Ten Trips

Ten Trips will work on your students' tossing and targeting skills. Great for large groups of any ability.

Have players form a large circle, at least 3 feet apart from each other. One player tosses a ball to each of the others in order. Catching player toss it back. Goal is to have a successful toss/catch to each player without drops. Once all have been tossed to, that is one point. Play continues until 10 points have been earned, then a new player is designated as tosser.

Update: we tried this recently and 10 points is too long for a single tosser. Consider have tosser change after shorter rounds such as one single successful round.

Adapted from ThePhysicalEducator.com 

Back Me Up

I will be posting some cooperative activities modified for tennis, inspired by a recent post on ThePhysicalEducator.com. The first is Back Me Up. It works great as a warm-up. Take care to work safely as they will be working on a hard surface (the court).

Create two-person teams of players evenly matched for size. Have them sit on the court with their backs together. Knees should be drawn up to chest. Challenge them to achieve a standing position by using the pressure they apply back-to-back.

Progression
If they are able, have them try getting back to a sitting position using the same pressure and balance skills.

Bump Up

Bump Up is from Mark Savage, USPTA certified Tennis Director at Sportsplex in New Windsor, NY. Best for young beginners.

Have players spread out a safe distance on court and ask them to dribble the ball into the air, or 'bump up' 10 times. When they are finished, they should sit down in the court.

Next, ask them to Bump Up and count how many times they are able to do so within a 30 second period.  Repeat, encouraging each to improve on their own personal records.

Finally, divide players into teams and repeat the first task (Bump Up 10 times). First team to have all of its players seated, wins.

It is up to you whether you want the 10 to be in a row or just 10 however they can get them!

Smash It Or Send It

I learned this dribbling variation from one of my students. He is 5. I was showing him the various ways to dribble a ball (ups, downs, self-rallies) and he came up with this one on his own. And I let him! He was obsessed with it and had completed 53 rallies before his dad had to drag him off the court. Love when that happens!

Basically this is a series of 'down's (bouncing the ball against the court with the racquet) without those pesky rules of only one bounce per hit. He Smashed It, tracking it as it was bouncing, and Smashed It again when he judged it to be the proper time. If it started to get too low, he tapped it from underneath (an 'up' - the Send It option) instead to give it more height. Very bright fellow.

So loosen up the rules on the dribbing and let your students Find A Way to engage with racquet and ball. See how many rallies they can get this way. As long as ball is not rolling, keep Smashing and Sending.

Here's a video of my student demonstrating his Smashing skills.

Spill It

Tongue out = sure sign of focus

Spill It is deceptively simple. It is suitable for your youngest beginners, but it requires a combination of control, timing, and proper swing path.

Player balances a ball on their racquet strings. They slowly tip the ball forward until it falls to the ground and bounces. Then they must hit it over the net.

Once mastered on the forehand side, try the backhand. This is a little trickier as one hand will pull double duty after placing the ball on the strings and needs to be back on the grip before hitting the ball.

Spill It is simple, but don't forget to appreciate all the effort that will go into doing this successfully!

The Great Divide

Put all those extra giveaway bean bag
balls in your tennis cart bag of tricks

You have probably played this game with water balloons. It's still fun with a tennis twist, and not so messy! Perfect for young beginners. You will need koosh balls or bean bags or hacky balls - anything that can be tossed easily but will not roll.

Pair players up. Each pair has one koosh/bean bag. One player puts the koosh on their racquet and tips it to the other player's racquet. If they tip it successfully without a drop, they each take a step apart and repeat. Soon they will be far enough apart that they will need to toss the koosh rather than just tip it onto the strings. Whichever pair successfully tosses/catches the farthest distance is the winner.

Adapted from USTA's QuickStart Guide handbook.

Jog Ball

Jog Ball is a quick and easy warm-up for all ages and abilities. Players jog lightly in a circle. While they are jogging, they toss a ball up, let it bounce, and catch with both hands. Progress to catching with just the right hand, then just the left hand, then alternate. Once they are used to this, coach can have them change direction on command or using a whistle. Note the initial directions for this activity were not clear whether all players are in one big circle, or are each jogging in their own individual circle. For safety reasons, I recommend the latter.

Adapted from USTA's QuickStart Tennis guide

Partner Toss/Catch Variations

Will Hamilton from www.fuzzyyellowballs.com
demonstrating his tossing skills

Tossing and catching skills are central to many sports. In tennis, both progress into making contact with and hitting the ball with the racquet. So the more often your students work on these two basic skills, the quicker they will improve.

These two skills are also wonderful because they require little extra equipment and can be performed off the court (at home) for easy and fun tennis homework assignments. The tossing/catching activities below will require a partner.

Easiest
Rolling - partners face each other a few feet apart. They take turns rolling the ball to each other. Receiving partner must move so that the ball is between their feet when they stop it. Crank it up a notch by adding a ball and having each partner rolling/catching the balls simultaneously.

Harder
Tossing - same as above, but have them toss underhanded rather than rolling the ball. No bounce is hardest. If this is too difficult allow one or more bounces, but still have the receiving player moving to catch the ball in the center of the body.

Hardest
These will require coordination!

• Each partner has a ball. One player rolls their ball. The other underhand tosses. Simultaneously!
• One player underhand tosses (catch in air); the other bounce passes (one bounce before catch). Again, simultaneously!
• Still using two balls, but in this variation, one partner has two balls in one hand, and tosses both at the same time to their partner. Partner must catch both balls after one bounce. If this is too hard, allow two bounces. 

Adapted from USTA's QuickStart Tennis guide

Clap The Bounce

Clap The Bounce is from a PTR 10 and Under booklet. It adds variations to the Bounce, Catch activity most coaches are familiar with. Best with young beginners.

Player tosses ball to eye level, lets it bounce, then catches it. Once they are proficient at this, add a clap when the ball bounces. Or,

• Clap when ball reaches its highest point
• Clap when ball reaches eye level

Variations

• Ask them to toss as high as they can
• Call out 'Up' when it is traveling up, 'Down' when it is falling, and perhaps Bounce and Catch at the appropriate times. 
• Play with a partner - two players share one ball.

Catch This!

Living on a lake, I actually own one of these

This is a catching drill cleverly disguised as silly fun with silly objects.  Players will need a variety of items with which to catch balls. The key is preparation - bring lots of odd items to court with you for this activity. Build the drama by stuffing all the catching tools into one container, to be revealed just before play.

Some ideas for potential catching tools - the crazier, the better!

• cones
• shopping bags
• gift bags
• back packs
• purses
• hats - the crazier, the better!
• towels
• tennis bags
• empty cardboard boxes
• nets - fishing, butterfly, hair, vegetable
• pots/pans, colanders, strainers, Tupperware, other kitchen items
• Christmas stockings

They can also contribute their own ideas for things to use - shirt, hood, hat, etc. Once everyone has a catching tool, Coach just tosses balls and they try to catch them with their catching tool of choice. You will probably need to have several rounds so they can rotate catching tools. First to three points wins, for example. Take lots of pictures - this should be a hoot.

Variation
Play with a partner, taking turns tossing underhand. First team to X points wins.

Adapted from Growing Kids, Growing the Game by Mike Barrell

Alley Rally

4.5 foot strip of tennis heaven

Those 4.5 foot wide alleys on the 78-foot court come in handy for lots of things besides doubles. Alley Rally is a great warm-up and improves coordination skills as well.

Coach places spots or stripes 5-6 feet apart in a straight line in alley from net to baseline. Players pair up with a partner and face each other across alley at net. Side shuffling toward the baseline, players must toss and catch a ball to each other. Ball should bounce between them. If they miss, they return to the nearest spot and keep trying. First pair to reach baseline wins.

Variation
Eliminate the bounce and have them catch the ball out of the air.

Adapted from USTA's Learn To Rally And Play booklet

Train Wreck

Organized train crashes used to be a thing
back in the day, believe it or not

Speaking of things crashing, try Train Wreck to spice up your Alley Rally. In Alley Rally, young beginners stand on either side of the alley and pass a ball back and forth to each other. Train Wreck ups the ante by having them pass and receive TWO balls simultaneously. As with actual trains, you do NOT want the balls to hit each other, so a modicum of control is required. Challenge your players to see how many passes they can do without a 'wreck'.

Progression
Still too easy? Increase either the number of passes required or the distance apart.

Adapted from USTA's Learn To Rally And Play

Lollipops

Lollipops is good for young beginners, but like any quality activity, can be easily adapted for older players.

Players work together in pairs, facing each other 5-10 feet apart. Between them are two or more spots of different colors (no duplicates). First player calls out a color and rolls a ball to that color spot. Partner runs there, retrieves the ball, and rolls it back to first player, then returns to their starting place. Play continues for a few minutes, then players switch roles.

Progression

• Easiest - rolling ball
• Harder - tossed ball, or ball rolled with racquet
• Hardest - ball hit with racquet to target across net

Adapted from USTA's Learn To Rally and Play

Slalom

Thanks Texas Longhorns water ski team for the graphic.
Yellow and green are your throw down spots.
Red is path of player.

I have seen many sports co-opted for tennis drills (games borrowed from soccer, hockey, and baseball can be found in this blog), but this is the first one I have seen related to skiing. Makes me wonder what other sports we may have overlooked that have potential for fun tennis drills. Scuba diving? NASCAR?

Place six pairs of flat targets three feet apart along the baseline. Envision a gate in a slalom race. Players balance a tennis ball on their racquet strings. They must move laterally weaving in and out of the targets, completing the slalom course without dropping the ball in under 20 seconds. If they drop their ball, they must return to the starting line.

Adapted from The Tennis Drill Book by Tina Hoskins.

Swirl

I saw this warm-up in a PTR 10 and Under booklet. I love the concept. I have updated the name to something a little more imaginative. It deserves it!

Players form a circle. They move together in one direction with shuffle/side steps. They simultaneously pass a ball hand to hand in the opposite direction. A great coordination challenge!

OverUnder

Easier said than done?

I first saw this deceptively simple warm-up at a recreational coaches workshop. It is definitely a right brain activity, like rubbing your tummy while patting your head.  Coaches, strongly consider practicing this before you demonstrate it to the troops the first time.

Two players face each other. One has two balls. One ball is tossed to the other player underhand. The other is tossed overhand. This occurs more or less simultaneously. Naturally the receiving player is expected to catch each ball. Receiving player then becomes tossing player. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Sounds simple enough until you try it. If it is indeed too simple for you, try the progression of moving sideways across the court while you are tossing.

Cone Catch Relay

I have three teaching aids that stay on my cart: clothes pins, throw down spots, and cones. I use one or more of them at just about every lesson - very handy! Here's one for cones and you can probably see how the spots and pins could easily come into play as well. This game is played on the 36-foot courts. The goal is to encourage players to move forward to the ball. Thanks PTR Kids Tennis Manual for the idea.

Two players face off across the net from each other at about volley location (within racquet length from net although no racquets are used in this activity). Ball hopper is at net post. One cone is on each service line.

Cones - check.
Pins (under racquet) - check.
Spots (under pins) - check.
Maybe I need a bigger cart.

• When coach says 'Go!', one player runs to fetch his/her cone from service line and returns to net area. 
• The other player runs to hopper, gets one ball, runs back to volley area and tosses ball underhand to player with cone. 
• Player with cone retrieves ball into cone after first bounce. 
• Roles are now reversed - player who tossed ball runs back to service line to fetch his/her cone, and player who caught ball with cone runs back to service line, puts cone down, runs to hopper for a ball, goes back to volley position and tosses ball underhand to other player. 

You can time this activity or ask for X amount of completions. If you have a large group and have several courts going at once, set a goal number of X rotations to be completed. First pair to complete X number wins.

For young players you may find you will need to slow this down and direct them step by step to avoid confusion.

For older players this could easily be turned into a team based activity with a true relay action - players rotating in, taking turns at the net.

Team Bounce

Here's a game that combines a warm-up for your ABC's (Agility, Balance, Coordination) with a team-based activity. Great for large groups. I found it in a QuickStart coaches resource booklet.

Place an equal number of cones across the net from each other along the two sidelines of one side of the court. For example 4 cones each across the net from each other along the sideline for a total of 8 cones. 

Divide players into two equal groups and have them form two lines on the opposite sidelines so that each team is across the court from their set of 4 cones.

For each cone, plan an activity to be performed by each team member. For example for the first cone, players must balance a ball on his/her racquet strings across the court, around cone #1 and back. When he/she returns, second player on team does the same around cone #1 until all players on team have completed this task.

In the meantime, player #1 then moves on to cone #2 which would have a different challenge such as dribbling the ball on the court. Cone #3 might be dribbling the ball in the air, and perhaps cone #4 is a self rally (ball bounced up off strings into air, then bounce on ground, and repeat). 

So what you want is a constant stream of players moving back and forth sideline to sideline performing whatever task is required at each cone. Make sure the cones are spread out to allow plenty of room for players moving back and forth. Players must return to sideline opposite cones before beginning new task for new cone. First team to complete all cones successfully wins.

Variations

Easier: 

• fewer cones
• shorter distance
• eliminate racquets and have players focus on types of movement (skip, hop, side shuffle) and manipulate ball with hands (bounce, catch, clap) instead

Harder:

• more cones
• increase distance by having cones in middle of court on either side of net and have teams moving from baseline to net rather than sideline to sideline
• have player put racquet in non-dominant hand

Two Ball Toss

I found this drill through a LinkedIn post by Alan Wright of CETA Tennis. Players attempt this individually so it is great for small or odd numbers of players.

Player performs a regular overhand serve with one important difference: he/she tosses TWO balls instead of one. Hit one as a serve; then after the other ball has bounced once, hit it with a forehand. The link has a handy video which explains it well.

This looks like a great activity for focus and coordination. Mr. Wright adds it encourages a proper toss high and out front. In his video a very advanced player is performing the activity. I am curious to try it with my advanced beginner juniors.

Superstar

I have seen Superstar demonstrated a couple of times. Haven't used it yet, but it is working its way up the queue. Props to those of you who can do this well. I am not sure I have the multitasking skills to both feed and holler commands at the same time. <g>

Coach feeds balls across net to players. Coach calls out various commands after feeding ball, and player must hit ball as commanded. This list is limited only by your imagination. Sample commands:

• Forehand
• Backhand
• Catch Right
• Catch Left
• Kick Right
• Kick Left
• Head
• Between Legs

This is a real coordination challenge for both player and coach. Great for improving focus!


Update: I tried this recently and the kids enjoyed it - lots of giggles. I let them contribute a few ideas for our list.