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.
Proper positioning is crucial to improve consistency and precentage of hit balls. Many players use too many open stances because their footwork is poor. Close stance helps to keep point of contact in front of the body so it helps in minimizing the possibility to hit the ball late.
In this drill, the player works on close stance. Visual feedback (stepping on the line) helps the player to self-correct after wrong positioning. It is important to precisely throw the ball because bad feed can stop the player's improvement.
A tiebreak is a short sprint where every point is worth the same as a break of serve. The players who win them are rarely the ones who hit hardest. Here is how to coach the patterns, habits and scoreboard thinking that win the big points.
Most club players practise the serve on its own and then have no idea what to do with the ball that comes back. Serve plus one is the pattern that turns a good serve into a won point.
Wimbledon has just crowned another champion, and if you watched closely you saw the same thing every year: the best returners quietly won the tournament. Here is how to coach a return that pressures the server rather than just surviving it.