What are Good Tennis Drills?
Tennis drills are used by tennis players of most levels. Tennis drills are needed for many reasons. The most efficient tennis practice drills provide repetition, match experience, and fun. They can also be employed to maximize footwork and endurance. Day after day tennis coaches across the globe aim to come up with new tennis drills for beginners as well as advanced players. There are two variations of tennis training drills that are used today.
The picture that comes to mind when one thinks of tennis drills is an instructor constantly feeding balls to a bunch of people. This sort of tennis drill is called “dead-ball drill”. Despite that it’s still used today, it is probably not the most effective way to prepare students for matches. Players only hit one or simply a few balls from time to time, and they don’t participate in a point. Those people that practice “dead-ball drills” far too much perform really poorly in matches. It’s mostly because the instructor feeds the balls perfectly to the students. Consistent feeds prevent players from adjusting to various types of balls. “Dead-ball drills” however are the most effective forms of footwork drills. They can keep a large number of players moving when they are designed well. Cardio tennis drills are great examples of the fitness benefit of well designed tennis drills. “Dead-ball drills” also make great beginner drills as the most effective way to acquire proper tennis technique in the beginning is by repetition.
The most efficient but also most desirable forms of drills are live drills. Usually the instructor or even a player puts the ball in play and the point is played out. Live tennis drills also have a purpose or goal that the players try to achieve. Often the goal is to simply win the drill. In other cases participants cooperate to reach a common goal such as keeping the ball in play for a certain amount of shots. Tennis drill experts debate even today whether competitive or cooperative tennis drills are more effective. The actual answer is probably a good mixture of both types of tennis drills.
Well designed tennis drills provide a very important ingredient which is fun. Every tennis coach should try to make drills game-like and engaging. Boring and mundane tennis drills can drive any player to certain burn-out. It is very important for instructors to grasp the attention and interest of students with fresh tennis drills and games. It is always challenging for tennis instructors to think of new tennis drills repeatedly. Tennis coaches are normally reluctant to share their drills and keep them to themselves. This is very counterproductive. All tennis pros would profit from sharing their knowledge instead of guarding it.
One great tennis drill is called “Rush and Crush”. Players split into teams of 2. A random team starts on side A at the baseline (the coach may ask a trivia question to decide first team). The rest of the teams get in line behind one another at the baseline on side B. The coach feeds a short ball to the first baseline team, who approaches the net. If they win the rally, they’re fed a volley. When they win this second point also, they’re fed an overhead smash. When they win all 3 points, they get to be the new defenders on side A. When the current baseline team loses the point, they proceed to the end of the line. Teams only earn points on side A. Teams retain their points even when they lose their position at the net. First team to 15 points is the champion. This is a great doubles tennis drill.
You can find a lot of good resources available online about tennis drills. This article provides good information on finding new tennis drills.