Drop and Hit

One of my biggest challenges with young players is to get them to set up the correct proximity to the ball. I have blogged about some solutions to this such as the aptly named Proximity Drill. Ken DeHart in the Top Tennis Tips From Around the World DVD has another that I am excited to try.

Ken suggests having the player use their non-dominant hand to track the ball. That's not news. Many of you have probably already suggested this to your students. Ken takes it one step further by having them practice not only tracking the ball with their extended arm, but then actually catching it. After a successful catch, they drop and hit it back over the net. Arm must be fully extended and angled out in front (1 o'clock for righties, 11 o'clock for lefties) for this to work. You can do this as a dead ball feed first, then have players working in pairs with each other.

Photo from instructables.com