Net Monster

I stole this game from Steve Ghelardini. He was on the court next to me at a recent Junior Tennis

JTL has been running summer youth tennis leagues for
a looooooong time in the Columbia SC area

League (JTL) Jamboree at the Lexington County (SC) Tennis Complex. We were all tasked with running a fun tennis activity on our courts. We had a different group of players rotating through every 20 minutes.

Steve's activity was a variation on the tennis drill evergreen Jail Break/Dogpound. I have taken the liberty of renaming it because Steve was indeed a Net Monster and really made this game a challenge, especially for the higher level players.

Coach stands near the net feeding balls to players at the baseline. Player must hit safely to remain in hitting line. Players not hitting safely cross to other end of court, put down racquets, and try to regain their place in the hitting line by catching a hit ball in air. Last remaining player in hitting line hitting safely, wins.

About now you are thinking, how is this different from Jail Break/Dogpound? It's different because Steve took an active role as feeder, intercepting any balls he had a play on at the net. So the hitters had to get their balls by Steve which was no easy feat - Steve is a Net Monster.

C'mon, coaches - you know you are itching to hit those easy balls when you are playing Jail Break. So go ahead!

Send A Message - To Yourself

I honestly don't remember where I stole this idea from. It's so simple, anyone could have come up with it. I do recall that I have been using it for years.

Recall the blog post about Faisal Hassan's mental buzzwords? Take it one step further and create some visual cues from your favorites. Journal, index cards, post-it notes, on your bag tag, get a Sharpie and write them on your arm, anything handy will do. Keep them somewhere you can access them easily during the match. I have mine taped to my racquet. I see them every time I adjust my grip, which is often. When I first started using this, I was having trouble staying calm and needed to settle down. It has really helped my mental game. Now I have a new boomstick and a couple of new but equally inspiring messages to ponder while I am on court.

What's on your racquet??

Dynamite Defense

This is my current boomstick. What's yours?

This doubles drill is from Coach Helle Viragh on the Tennis Resources site.

Four players take the court; two up, two back. The two up should be slightly staggered. Coach feeds the first ball and players play out the point. No winners, please! Defensive team (team playing back) goal is to keep everything in play. Any shot is allowed by the defensive team. Goal is to strengthen the defensive game, avoid giving the offensive team an easy putaway, or force an error by the offense.

Couple fun aspects of this game:
Scoring fun: any ball touched saves point for team touching it. In other words, if someone can get a racquet on the ball, no point is awarded. Encourages effort! Touch must occur before second bounce.
Positional fun: if defensive team hits a great lob and offensive team gets pushed off the net, teams' positions are reversed and defensive/baseline team may take the net as they push their opponents back with a well-placed lob. So this game could swing back and forth depending on ball placement and team movement.

Coach Helle didn't say in the video so let's just add our own scoring strategy here. First to 7, first to 11 by 2, whatever suits your fancy (and your students!).

Loop to Sneak

If you haven't visited the TennisResources site, run don't walk. Lots of great content there and you

'Loop' aka moonball. Don't hate! This
can be a very effective shot!

better believe you will be seeing it here. Rip Off and Duplicate!

Loop and Sneak is a drill to encourage hitting a nice deep shot, then taking advantage of the defensive position you have put your opponent in. Players play singles starting with a bounce feed, working on hitting a high, deep topspin ground stroke that pins their opponent back. They then follow this shot into the net and attempt to end the point. First to 11 by 2 wins. If you have a large group, play as a team activity, rotating in different players after each point.

For an additional challenge, require a set number of rallies before point play begins a la 3 Monkeys.

Note: I found the site a little difficult to navigate, so just go to the main page and search the word 'loop' to find the Loop to Sneak video.

Tennis A-Z

I love this game for several reasons (not the least of which is that I was a pretty good speller back in the day).

• It is great for any level player.
• Many of my students perform better when talking during our hitting. I don't know why. I had a student the other day hit 15 backhands in a row while telling me his memories of his first tennis lessons. When he finally missed, I asked him if he knew how many he had hit. When I told him, he was floored - he had no idea!
• Multitasking! I had a student tell me he had homework to get done after tennis. When I asked what kind and discovered it was spelling homework, we 'spelled' his spelling homework during our warm-up rally. Guarantee he aced his test the next day!
• Versatile - see Variations below or make up your own. 

I have my students choose the word they would like to spell because if they are very young, this is a very short list. Yes, No, Ball, Dog, Cat, and of course their own names are pretty safe bets. 'Tennis' is another good one. If they run out of ideas then I have them choose any word they want and I help them spell it as we go along. The younger players get a big kick out of spelling ridiculously long  (to them) words like 'alligator' and 'Transformer'. 

Progressions

• Easy - they earn one letter for every ball hit over the net and inside court
• Harder - they earn one letter for every ball rallied
• Hardest - make the target or skill more demanding - all backhands, all cross court, etc.

Variations

• Another fun letter-related activity is to have them go through the entire alphabet A-Z. This gives a strong sense of accomplishment, especially when mom/dad/grandparents are observing and give a big cheer when we get to 'Z'. To recap, for my youngest players I adjust the goal according to their skill level. We start by giving a letter each time a ball is hit over the net, no matter where it lands. As they improve, the ball must land in the playable area. Make it more challenging by having it land in a particular part of the court, or having them go back to A or zero if they miss.
• Make it an elimination activity by having any player who misses either in spelling or hitting eliminated. Last player standing wins. 
• Make this a team-building exercise by having all players working together to spell the word.

Concentration

Yes! Another children's game we have gleefully co-opted for tennis! This one is from tennis professional David Brouwer, presented during a PTR Symposium. Best for players old enough to multi-task as well as rally (tossing or hitting).

A topic/category is selected (animals, places, cars, sports teams, foods, words beginning with 'M', etc.). After each hit or rally, player(s) must say a word from the topic/category previously agreed upon.  When there is a miss, either with the tennis or with the word selection, next player is up. If you want to play this as an elimination activity, last player standing is the winner.

The Magnificent 7: Indispensible Summer Items For Your Tennis Bag

A few early summer days on the court recently reminded me of all the things I like to pack in my tennis bag for hot weather tennis play. Sure wish I had these items when I played last week! They are in there now! Some of them I mentioned in a previous post about packing the basics in your bag - hat, water bottle, sunscreen, towel. Here's a few more I find indispensable.

Towel - this is one of the most-used item in my bag, so I am mentioning it again. Sweaty hands are

These are great. If I could just remember to grab them
out of the fridge and put them into my tennis bag!

murder on maintaining a grip, so wipe your hands as well as your grip often if you are a sweaty beast like me. Dampen the towel with some cool water and refresh your face and neck on the switch. Also consider one of those spongy towel thingies that you get wet and refrigerate. Stays cool pretty long and feels great re-wet.

Personal hygiene items - DEODORANT. Be respectful of your fellow players. If you're gonna stink it up on court, please don't do it literally!

Electrolytes - if the various -ade drinks don't agree with you, consider some electrolyte or glucose tablets to offset what is lost through profuse sweating.  I use the glucose tabs when I feel my brain starting to get fuzzy. Use common sense and use only with adult permission. Juniors, you may get the same benefit from a cold juicy snack such as frozen grapes or orange slices.

Bandages - warm weather means sweat, sweat means friction, friction means blisters. Keep some Band-Aids handy just in case.

Sunglasses - we talked about hats in the other blog post. But hats/visors are not for everyone. If you prefer sunglasses, you will be so glad you remembered to bring them along on a hot sunny day at the courts. Especially when it is your turn to serve on the 'sunny' side.

Fresh change of clothes - many male players change shirts multiple times during a match. You may not want to go that far, but believe me nothing is more refreshing than dry non-tennis clothes to change into for the ride home after a hot, sweaty match. Do you really want to be sitting in an over-air-conditioned restaurant for a post-match nosh in wet, clingy, smelly tennis duds?

Flip-flops - Sometimes the best part of my day is approximately 10 seconds after the final handshake when I strip off the tennis shoes and socks and slip into my flips. Heaven! p.s. this also keeps the miles low on the tennis sneaks.

Yikes, that's a lot of stuff. Yes, I fit most of it into my bag. Will it fit into yours??