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Tennis: Rally with observation

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Bill, Newly qualified coach

DESCRIPTION

The coach stands at the net and rallies with a player. The coach hits all the balls randomly and can change position. The player has to play all the ball back to the coach even if she changed her court position.

Opponent's perception is a skill as any other that players have to practice. Most of the time players focus on the ball so they are pretty good with ball perception but they don't have the same ability according to the opponent. Knowing where the rival is situated on the court can be a great advantage because we can use more effective tactical decisions and win points without taking too much risk.

COACHING POINTS

In this drill, the player works on consistency and opponent's awareness. Chasing random balls and being aware of opponent's position are two skills that can have a negative impact on each other. Only really skilful players can maintain good consistency while observing the opponent so that is why players have to spend more time on this type of drills. The coach has to explain to players that normally we want to play the ball away from the opponent but this is the first step to touch this skill. The longer the rally the more opportunities to practice opponent's awareness. The coach can make this drill as a competition and give awards to players who maintain the longest rally.

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Better footwork, better tennis

Improve your player's footwork with this week's session. Better footwork = better tennis!

OFTEN USED WITH...

Random cones:

Cones are set randomly around the court. The player starts from the centre of the baseline and their goal is to touch each cone as fast as possible. Order can be random but player has to recover to the middle after each touch.

Agility & Fitness

1 in 1 out:

The coach stands in front of the player and throws 1 short 1 deep ball to the backhand side. Player's goal is to hit backhands moving inside and outside of the baseline.

Proper footwork is crucial if we are thinking about effective tennis play. Many mistakes are made because of improper legs' work so that is why players have to spend more time on drills that are based on intense footwork. Having strong legs and being quick are 2 skills that make us play better as also increase our self-confidence because we know our capabilities.

Backhand Drills

Controlled wide ball:

The coach stands in front of the player. The coach throws difficult ball to the backhand corner, the player then sprints, slides and hits neutral/defensive ball.

More and more players are able to really hit the ball from the baseline so there are many situations during the match when we are under time pressure. Being able to survive these critical moments can be a deciding factor about who will win the match so players have to work in these conditions during practice session to develop automatic responses.

Backhand Drills

Rally and run around:

The player stands between 2 cones. The coach and player rally with each other. The coach tries to hit all the balls between the cones, which the player then hits the ball and runs around the cone according to the stroke he chose. If the player hits a forehand he has to run around the right cone. If the player hits a backhand he has to run around left cone.

Adding decision making skill to simple rally is a great way to teach your players how to act under the time pressure. If the player is able to maintain consistency while making right decisions, then they won't have problems with smart strategy during the match. It is important to design drills that are consisted of skills that players have to use during competition because the more similar the practice environment to the competitive one, the easier it will be to perform at the same level day by day.

Forehand & Backhand Drill

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