Tactics
Volleying Skills, Keeping ball in play
Description
Partners line up along each side of the net. One player has the racket, the other has the ball. One player throws the ball to the volleyer who tries to hit the ball back to the feeder. If he catches it then they move one place to the right. The aim is to move along the length of the net as often as possible.
A tiebreak is a short sprint where every point is worth the same as a break of serve. The players who win them are rarely the ones who hit hardest. Here is how to coach the patterns, habits and scoreboard thinking that win the big points.
Most club players practise the serve on its own and then have no idea what to do with the ball that comes back. Serve plus one is the pattern that turns a good serve into a won point.
Wimbledon has just crowned another champion, and if you watched closely you saw the same thing every year: the best returners quietly won the tournament. Here is how to coach a return that pressures the server rather than just surviving it.