A tennis player can only reach advanced tennis with the proper tennis training. Each player has to consider several aspects of tennis if he or she aims to reach the highest level of tennis performance.

These include the player’s mental toughness and physical fitness. In addition, a player has to have the strategic and technical capabilities an advanced tennis player in the game of tennis.

Reaching the level of advanced tennis is a component of developing the technical, physical and mental abilities of the player. It is a product of a systematic skill development program focusing on improving each player’s skill sets in different areas needed to succeed in tennis.

The Technical Component of Advanced Tennis

A tennis player may possess all the aspects of advanced tennis mentioned above, but those assets are useless if the player does not have the right or appropriate technical abilities. When discussing the technical component of advanced tennis, the stroke mechanics and technique are essential for success.

Professional players in modern tennis have commonalities in their stroke production that allows them to produce world class tennis shots on a consistent basis. Learning proper tennis strokes are the foundation for every advanced tennis player’s game. Without the technical component firmly in place, advanced tennis will be difficult to reach.

Advanced Tennis Mechanics

Are your mechanics perfect and flawless no matter how many times you execute the shot, swing, backswing, point of contact and follow-through?

To play at an advanced tennis level, your mechanics should be flawless especially when you need them most.

Advanced Tennis Footwork

Proper footwork is considered to be the backbone of advanced tennis. Accurate and powerful shots are attained only with the proper footwork. Footwork is an important element also allows you to attain good balance in every shot you make. It also allows you to recover to the best position (e.g. center baseline in case of baseline rallies) after your return. Hence, footwork mastery is essential to improve your tennis performance.

The last but the least a player should look into to develop an advanced tennis game is court positioning. If you aim to reach the advanced level of tennis, you have to have the ability to set up for shots in balance on every shot. Right positioning also means that you have to have the right type of shots based on your position.

The Strategic Component – Tennis Strategy

Tennis Strategy is another key component in advanced tennis. Part of playing world class tennis is being able to execute the right shots at the right time. An advanced tennis player should be able to think and execute the right tennis strategy whatever the circumstances are.

Shot choice

Shot choice plays a very important role in improvement and playing advanced tennis. If you want to reach an advanced tennis level, you must be able to choose the right shot at the right situation during a point.

The ability to read and anticipate your opponent’s shots enables you to prepare for the best returns. Without this skill, it would be very hard to play advanced tennis on a consistent basis.

Ability to adjust

Normally, each player has his/her game plan for each match. However, a game plan does not work all the time. To reach the level of an advanced tennis player, you should have the ability to adjust or change your game plan to counter attack your opponent’s rallies or attacks.

Your weaknesses are the number one target of your opponent in advanced tennis. Thus, for you to be able to play at the same level as them, you must be able to disguise your own weaknesses. This prevents your opponent in taking advantage of you.

Versatility

To play against advanced players in tennis means you will be dealing with different types of players with different powerful weapons. To be able to keep up with their level, you have to have the versatility skills that enable you to play and win no matter what types of player your opponents will be.

The Physical Component – Tennis Fitness

Physical fitness is vital for playing advanced tennis as well as in any types of sports particularly with tennis. Thus, your physical fitness plays a vital role on your success as a tennis player and especially if you aim to reach advanced tennis.

Endurance

Endurance is essential to be able to withstand long and extended matches. Being in top physical condition is a important part of advanced tennis. A good example of the importance of developing stamina is long matches like Mahut and Isner in Wimbledon 2010.

Speed

Speed is another important aspect in advanced tennis that every tennis player should possess. You need speed to return crosscourt or down the lines shots. You need speed in case your opponent surprises you with a drop shot. These are just a few examples of shots where the speed or quickness of a player is emphasized. If you have the speed to hit good and accurate shots, then don’t think twice to aim for your goal.

Agility

Your objective to move up to play advanced tennis also depends on how agile you are on court. Your agility determines your ability to execute explosive shots that can surprise your opponent. It also determines you ability to return short and long balls. Thus, to get the chance to reach to the advanced tennis level, you have to have the agility as the advanced players do.

The Mental Component of Advanced Tennis

The key to any tennis developmental program is consistency. The mental tennis component is a big part of every world class tennis player’s game. Some examples of the mental tennis game at the pro level is Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova. These two players possess exceptional mental fortitude required to play advanced tennis.

Tennis is a sport that does not only need physical strength but mental strength as well. Thus, to reach your goal to become an advanced tennis player, you have to look into the different aspects of mental tennis.

Determination

Determination is one aspect of advanced tennis that contributes to your success in tennis. You have to have the determination to win, to improve and to continue playing despite of the hindrances that surrounds you. A lack of determination, or giving up easily because of small problems won’t help you achieve your goals.

Tennis players need to be able to adapt to pressure situations. This means your ability to stay focus and keep calm despite of the pressures on court or outside the court. To get to the advanced level of tennis, you have to handle any type of pressure to win matches or else you’ll remain where you are. To be able to handle pressure in big games is another part of advanced tennis.

Self-confidence means you believe on your capabilities in winning matches. In advanced tennis matches, you have all the opportunity to play against the players who are better than you. If you don’t have the confidence that you can beat them, then you don’t have a chance to grow.

Priorities

A tennis player has to set his priorities to move up to a higher level of tennis and play advanced tennis. Professional players set tennis as their priority. Despite their acquired skills, they still spend a lot of time practicing to improve their performance. This is because they prioritize tennis. Success can only be achieved if you know what your priorities are, and the same goes with tennis.

Emotional control

In order to develop an advanced tennis game, a player must control their emotions and nerves before, during and even after each match. Extreme emotions can ruin every player’s concentration and performance. Thus to become a great player, you have to learn how to control your emotions all the time.

Tennis is a sport that needs total concentration. One lapse of your concentration can result to a disastrous defeat. In order to reach an advanced tennis level, you have to be focused throughout the match. An advanced tennis requirement is about being able to cope with defeats and use them as a learning experience rather than consider them as obstacles. To become an advanced tennis player, you have to learn to accept defeats and make them as an inspiration for improving your future performance.

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An advanced tennis player may not need to add new strokes to his or her repertoire, but learning situational awareness is an important part of becoming a better tennis player.

These advanced tennis drills focus on the finer points of the game of tennis, helping every player develop his or her specialty shots needed to be a well rounded player.

Advanced Tennis Drills #1: Drop Volley

One of the most advanced tennis net skills is the drop volley. This skill is a very challenging one to master; thus consistent advanced tennis drills and practice are necessary to make use of this shot an effective tool to win tennis matches. This shot requires a perfect soft touch and a very delicate ball spin. The player’s objective in this drill is to maximize the number of ball bounces before it reaches the service line.

For a drop volley shot to be considered as a good one, the ball should bounce at a minimum of three. The best drop volley shots are when the ball stays on the service box, bounces many times (three or more) before it reaches the service line or even bounces back towards the net.

To achieve the above objective, the player needs to perform a series of advanced tennis drills for drop volley shots. To start with, each player must be fed six balls (one at a time). The feed should be done in such as way that the player has to meet the ball below the top of the net. The student’s goal is to hit the ball in such a way that it bounces on the ground as many times as possible before it reaches the service line. As mentioned above, a drop volley shot can roll back towards the net or towards the hitter, thus a maximum number of bounces of seven is given.

The student won’t score any points if the drop volley is very high that its height reaches six feet above the ground. A high drop volley should be avoided during matches as the opponent can easily anticipate the ball and hit a very good return. When all the students are finished with their six hits, the highest scorer is the winner.

Hitting a Perfect Drop Volley

For best results, the student should hit the six consecutive drop volley shots on one side. Thus, if the player starts with a forehand drop volley, the rest of the shots should be done in the same manner. Another set of advanced tennis drills can be done using the other strokes (e.g. backhand drop volley). It is also advisable to do more than one round for each stroke.

The coach has to see to it that the ball is fed low enough for a drop volley shot to be appropriate. To make the shot easier, especially for a less experienced player, the coach should stand on the service box rather than on the baseline. Feeding the ball from the baseline line gives the ball more pace and more difficult to drop volley. As the drill progresses and the student becomes more confident in his/her volley drops shots, the coach can start feeding the ball from the baseline.

Advanced Tennis Drills #2: Side Pocket

A side pocket shot is a type of shot where a cross court shot is hit sharply. As a result, the ball bounces in the service box and then crosses the plane of the sideline of the singles court before it crosses the plane of the service line. If this shot is executed perfectly, it can result to an open court on your opponent’s side and allows you to hit a winner.

This is one of the simplest advanced tennis drills to execute. To start the drill, the players line up behind the center part of the baseline. The instructor or the coach stands on the other side of the court, preferably on the center of the baseline. The coach feeds the ball in such a way that the ball bounces between the baseline and the service line. The feed has to be done alternately to either side (left and right side).

The first player in the line runs towards the ball and hit a side pocket shot and runs back towards the end of the line. The drill continues until all the players are able to execute a couple of side pockets shots (for each direction) correctly.

Advanced Tennis Drills #3: Drop Shot

A drop shot drill is another example of the advanced tennis drills that should be done regularly for players who are aiming for the top level of performance. It’s because the drop shot needs precision and accuracy for it to be effective. To start this series of advanced tennis drills, players line up across the service line.

The coach, who is positioned on the other side of the court, feeds the ball to the first player in the line. The goal of each player is to hit a drop shot that bounces three times before it reaches the service line. For every three successful shots, each player moves one step back and waits for his/her next turn. This drill can be made into a competitive one and the player who reaches the baseline first is the winner. Any player who hits a shot with a height of six feet or more from the ground is disqualified.

Advanced Tennis Drills #4: Serve Return and Identify

This tennis drill is different from the advanced tennis drills above as this drill develops the students return serve skills and familiarize them with the different types of serve. This drill starts with the introduction of the different types of serves. It would be very interesting if someone or a certain coach is able to demonstrate all the types of serves which include flat serve, topspin serve, slice serve, topspin-slice serve, kick serve and many others.

To start this advanced tennis drill, the coach should be postioned on the serving area. The receiver or the student must stand where the receiver normally stands to receive the serve. The coach serves the different types of serve, then the student returns and shouts the type of serve. If the student misses the return or wrongly identifies the serve, the coach hits the same serve until the student returns the ball and identifies the serve correctly.

Advanced Tennis Drills for the Volley

The objective of this advanced tennis drill is to help each player develop their confidence to come to the net and to play volleys. To start these advanced tennis drills, the player has to stand at around two meters from the net while the coach stands near the baseline on the other side of the court. The coach feeds different types of balls such as low, waist height and overheads to the forehand and backhand side of the player. The player has to concentrate on timing, technique and movements and try to recover to the original position after every shot.

Advanced Tennis Drills for the Serve

Most advanced tennis drills on serve put more emphasis on the importance of hitting deep serves. This advanced tennis drill specifically allows the players to practice hitting the different specific points. To start this drill, five markers are put on each of the service box. Any type of improvised markers will do as long as they won’t damage the court when the ball hits them. When the player starts to serve, he or she should target the markers successively. The players should not hit the next marker unless he/she successfully hits the previous marker.

The coach should take note on the number of serves the student needed to hit all the five markers. Next, the player switches to the other service box and does the drill in the same manner as the previous one. This series of advanced tennis drills can be made more challenging by doing the drills using different types of serve spins. However, one type of serve spin should be accomplished first, and then the other types follow.

Advanced Tennis Drills for the Forehand

This set of advanced tennis drills helps the player to develop his or her forehand topspin accuracy and consistency. In the end, the players should be able to exploit the importance of having topspin on their forehand shot.

To start the drill, the player and the coach should do begin hitting a running forehand. This means that both the coach and the player must exchange forehand shots while they are in the service box of their respective court. The most important thing to remember here is to hit topspin in every return.

The coach should see to it that his shots bounce up sharply so that the player can brush up the ball to produce topspin. On the player’s point of view, he or she should concentrate hitting the ball over the net using a higher margin but still making sure to keep the ball in the service box.

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Learn How to Hit a Forehand Like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic

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