Tennis: Difference in the Air

Get your players on the front foot and playing aggressive tennis, plucking the ball out of the air with this session plan.

The player move side-to-side between the cones, and alternates crossing the cones with outside leg and with both legs.

The coach stands at the net (ad side) while the player is on the baseline (ad side), and both rally together. The player uses only backhand stroke. The coach keeps regular rally and hits random high ball to allow the player to hit backhand in the air.

Modern tennis is an offensive game so players can't use backhands only to keep the ball in play. Players like Djokovic or Wawrinka show us that an ability to be offensive, keep the ball deep and rip it down the line are factors that can win the match

In this drill, the player works on aggressive forehand. This exercise is a demanding work for the body so if coach sees that players get tired really quick, it is a visible sign that more off-court workout has to be done to prepare the body for tennis' specifications.

The coach stands in the deuce corner, and hits easy balls. The player hits all aggressive forehands to the deuce corner.

The coach feeds 3 balls to the backhand side (deep, medium, short). The player hits the following 3 shots:

1. Forehand inside in after the bounce,
2. Forehand in the air inside in and
3. Forehand volley inside in

Forehand inside in can win many points for the player but it can also bring more harm than good if it is executed poorly. Players have to remember that forehand inside in is played to the opponent's forehand (mostly the stronger side) as also there is a big gap left on our forehand side. This shot has to be well-placed with decent power to avoid negative results.