A variety of tennis coaching drills focus on the groundstrokes, but a drill for the volleys, serve and even the fitness element can be done by a coach teaching a player.
Tennis Coaching Drill #1: Feeding Drill
A ball feeding drill is one of the tennis coaching drills that teach beginner players certain strokes or tennis techniques. This drill helps the learners to remember and execute tennis strokes properly. In addition it also helps the players to gain confidence in their shots. This drill is accomplished where the coach stays on one side of the court while the player stays the opposite side of the court. If the coach wants the player to master his backhand shot, the coach then feeds the ball to the backhand side of the player.
The coach can also teach the student both the two handed backhand and the one-handed backhand strokes. As the drill or tennis class progresses, the coach should be able to tell which of the backhand stroke the student is more comfortable with and allow the student to focus more on it. Other strokes such as return of serves, forehand, volley and many others can also be done using the feeding drills.
After this tennis coaching drill, the student should be allowed to practice more on the different strokes using the live ball drills as described below.
Tennis Coaching Drill #2: Live Ball Drills
Live ball drills is one of the tennis coaching drills that will help beginner players to learn tennis techniques and tactics. It is also known as the “where the point is played out”. This drill needs at least ten students which will be divided into two groups of equal numbers. Each member of the groups aligns themselves on the baseline, all facing the net. All the members of each group should be well spaced from each other so that they won’t hit each other as they execute the drill. Then the coach feeds the ball to the first group and the rally starts.
Each member of the group should try to hit baseline rallies to anybody of the opposite court. These tennis coaching drills is ideal to perform if all the students have mastered the different strokes using the feeding drill (above). With the free type of this drill (student can hit any type of stroke they want), the student have more chances of developing their technical and tactical skills.
Tennis Coaching Drill #3: Ball-Handling Drills
The objective of these tennis coaching drills is to help the beginner players be able to control or handle the ball. The ability to control the ball with the racket is essential for every tennis player because it matter a lot during the actual tennis matches when they try to hit the ball. To make the games more fun and interesting, the kids can be divided into two groups of equal number. Have the kids aligned with the first kid of the group standing just behind the starting point.
Upon the signal of the coach, the first kid of the group execute one of the ball handling tennis drills and move toward the finishing point while doing the drill. Once the kid reaches the finishing point, he turns back towards the starting point and the next kid follows. The group that finishes first is the winner. Examples of ball handling drills are bouncing ball on the ground with the racket bouncing the ball using the racket face.
Tennis Coaching Drill #4: Pretty Passing Shot Drill
This tennis coaching drill is important for the beginner players develop their skills on drop shot and passing shot. To complete this drill, two beginner players are needed. Player A stays on one side of the court while the other player stays on the opposite court. Player A is the server while player B is the receiver. When Player A serves (at deuce side of the court), player B should return the ball in such a way that player A can execute volley in the same side of the court (deuce). Player A then hits volley to the open court and player B should try his best to hit a passing shot.
To make these tennis coaching drills interesting and competitive, point is given if player A scores with his volley shot while player B also earn a point in his passing shot. No point is given if they hit other types of shots. Together with other tennis coaching drills, this drill should help every beginner player develop their tennis technical skills. The player who scores 20 first is declared as the winner but both players should switch positions every five points. In the event that both players miss their shots together, just replay the drill.
Tennis Coaching Drill #5: Deep Shot Tennis Drill
This tennis coaching drill helps the beginner player to learn how to hit deep shots. This drill can be accomplished with only two players playing against each other. Player A starts the play by hitting a ball towards his opponent and the rally starts. Player B then returns the ball and make sure to hit deep. Player A should do the same on his returns as well. If both players hit their ball in the service box, they only score 1. However, if they hit it on the space between the service line and the baseline, they score 2. In addition, each player should shout the score of their opponent right after the ball lands. The coach then tallies the score and the player who scores 20 first is the winner. The score can be increased to any number depending on the players’ endurance.
Another variation for these tennis coaching drills is to change the target. A marking line can be drawn between the service line and the baseline. The players can only score 1 if the hit the space between the service line and the drawn mark. If they hit the space between the mark and the baseline, the score is two.
Tennis Coaching Drill #6: Throw In The Towel
Unlike the other tennis coaching drills above, this tennis drill is not executed to develop the players’ technical skill. Instead, this drill aims to develop the players’ cardio fitness and help him how to recover quickly to the right position every after shot.
These tennis coaching drills needs two players playing against each other, thus they position themselves on each side of the court holding a small sweat towel their non-racket hand. Player A starts the play and player B hit the ball and then drops the towel. Player A also returns and drops the towel as well. After each player drop their towel, their next shot should be without the towel in their hands. After the shot without the towel, each player should pick up the towel and recover quickly to a good position.
The tennis coaching drill continues with the hit with the towel, drop the towel, hit without the towel, pick the towel and recover sequences. The throw in the towel tennis drill can be added to the above tennis coaching drills for the players develop their technical skills and quickness in recovery.
Tennis Coaching Drill #7: Hitting With A Purpose Drill
This tennis coaching drill is ideal for beginner and intermediate players. This is also one of the tennis coaching drills that aim to practice tennis players to hit the ball with purpose. To do this, every player should always have in their mind the target point where to hit the ball. This particular part of tennis coaching drills is very important considering the importance of concentration in tennis games.
To complete this tennis coaching drill, markers are needed to mark the points where the players have to hit the ball. A rounded marker with a diameter of 2 meters should be drawn (a small rope will do the work) at with the T section (the intersection between the service line and the center service line) as the middle point.
This set of tennis coaching drills is played just like a normal match but with straightforward scoring. Every miss of the player is a point to the opponent. However, if one player hits the ball on the circle, his opponent gets three points. This is done to train the players to concentrate on their target and also to train them to hit corner and angled shots. The player who scores 21 first is the winner.
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