Red Ball Bounce Feed Lesson

I used this lesson plan during a recent Red Ball clinic and it worked like a charm. Hope you have the same success.

It's never too soon to teach your beginner tennis students how to bounce feed properly. You gotta walk before you can run, as the saying goes. Bounce feeds are an easy way for students to get a point or a rally started if they are having difficulty with an underhand or overhand serve. This lesson plan is composed of several simple activities in a progression that should culminate in the students bounce feeding and perhaps getting into a brief rally if we're all very lucky :)

Warm Up: Wacky Knees
Wacky Knees is a fun warm-up I have posted about previously. To recap, students stand at the baseline. They place a ball between their knees, then move forward to whatever spot you have designated, and underhand toss the ball across the net. For Red Ball players on a 36-foot court, I have them move from baseline to service line. Sure, they will eventually need to serve from baseline, but for young players and for warming up, cheating in a little bit to the service line is fine for now.

Underhand Toss Technique Tip: make sure players are tossing with a smooth underhand motion, not overhand, and are stepping toward the net with the opposite foot as they throw. They should use this same weight transfer step in the next progression, hitting the ball with their racquet rather than underhand toss.

For warm-up purposes, students rotate in and continue this activity until all balls are across the net. If you would like to make it more competitive, divide them into two or more teams with equal numbers of balls per team. First team to get all of their balls over the net, wins. If the ball falls out of the knees, player returns to baseline and tries again. Note: very young players may need to be reminded where to put the ball - for some reason my Red Ball players often tend to want to put the ball way too high up near the groin area. (????!!!!)

If you want to add more of a challenge, require the ball land in one of the service boxes. Even harder? Have it land cross court in the service box.

Handy for keeping score,
 but don't let them slow things down

If you have a larger group and want to cut down time waiting in line, have each student run over to other side of court as soon as they have tossed their ball. Once across court, they are in charge of retrieving one ball each (tossed by next player) and placing it in a hopper on that side. This way they can work on their ready position and tracking the ball. Also remind them to let it bounce before they catch it, as we are simulation a return of serve here. If you think they can handle one more skill on the return side, have them call balls In or Out after the bounce.

Caution - don't have them bring the balls back to the starting side, or you will never run out of balls and this will be a neverending warmup. Unless you are short on balls! If you are low on balls, have them retrieve and return balls from the far side and just end the warm-up when X amount of balls have landed in the proper spot across court. If you use this second option, they may need help keeping track of score. Pins are handy for scorekeeping but sometimes slow things down.

The Bounce Feed
Next step is to have the group or teams perform the same activity, doing Wacky Knees forward into a certain spot in the court. But now, instead of underhand tossing the ball over the net, have them bounce feed it over.

Bounce Feed Technique Tips:

Right-handed player turned 90 degrees
from net, racquet hand on baseline side

• Player faces to the side, 90 degrees from net with dominant hand closest to baseline and drop arm (the one holding the ball) closest to net. 
• Drop arm should be held out straight at shoulder height, 45 degree angle toward the net post. This angle is important. Most beginners want to hold both arms out in front, parallel to each other, like a Tennis Frankenstein.
• Back of hand should be pointing toward sky with ball pointing toward ground. 
• Drop ball, let it bounce, then hit it over the net. The ball is dropped gently; just release the fingers. It is not thrown, not tossed up in the air. 

Some students find a scooping motion helpful when swinging the racquet to lift the ball enough to clear the net. Some coaches don't like the 'scoop' analogy, but until we get to where we are understanding and hitting topspin, at this age (5-7), it's fine IMO. Some students will want to hit the ball before it bounces. For these, some students find it useful to simultaneously say, 'bounce, HIT' , or have you say it. Some young players don't mind if I stand behind them and we both scoop/hit the ball together a time or two. But some players don't like this, so I always ask first! Players who are struggling with this skill often benefit from the visual and the confidence they get from seeing the ball they just hit go over the net, even if they had a little help from me.

Begin with just requiring the ball to go over the net and inside the lines (not necessarily the service box - anywhere in playable court). When they master this, require it to land in service box; finally, in correct service box. 

Once they are bounce feeding pretty consistently from the service line, reverse the starting positions and have them moving (still using Wacky Knees) from some point in the court BACK to the baseline and bounce feeding from there. 

Remember you also want players on the receiving/returning side, catching balls after the bounce and working on calling In or Out. 

Keep the scoring format the same to avoid confusion. If you were having them empty the hopper in the first round, continue. If you were getting to X points first among teams, ditto. Try not to switch scoring formats mid-stream. The focus should be on mastering the skill (bounce feed), not the scoring format.
Play!
Your final goal in this lesson is to have a player on the other side of the net returning the amazing bounce feeds your students are now generating from their baseline, so we can have a rally!

For your final progression, transition to the returning player also having a racquet (instead of just catching the balls barehanded).  Once we have players at each baseline with racquets in hand, we're ready to rally! There are many ways to structure this, such as:

• Bounce feed side is Challenger; returning side is Champ. Players rotate to Champ/return side after their bounce feed turn, regardless of outcome. 
• More competitive: Players move to Champs/return side only if they win the point or series of points. 
• Group/team based: Groups moving to Champs side as teams, either per point or after winning X amount of points. 

Use your imagination!

The Takeaway: encourage parents to let their players always start the point with a proper bounce feed when they are out playing together on their own.

Stick or Swap

Stick or Swap is novelty format good for larger groups. You will need plenty of playing cards.

Place two cones or other markers courtside. Divide players into two groups and have each group line up behind one of the markers. Once play begins they will be switching around - they are not on 'teams', so no need to try to divide the groups evenly skill-wise at the beginning.

Before play begins, have each player select a card. They may look at their own card but may not show it to anyone else or tell anyone else what they drew. Players are then sent on court to play against someone from the other line.

When they complete their game, they return to the coach and report the score. At that time the winner chooses to either stick with the card he/she was initially given, or swap it for the opponent's card. Remember, no player should know what anyone else's card is, so they are taking a chance here by swapping!

After reporting scores and stick/swap with the cards, players both return to the SAME line as each other (which may not be the same line they started in) to keep the pairings fresh.

There are two winners at the end of this event. One is the player who has won the most times. The other is the player with the highest card. Aces are highest, then king, queen, jack, etc.

Variation
Include a joker in the pack. If a joker is drawn, it doubles the value a card drawn randomly from the pack.

Hint: as I read through this activity, I kept wondering where the players would keep their card while they were playing. Pockets, yes, but I still have lots of players who forget to wear pockets. I don't have a solution yet, but thought I would mention.

Adapted from When Can I Play Again, www.evolve9.com

Speed Racer

A blast from the past. Did any of you watch
the original, or was it before your time?

Speed Racer is a good format for large groups of just about any level. Ideally you will have enough courts for all players to be playing at once. If not, have some players lined up ready to go in.

Divide players into two fairly evenly matched teams. Send players out to play singles against each other. If you have too many players for the number of courts, some can be waiting to go in at the next round. Whenever a court finishes their game, they call out 'Done' or 'Stop' or whatever you have agreed upon beforehand. All players must stop. Whoever is ahead, whether game is complete or not, wins a point for their team. If they are tied, one additional point is played to determine the winner.

If you have enough courts for all players to be on court at the same time, try an Uptown, Downtown rotation. If you have players waiting, feed them into the lower court and everyone else moves up a court, then back into line after they finish play at the highest court.

Team with the most points at the end of this activity wins.

Variation: easily played as doubles if you are short on courts.

Adapted from When Can I Play Again, www.evolve9.com

Tag Team Tiebreak

You will need 4 players per court for Tag Team Tiebreak. Pair them up into teams of two (players 1 and 2 vs. players 3 and 4).

Player 1 plays Player 3 for two points, with each player serving one point each. Then Player 2 faces Player 4 for two points. Play continues until a 7 point tiebreaker is completed. A second tiebreaker is then played, with the players alternating their opponents. For example, Player 1 now faces Player 4 and Player 2 faces Player 3. Players switch ends after every 4 points so that each serves from alternate end every time it is their turn.

If the teams split breakers, players spin racquets to see which pairings will be played for the final tiebreaker. Suggestion: have Player 1 and Player 3 spin racquets. If they match (both 'up' or both 'down'), they will face each other in the final breaker. If they do not match, Player 1 will face Player 4 in the final breaker.

Adapted from When Can I Play Again, www.evolve9.com

Super Team Tennis

Here's a fun activity for groups. It combines match play with an element of surprise. I found it in an evolve9 activity booklet. You will need two cones and some clothes pins.

Divide players into two teams. Place cones on either side of net post off court. Have each team line up behind one of the cones. Players take turns playing singles against each other in order as they are lined up. Whoever wins the point places a clothes pin under their team's cone and goes to the end of their team's line. Whichever team has the most pins at the end of the event is the winner.

Modified Match Play

Limpsfield LTC

There are so many great sports instruction sites online. These tips are inspired by a site called Y-Coach. It offers tips for many sports in addition to tennis.

I'm a big believer in getting students playing in actual matches or something approximating match play as soon as possible. Sad but true, sometimes their only opportunity will be during their lessons. These tips will help you keep things fresh while giving your students plenty of match play opportunities during your clinics. Also excellent for adult clinics and socials!

Serves

• Ace wins game; double fault loses game.
• Want to improve your serving consistency? Allow only one serve per point (eliminate second serve).
• Want to serve more aggressively? Give three serves per point instead of two.

Game awareness

• Learn how to close out a match OR come from behind by starting the match with the score at 4-1
• Learn to convert with this twist: once at 40, player must win point or game score goes back to 0-0.

Returns

• Server serves midway between service line and baseline to give returner practice returning harder/faster serves.
• Server serves underhand to give returner practice returning soft serves.

The all-court game

• Player must serve and volley at least once per game
• Three balls rally complete before any points are awarded
• Player must approach net on any ball hit inside of service line
• Extra points given for winning points at the net

The mental game

• Have two or four players playing singles/doubles with all others watching, divided into cheering sections for each side. Losing player(s) and their fans do all pickup at end of lesson. 
• Each player is allowed two intentional bad calls per set. Caution: for young students, make sure they understand this is NOT encouraged and is for the benefit of the other player in learning how to deal with bad calls. If you want to add another layer of learning here, have them make bad calls with you as the on court referee to demonstrate possible consequences during an officiated match.