Tennis is a great sport to play. However, there is one catch, you have to have other individuals to play. Nevertheless, there are certain drills that an individual can do by themselves to help with the use of the Tennis Racket. These drills will help you learn control of the Racket and the ball. They will also help to develop good hand eye coordination.
Drill 1; Hold the Racket in front of your body with the face down. Take the ball and dribble it with the Racket. At first, keep your Racket face about waist high. As you get better on control, lean over at the waist and dribble the ball closer to the ground. Notice that this improves your wrist snap. It becomes quicker.
Drill 2; Hold the Racket the same way as in drill 1 above. Have the ball rest on the face of the Racket. Now work on bouncing the ball upward like you would with a paddle ball. Work on getting under good control. The ball should only go about 4 to 5 feet up.
Drill 3: Doing the same drill as number two above, as the ball goes into the air, pronate your wrist so that the opposite side of the Racket face hits the ball. All you do is just turn your wrist back and forth clockwise and counter clockwise while the ball is in the air. This is the first lead up to using the backhand in the game.
Drill 4; Doing the same type of drill as in number three above, Move your Racket in front of your body to the left side of your body back to the right and so forth. The Racket will have to be turned at a very slight angle to get the ball to move from your right to it’s left and back. This is a good drill for learning the importance of the angle of the Racket face.
Drill 5; Holding the ball with your left, if your are right handed, toss the ball straight up as high as you can into the air overhead. Be sure it is straight overhead. As the ball comes back down, catch it with your racket without letting it hit the ground. The ball will bounce several times on your Racket before it comes to a rest on it. As you get better, point the Racket up at the ball as it reaches it’s top height. Don’t be afraid to move your body as the ball bounces on your Racket.
Drill 6; Once you master all of the above using your right hand, try it with your left hand or weaker hand. You don’t need to spend as much time as you did with your right hand. This will give you a quick appreciation of how hard it is to learn to do these simple drills.
Drill 7; Find a solid wall that has a smooth surface. It is best if it is a brick wall. Standing 10 to 15 feet away from it, bounce your ball on the ground or floor. Using your Racket, hit the ball towards the wall. As the ball returns let it bounce in front of you and use your racket to hit it back at the wall. Practice pivoting right after contact of the ball and use your backhand hit. After the backhand hit pivot and do the forehand hit. Always let the ball bounce first. Move your feet accordingly. This drill gets you to work on using both strokes and pivoting your body as well.
Drill 8: The last drill is to help practice the serve only. At the wall you were just on, put a piece of tape that you can see about 42 inches up from the ground on the wall. Now stand about 30 to 35 feet from the wall. Practice tossing the ball up and serving it to the wall. Try to always get it about a foot to 18 inches above the tape on the wall. After the serve catch the ball on the rebound with your hands. Don’t worry about hitting the ball back because you are only working on your serve. If you are a beginner, bounce the ball in front of you and hit the ball over the line with a side stroke. Repeat this drill often.
Once you have mastered these simple drills, you will notice some improvement in your game. There is no substitution for playing with a partner(s). You learn much more quickly and it is more challenging when you play with others. The drills above will help if you are alone.
