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Tennis: Serve And Body Ball

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Nick, Tennis coach

DESCRIPTION

Player serves the ball, and immediately after serving, the coach tosses a deep ball into player's body. The player's goal is to move back and hit with control.

COACHING POINTS

Common mistakes among young players are related to the next shot after the serve. Players are not ready to react quickly because they don't train this aspect so that is why they miss a lot of balls that are more demanding. In this exercise, player works on quick recovery and early awareness after the serve. Coach should emphasise proper footwork while moving back (crossover steps).

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Feed Variation:

Player starts on the baseline with the coach just in front of them, ready to feed the ball to them. The feed should be done in a 4 ball pattern: 1 short forehand, 1 short backhand, 1 deep forehand and 1 deep backhand. The player comes forward to the feed and plays the shot before returning to the baseline ready for the next feed.

Movement

All The Way:

The coach stands on the service line and rallies with the player, who is stood on the baseline. Everytime the player returns the ball, they move forward. Once at the net, they move backwards after every shot. The player executes groundstrokes behind the service line, and volleys inside the service line.

Rally Drills

Shadow Warm Up:

Players stand either side of the service line and face each other. One player acts as a mover, and the other as a shadower. The mover will move left and right across the service line, never backwards or forwards, and the shadower must keep up with their movements and follow them across the line.

Agility & Fitness

Cone Warm Up:

Set up a cone on the baseline, and if there is more than one player taking part in the session, you can set up multiple cones to be used, but ensure these are correctly spaced out.

Players will use quick footwork to move around the cone in circles.

Agility & Fitness

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