The coach stands in front of the player and feeds the ball behind the baseline to the forehand side. The player moves back to the ball, slides and hits forehand.
Surface of the tennis court forces players to make different decisions. On hard courts, players can take deep high balls on the rise and be really offensive while standing close to the baseline. On clay-court this scenario is not the best option because irregular bounces make playing on the rise really dangerous. Good clay-court players move many times back during the match so players who wants to win more matches on "dirt" have to apply more movement back.
In this drill, the player works on sliding back while hitting forehand. Clay surface is slippery so players should use this opportunity especially in defensive situations to create most effective shots. Moving back and sliding is a typical pattern for Spanish players who can still play really challenging balls even while responding to deep opponents shots. The coach should remind players that sliding back take them further away from the net so they should apply more topspin to shots to make sure that balls don't land in the net.
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