Cross Court Challenge

Thanks Hans Römer for sharing this drill on video. Looks like it was at a USPTA NorCal event. The instructions aren't clear from the video, but I think I get what they are trying to do. After watching the video, if you think I've missed something, please let me know.

This is a drill to work on sending and receiving cross court shots from both the net and the baseline. Perfect for large groups. Player should be able to rally.

Coach feeds balls from net post. Players are divided into two groups, one on each end of court. One group plays from baseline. The other group plays at the net. Both groups are lined up on the ad side of the court.

Coach feeds ball to baseline player. Player hits ball cross court to ad side net player. Point is played out cross court. Alleys are IN. One point is awarded for each correct shot. When point ends, both players move to deuce side and repeat. First end to 7 points wins.

Variation: Switch it up so that the points are awarded to individual players rather than groups/ends. Scoring could get complicated, so each player should keep track of their own score in this case. Have them announce their score before coach feeds ball. If you do it this way, you could also add a twist of sending each player to the opposite end of court once they have played the ad and deuce sides. If this is too complicated, keep the game as-is and play team vs. team, best two out of three and switch ends after the first round so that all players get a turn at both baseline and net.