Cone Guard

Like so many activity ideas, Cone Guard came about out of thin air during a lesson when I was looking for a way to jazz things up. It worked beautifully.

Rather than just boring feeding, place an object behind your students for them to 'guard' or protect by hitting the ball away from it. I explain to them that I will be trying to hit the object with the ball I am tossing. If my ball hits their object, I get a point. I toss 5 balls to each player in very quick succession. It is amazing to see students who may be struggling to make contact suddenly hitting 5 out of 5. This activity also alleviates crazy messy backswings, since the hopper or cone is right behind the player and they don't want to hit it.

My students love the idea of working together to keep me from getting a point. They cheer each other on with each successful turn at defending. Suggest setting a number such as 5 points for coach's goal so that even if you happen to hit the object once or twice, the kids still feel a sense of accomplishment even if I do happen to get lucky a time or two.

Many variations on this game - use your imagination.

• Move the object around on the court. 
• Ask for all forehands or all backhands. 
• Award points to the players instead, for every successful defending shot.

4 Stroke Challenge

4 Stroke Challenge is great for any level. I use it both as a warm-up as well as a point competition activity.

Warm-up version
Players begin at service line. You can have one line or two depending on your feeding prowess and the size of the group. Each player is fed four balls from coach in this order: forehand, backhand, volley, overhead. Then they rotate out and next player is in for their four.

It gives me a chance to do two important things. 1)They get used to the idea of following a ball in
(the backhand, in this case) for a volley. 2) We get to tweak the overhead, and they get used to hitting a high ball out of the air.

Keep the feeds at a lively pace, keep them on their toes and paying attention to keep the line moving.

Point Competition
Once you feel they are warmed up, change the rotation so that after a player completes their four shots, they come over to other side of court. The four shots are still fed, but now they play out the point each time. You may have to move your feeding location if you have been feeding from on court.

One point awarded to winning player each time, so every rotation, a total of four points will be earned by someone. I don't give second chances on the feed. If they miss the feed, point goes to opponent. Player with most points when hopper is empty, wins.

This could be played as singles or as doubles. If you play it as doubles, you have a couple of scoring options.

• Switch to a golf score format. Points awarded to player making error; player with lowest score when hopper is empty, wins.
• Award all players 10 points when you begin. Subtract points for errors. Player with most remaining points when hopper is empty, wins.

Rallyball

Presently I am holding a Rallyball competition among my students. Every Saturday throughout the

month of January, clinics will consist of a warm-up, then round robins with Rallyball scoring. I am awarding two overall prizes: one for most total points and one for Most Improved. Most Improved will be determined by who has the highest percentage increase between first match and best match.

RSVPs are helpful since you are playing singles and may need plenty of courts depending on your turnout.

Orange ball and higher:

• Singles round robin format of timed matches. How many rotations and how long they are depends on how many courts and players you have to work with. For a one hour clinic you can plan on about three 10-12 minute rotations after warm-up and including rotation and water break time, assuming you have plenty of courts. It helps to have even numbers of players so no one is sitting out. Sitting out means you are not earning points. If you are squeezed for courts, shorten the rotation time.
• Each player serves once from each side (deuce, ad). After four points (each player serving twice), players switch ends.
• Points are awarded per rally. Serve counts as one rally for server. Double fault awards one point to opponent. So for example if Player A serves, then a three ball rally occurs before server nets ball, 4 rallies have been completed (one serve and three rallies) so each player earns 2 points.
• Players report point totals to coach at end of each rotation. Players begin at 0 for each new rotation. 
• Since we are playing over an entire month, points accumulate throughout the month. So the more they attend, the better chance they have to win. If some players aren't able to make every match and therefore are at a disadvantage for winning on overall points, remind them they still have a shot at winning Most Improved if they have plenty of long rallies.

Red ball:
This can be very tricky to count rallies, so some additional help from staff or parents will be greatly appreciated. Feed the first ball to players who are not able to serve well yet. I find clothespins very handy here to help us all keep track of score.

Live Ball

Live Ball is a fun activity that goes by many different names. What I love about this particular

Go here for article and video

incarnation is that the author explains why it is okay to sometimes just skip 'the most important stroke of the game' (the serve) in the interest of speeding things up and leveling the playing field. In the article, the players are very high level. But I have had success using this for students of all levels and abilities with groups large or small. The article example is with a larger group and is playing doubles. But recently I played it with two orange ball players - TWO - (singles, natch), and they both loved it. It really gets the competitive juices flowing. It is also great for fitness. I had my older yellow ball players huffing and puffing with it a few weeks ago.

To summarize the article and video: this is basically King/Queen of the Court with a 4/2 scoring scheme. Pro feeds first ball to challenger(s). Challengers must win 4 points before king/queen wins 2. If challengers succeed, they are the new king/queen.

Some fun variations:

• Set a time limit. Player(s) who are king/queen when time ends are that day's champs.
• Set a limit on how many rotations the king/queen can stay. 
• Base your feeds on whatever you are working on that class - all backhands, no bounce, etc. 

Tennis Bingo

Everyone is making resolutions this time of year. I saw a Reading Bingo game recently to encourage more reading and decided to rip it off for Tennis Bingo.  Here's my Tennis Bingo card:

My students will have until September 1 to complete their card. The following week I will hold a drawing from all who have completed it. The winner will get something really cool from our pro shop.

Feel free to use this bingo card as-is. If you want to change it, let me know and I will send you the original doc file so you don't have to re-invent the wheel.

Volley Caterpillar

What is it with tennis drills and caterpillars? There are at least a couple more caterpillar-named activities in this blog if you have the time to search for them. This one I stole from Tedi Doncheva, a pro at Rock Hill Tennis Center in Rock Hill, SC. Thanks, Tedi! Good for any beginners working on their volley shot.

Place several spots in a diagonal line near the net. First spot should be closest to net; last spot should be across court, at a spot farthest back from net where player may be likely to hit a volley. All spots should be in front of service line.

Closest spot is designated caterpillar's tail. Farthest spot is caterpillar's head. Players begin at closest spot. If they hit volley safely into play, they advance one spot. If they miss, they go back to tail spot. Goal is to be first player to advance from tail to head. Once this is accomplished by someone, rearrange spots so that they are running the opposite direction on the court. So for example if the 'tail' was closest to net on deuce side of court and 'head' was near service line on ad side, rearrange so that 'tail' is now closest to net on ad side and 'head' is now near deuce side service line.

My addition:
After two rounds of all players hitting volleys, consider having at least one player on the other side of the net attempting to return any of the volleys hit by the caterpillar players.

Son of 5 Points

Last year I wrote about an activity called 5 Points. This is an update, inspired by an article in TennisPro magazine by Amy Pazahanick . It talks about the difference between hard skills and soft skills, which I also mentioned in the 5 Points post. So this reincarnation of 5 Points emphasizes hard skills for those days when you need to get back to basics and hit a ton of balls to hone technique. Best with small groups. Also I am going to present this activity as part of an entire lesson (as opposed to one activity during the lesson) centered around the number 5.

Begin with a dynamic warm-up as follows:
All players set their racquets down on the court along the doubles sideline. Allow plenty of room between racquets. All players then go to far sideline and put a pile of 5 balls down directly across court from their racquets. When Coach says 'go', players move one ball at a time from their pile onto their racquet, using a medium jog. This is a warm-up, not a race. After all balls are on racquet, repeat activity with one big difference: instead of medium jog, all players are now facing the net and side shuffling rather than medium jog. Remember, this is a warm-up, not a race. Balls should be replaced into hopper. Look for good form on side shuffle -  no galloping; eyes across net.

Once warm-up is complete, Son of 5 Points can begin as follows.

One player is on one side of net; all others are on other side. Coach hand-feeds five balls to the individual player. One point is earned for every ball hit into play. Players across net can also earn balls if they can catch one in the air or after one bounce. After 5 balls are fed, players rotate and a new player is now the hitter.

I start with forehands from the service line, then move back to baseline; then switch to backhands from the service line, and finish with backhands from the baseline. By this time, the hopper should be getting empty. Once it is empty, pick up all balls. Players keep their scores - we are not done yet!

Repeat activity with one difference: non-fed players are now hitting balls back rather than catching balls with their hands. Maximum two players returning at a time; others waiting to rotate in. Points awarded for every rally. So the points earned could be pretty high if you have some long rallies. Have your players responsible for keeping their own scores as this is nigh on impossible doing yourself if you have more than 3-4 players. Player with most points at end of second hopper emptying is the winner. Pay attention to hitting order and number of rotations so that all players get the same number of opportunities hitting.

Before picking up balls now, have all players retire to one side of court and warm up serves with balls on that side of court. By the time all of these balls are served to other side, all players should be plenty warmed up and ready to finish the lesson with some match play.