The Magnificent 7: Indispensible Summer Items For Your Tennis Bag

Summer Tennis Bag Contents

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First Tennis Tournament!

Is your first tennis tournament experience coming up? You know what they say: a GIF is worth a thousand words. Here's what you can expect.

Nervous? You betcha! Perfectly normal. It will pass.

Those butterflies in your tummy may make you a little clumsy at first. Don't worry! You'll settle down soon.

Unlike your regular tennis clinics, tournaments mean lots of new faces across the net. Sometimes they are a little scary. 

In every tennis match, 50% of the players will lose. Sometimes this will be you. No worries! Shake it off and move on!

Remember all the great tips your coach has taught you. Recover recover recover!

Beginner level tournaments often provide lunch for the players. Watch out for the stampede to the lunch table.

Better bring some snacks from home in case the lunch is not your favorite.

Beware the after-lunch crash. You may want to take a nap, but there's more tennis to be played.

Don't forget to work on your focusing skills. Every point counts!

In every tennis match, 50% of the players will win. Sometimes this will be you!

Unlike your regular tennis clinics, tournaments mean lots of new faces across the net. Sometimes they will become new friends.

Eventually every tournament comes to an end. Don't worry - there's always another one!

Ball Call

More from Doug Eng! Ball Call is a fun warm-up and a great way to encourage focus.

Mark several balls with different colored markers. For example one might be a red 2; another might be a blue 8. Random colors and numbers are fine. Coach tosses one of these marked balls into the air. First player to correctly identify number and color earns one point.

Variation
For larger groups, divide into teams or pairs with players doing both the tossing and the calling.

Memory Game

Doug Eng's recent article in the May/June 2013 issue of TennisPro magazine is full of good info for

coaching young players. Here's another idea for challenging your players' powers of observation and attention to detail. This also plays into my ongoing attempt to encourage my students to develop an interest in following the game (having a favorite player, being aware of the various slams and other events, player rankings, etc.).

Get a tennis photo from a magazine. Big with lots of details is best. Show the photo to your students for about 20 seconds, then remove it. Ask them questions about the picture - male or female player? Name? Equipment brand? Color? Stroke (forehand/backhand)? and other details.  Points awarded for each correct answer.

Duck Pond

From Doug Eng, May/June 2013 issue of TennisPro magazine:

Scatter targets ('ducks') around court. Ducks are assigned point values. One duck is designated Instant Winner. Players pair up as tossers/hitters. If any ducks are hit, those points are awarded to the player who hit them. First player to 7 wins. If the Instant Winner duck is hit, game is over.

Open Season

Thanks Doug Eng for the next couple of drill ideas, featured in his article in the May/June 2013 issue of TennisPro magazine.

Open Season introduces the concept of hitting to the open court. Coach feeds ball. Coach stands in one half of the court, so player must hit to the other half.

Variation: when I tried this with a red ball class recently, I combined it with a bounce feed/serve challenge, so I was not feeding the balls - the students were bounce feeding to the open court.

Progression
Harder: Coach may change position/move to other half of court after tossing the feed.
Hardest: Players pair up as tossers/hitters.

42

This is a great game for large groups/summer camps. I found it on a YouTube video by coach Rob Carvajal Jr. It is part of an adult format he uses that is similar to a boot camp or cardio class, lots of fitness components plus some live ball play. The live ball format is where we get to the 42.

42 is basically a variation on King of the Court where one player or team is designated the champ and all others are challengers. In Coach Rob's version, the challenger must earn 4 points before the champs earn 2 points. If they do so, they are the new champs. Coach feeds first ball to challengers, then live play proceeds. Since the players may take a while to get their 4 points, the fitness stations come in handy to keep the other players busy while they are waiting to play in.