Tennis: Basic Directional Change

Player pretends to play a return of the serve. Player practises moving their bottom hand up on the grip while 'hitting'.

Coach feeds balls to the ad side. Player alternates hitting a backhand slice cross-court and a topspin backhand down the line.  

The coach serves to the T from the ad side,and the player hits a forehand return cross-court. The coach then feeds the ball to the backhand, with the player hitting a backhand cross-court return. Repeat this process until neccessary.

In this drill, the player works on close stance while hitting backhand and standing behind the double alley. The coach throws the ball in front of the player, the player has to step on the line with right foot (sideways position) and hit backhand.

Player stands close to the wall and repeatedly hits backhand volleys at the wall, with the aim of the drill being that the ball does not touch the ground. This helps improve reaction times of players.

Player stands on the baseline. Coach throws 3 balls to the backhand side: deep, to the side and inside the court. Player takes proper position, hits backhand and recovers to the middle after every shot.

Cones are set in the deuce corner. Coach feeds balls using different feeding techniques. Player adapts and hits deep backhand down the line.

Player maintains backhand cross court rally from service line.  After every shot player recovers to the middle and jumps over the cone.

The player starts in the advantage corner and rallies with the coach, or with another player. The players alternates between hitting backhand cross-court shots and down the line.

The player and coach hit to each other using backhand slice Before every hit, the player has to bounce the ball up with the racket to control the point of contact and allow for longer rally with backspin

Coach feeds balls to one side. Player hits 6 volleys in a particular pattern: 2 deep, 2 average, 2 short.

The player stands on the baseline, and the coach feeds the balls to the ad side. The player alternates backhand slice cross-court and down the line.

Players stands on the baseline, while the coach feeds the ball to one side of the court. The player then hit the ball back, while alternating between close and open stance.

The coach stands in front of the player. The coach throws difficult ball to the backhand corner, the player then sprints, slides and hits neutral/defensive ball. More and more players are able to really hit the ball from the baseline so there are many situations during the match when we are under time pressure. Being able to survive these critical moments can be a deciding factor about who will win the match so players have to work in these conditions during practice session to develop automatic responses.

The player begins by standing on the service line, with the coach tossing short balls to the backhand side. The player must move across and backhand volley the ball down the line.

Player stands in the centre of the court. Coach feeds balls from the basket to the centre of the court. Player creates the space and hits backhand to the deuce corner.

Coach feeds the ball down the line to player 1 who plays a deep cross court backhand (shot 1). Player 2 returns also playing a deep cross court backhand (shot 2). Player 1 then plays a backhand down the line (shot 3) back to the coach. The drill is continuous playing the same shots. Rotate players 1 and 2.

Court is divided into 4 zones, 2 short zones service boxes and 2 deep zones from service line to the baseline. Every zone has a number from 1 to 4. Coach feeds balls to player's backhand. Player says the number of one zone and tries to hit the ball into this zone using only backhand slice.

Player stands on the baseline. Coach feeds balls to the ad side. Player alternates hitting 2 backhands slice deep cross-court and 2 backhands stop shot down the line

The player serves to the T from the deuce side and the coach feeds a higher ball to the ad side. The player then finishes with deep backhand drive in the air cross-court.