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Tennis: Height for Depth

Sportplan has been very helpful in guiding me through my first year...

Bill, Newly qualified coach

DESCRIPTION

Players rally up and down the middle of the court, attempting to get the longest rally they can hitting beyond the service box.

Racquets are placed in the net to force the players to hit with height, which will help them to get the depth they are looking for.

Pairs of players can compete against each other's courts to see which pair gets the longest rally within a certain amount of time.

COACHING POINTS

If the ball lands long, wide, short or in the net the rally must start again.

Players can sometimes start to push the ball too much in this drill. While they are looking for depth and consistency, they must still hit through the ball in order to achieve the depth.

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OFTEN USED WITH...

Good court positioning:

-Learning correct positions enhances court coverage and enables the player to respond to the most likely shot placements by the opponent.
-Place 4 markers in a diamond shape around the centre of the baseline. Start by the coach telling the player to move to a correct marker after each shot.(Using forward, back, left, right commands.

Rally Drills

Hit and move: Running drives:

Players are working in threes with player 1 in a full-court and players 2 and 3 in the forehand and backhand corners respectively.

Player 1 is hitting running drives, 1 forehand cross followed by 1 backhand cross.

Player 2 is hitting a forehand line, and player 3 a backhand line.

The pattern is played in this way for up to 3 minutes depending on the level of fitness of player 1.

Rally Drills

Groundstrokes, Inside-out forehands:

-Players work on ground strokes and depth, aiming to hit beyond the service line.Possibly put targets down.
-After rotations, swap to backhand.
- Players no.1 and no.6 can hit inside-out forehands depending on ability.

Rally Drills

Depth by numbers:

Players are working in threes with player 1 working in the whole court against players 2 and 3.

Players are rallying co-operatively but with players 2 and 3 moving player 1 around the court a little. Player 1 can hit to either side in any order.

If player 1 hits a ball that lands long they get 2 points, beyond the service line but before the longline they get 1 point, in the service box they get no points.

Should they miss a ball long or wide they get minus 1 point, and in the net minus 2 points.

Players 2 and 3 must count out loud, and player 1 is trying to get to 25 points as quickly as possible. The length of time it takes is timed and players can compete within themselves in the 3 or combined against other courts if the group is larger.

Rally Drills

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