspin and how to ‘dip’ a ball quickly. In addition, if you only practice down the middle shots, the player will have trouble learning how to create better angles. This drill teaches this while teaching optimal swing patterns as well. Drill V: Open and Closed Stand Forehands I want my students to learn how to load the open stance forehand and explode with this position, another aspect to the modern forehand execution. However, as many fail to recognize, it is almost impossible to hit an open stance on the run either out wide or one that the player must run forward towards the net. Dead Ball versus Live Ball: When and Where
I know that a handful of pros frown on dead-ball feeds, that is feeding balls to a player instead of rallying in what is known as a live-ball drill. However, if the goal is to develop strokes that are competent, comfortable and effective, live-ball feeds are usually counter-productive to this goal. This is because if the goal is to get the ball over the net, kids and beginners alike will swing with whatever form feels like it will get the ball over the net. When a student has mastered and gained comfort in executing an effective stroke or swing pattern, in any given situation, the player will use that swing pattern, usually through proper movement, rather than swinging to accommodate an inadequate position. In short, there is no simpler, less desirable form to fall back on. This concept is reinforced with Kyla when she would on many occasions return two, three, and four balls in a row to an opponent in our tournament. Not only returning the ball, but returning the balls with excellent pace, spin, and many times, with such good placement the adults on the other side could not get her shots back. Did she miss often? Of course. But, in even in this single, two-day tournament, she learned more about aim and footwork, and the consequences of not using both optimally. So this event was an excellent playing opportunity for her. I usually don’t recommend that players compete in tournaments early on in their development. I find that players will often try so hard to win that they compromise the form they are working on in favor of what “feels” right in order to hit the ball in. However, two things that I felt good about in having Kyla play in this tournament: One, I was with her as her ‘on-court’ coach. Playing doubles with your student is a great learning opportunity because you don’t have to wait until after the match to discuss the many things that need to be addressed. (After a match, the player has often forgotten many of the situations or shots they missed which makes discussing such items pretty much a waste of time!) The second point is that Kyla’s most familiar swing pattern is the Advanced Foundation, so nearly all of the shots that came to her triggered the stroke technique that she had been taught. While there is always an element of timing, aim, and movement associated with any form, proper form, when used in conjunction with the right timing, aim, and footwork produced far more effective shots than the alternative. Continuing with this series, Kyla will be working on three main elements: the ability to take balls earlier, to respond to harder hit balls with control, and to take “moon balls” and attack them, as these are common shots she will see in junior division tournament play in her age groups. In addition, we are starting to work on sustaining long rallies in live-ball drills and learning the associated footwork necessary to be in position for each shot. Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Dave Smith's article by emailing us here at TennisOne .
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