By Chris SimnettHere are some cool drills that will improve your game:
1- Crosscourt drill
Find a partner and hit crosscourt groundstrokes; forehand to forehand or backhand to backhand.
Do five minutes on each side.
The key at first is to concentrate on your footwork. Make sure you get back to the centre slash on the baseline after every shot. It does you no good to stand in the corner and slug away.
When you and your partner can keep a decent rally going, add in the consistency factor and count the number of shots you hit back and forth. Try and get to at least 50 (25 each) remembering that you only have half a court to hit to.
Finally, get your shots to land past the service line and try to keep a 50 shot rally going.
2- Crosscourt/down the line drill
Have one person hit only crosscourt and the other hit down the line. Change every two minutes or so.
Stay on your toes - you'll need to be fast to keep this rally going!
3- Target practice
Set up a target - a towel is good; so are two or three ball cans. Put them a good two to three feet inside the baseline and sideline.
Have your partner stand at the net with a bucket of balls feeding you forehands or backhands. Try and hit the targets.
Really pay attention to the target. Don't try and guide the ball and you will be surprised how your mind and body work together to get the ball to go exactly where you want it to.
You can do the same with serves. In fact, I wouldn't practice serves WITHOUT using a target. Set up three cans in each service box - one on the left, one in the middle and the other on the right. Put the cans inside the lines a good foot or so so if you hit the top of the can the ball would still land in the court.
Pick one of the cans to aim at on every serve and think about what kind of serve you want to hit. Practice your first serve, your slice serve, topspin serve, etc...
NEVER just step up and serve without an idea of where you want the ball to go and how you want it to get there.
