The player stands on the baseline and serves the ball against the wall. After serving, the player must recover quickly and hit a forehand stroke against the wall.
This exercise is the best tool to improve tennis skills without having a hitting partner. Adding next shot after the serve is a must for every player to feel confident while serving during the match. Placement of the serve is important to deliver next ball to the forehand side so player has to control where the ball goes from the beginning. Forehand after the serve will force player to react quickly and prepare for the next shot.
More advanced players can stay closer to the wall while serving to make reaction time shorter. Additionally, player can serve harder to force himself to move back before hitting forehand. Intermediate players can work successfully with this exercise by staying further away from the wall and delivering easier serves to get time to prepare the next shot. To make it more realistic, player can draw a net line on the wall to have indicator of the proper clearance.
Indoor courts give players less time and less room. Help them sharpen their split step, shorten their swing and stay calm, and winter becomes a season of real progress.
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.