Fast Gun

Fast Gun is a drill to improve hand quickness from Ken DeHart. It appears in PTR's DVD Tennis Tips

No doubt he is a beast at the net

From Around The World.

Player stands at net in volley position with racquet in non-dominant hand. Player slaps side of leg twice with dominant hand. As ball is being fed, player transfers racquet to dominant hand and hits volley. Ken notes this motion of moving the hand forward in a shooting motion is preferred when volleying, rather than the tendency of many players to move the hand/racquet laterally.

The next two blog posts are also volley improvement suggestions from Ken. Put them all together for a fun volley lesson for your students.

8 Ball Challenge

Here's another drill from PTR's Effective Feeding Techniques DVD. I am cherry-picking. There are tons more drill ideas on the DVD, so don't do what I did and let it sit in the shrink wrap for who knows how long - give it a look!

Coach is deep in his/her end of the court, feeding from about No Man's Land. Coach feeds a series of 8 balls to one player. In the video, Coach Oivind varies the feeds. Most are alternating ad and deuce side, so recovery is key. At least one of the balls (usually the 5th in his examples) is somewhat short but playable.

8 Ball Challenge borders on a cardio tennis drill. It should improve your students' consistency as well as fitness. I will be challenging my players to see who is the first to hit all 8 balls successfully. If your students are anything like mine, this will get their competitive juices flowing.

Introduce this drill as a dead ball drill. As your players improve, you can transition it into a live ball drill by feeding closer to the net and taking their shots as volleys.

4 Ball

4 Ball is a drill I found on a PTR DVD entitled Effective Feeding Techniques featuring the Director of Sports in the Norwegian Tennis Federation, Oivind Sorvald. It's good for groups of 3 or more. In the video, Oivind had four students. Could be used as a warm-up or as part of the lesson.

Two players play singles straight ahead on one half of the court, focusing on keeping the rally going. Other players are on the other half of the court at the baseline. Coach is across the net feeding balls. These players take turn hitting four balls with Coach, alternating forehands and backhands. Once four balls are hit, next player comes in for their turn. When all players on Coach's side have had their turn hitting the four alternating balls, two of them trade places with the players who have been playing half court singles.

Mr. Sorvald second from left in glasses.
PTR recently partnered with the NorwegianTennis Federation
to provide educational services to coaches. BTW that's my boss
Jorge Andrew next to Mr. Sorvald in the middle.

1-2 Hustle

This game was also at optimumtennis.net but was a little hard to decode so I hope I am explaining it
right. If not, at least I understand my own explanation. :) They did not give it a name so I took the liberty. I like it for its flexibility and requirement for players to hustle. You will need 2 or more players for this to be any fun.

Coach is on one end of court; all other players on the other. First player serves, then hustles up net diagonally from wherever they served. Meanwhile second player hops in to first player's spot at baseline. This must occur quickly because Coach will be returning the serve cross court to the second player. Player 2 returns Coach's shot. Coach then hits to net player. Coach continues alternating shots until point ends. Player 2 then serves and runs up to net diagonally that Player 1 has just vacated, and Player 3 steps into Player 2's spot.

This game should move quickly. If you want to add a scoring aspect, give all players a set number of points and subtract one for every error. Last player standing, wins.

UPDATE: Sorry to report this was an epic fail when I tried it with my intermediate green ball class. They could not get in a rhythm. Serving player on way to net kept wanting to hit the ball I was returning deep to second player. Oh, well. Maybe try again in future.

Crazy 8

Crazy 8 is a game I found at optimumtennis.net. It is probably intended for adults but I think it would be great fun for large groups of juniors, such as summer tennis camps. It could probably live up to its name and get a little crazy so maybe keep it on a 60- or 78-foot court for safety reasons.

Eight players are needed for this game. Pair them up into four doubles teams. Each team is responsible for half of the court. They play against the team diagonally across from them, SIMULTANEOUSLY. So two balls are going at the same time.

Scoring

• If you have exactly 8 players, have them play to a certain  number, for example team first to 7 wins. Then have a championship match with winners vs winners and runners-up vs runners-up.
• If you have more than 8 but fewer than 16, divide extra players evenly onto each team and have one player per team rotate out after every point. 
• Or, have all extra players waiting in line at net post. You can organize a large full court rotation after every point, or have a player go it for whichever player makes the error on the previous point.
• If you have a smaller group, just play 2 v 2 using only half of the court.

Bucket Head

These make great lightweight
inexpensive 'buckets'

Bucket Head is probably familiar to many of you. It is an old standby at tennis carnivals, play days, camps, and other activities where there are large groups of inexperienced players. You will need some lightweight buckets or bucket-like items (like a cardboard box!). Two will do if you play this as a team activity. If you have more than two buckets, you can play this with smaller teams/groups.

One player from each team is designated as Bucket Head and takes up a position at the baseline. They hold their bucket on top of their head. All other teammates are across the court at the other baseline. Each takes turns trying to bounce feed a ball so that Bucket Head can catch it in their bucket on top of their head. The team with the most balls in their bucket wins.

Take care that balls are cleared out from under Bucket Head's feet. If this is too difficult, Bucket Head can hold bucket out in front of them rather than on their head. Or, designate a coach or parent as the Bucket Head and younger players can just focus on their bounce feeds.

Mountain or Valley

The valley is clearly the easier path

Another jewel from Ken DeHart's 2011 article in TennisPro magazine entitled "3 Secrets to Winning
Doubles": he explodes a myth I (and no doubt many others) have been guilty of perpetrating on unsuspecting tennis students. As a beginning player, I too, was advised to target an area near my net opponent's feet when hitting a volley. The logic was that it is a simple visual target, low margin of error, and difficult for them to return. As I advanced, other target opportunities presented themselves, but for beginners, this seemed to be the standard advice.

Ken begs to differ. He prefers targeting the space between the two players, down the center of the court. Hitting near the feet sometimes results in a lucky shot deflected back onto your side of the court if your opponent has good hands. A shot down the middle (what Ken calls the 'valley'), away from both players, is his preference. I have to admit it does jibe with the tried-and-true tennis advice of targeting the open court ('hit 'em where they aren't').

So why not start our young players off correctly? Hitting down the middle will avoid teaching students to hit 'at' players. As coaches we always caution against deliberately hitting at another player. But if you advise them to hit near someone's feet, accidents will happen in 10 and Under Tennis. So let's just avoid that issue altogether with Mountain or Valley.

Set up some cones or stripes or whatever you have to mark a 4-6 foot wide area straight down the middle of the court, your Valley. Two players are in traditional doubles formation on the side where the Valley is marked. Other players are across the net in volley position, lined up if there are more than 3 players. Coach feeds the volley side and they try to hit their volleys into the Valley. Each player gets 5 balls/chances, then rotate. Make sure rotation includes defensive end of court. One point awarded for each successful Valley volley. One point deducted for each volley straying into Mountain area (thirds of court outside Valley where players are standing). Player with most points when hopper/cart is empty wins. Doubles players work on their defensive skills here, but points are only awarded to volleying player.