Professional tennis coaches, like Yutaka Nakamura, can have players regularly practice for 3-4 hours for a game. While this level of practice may not always be feasible for players of women’s tennis, the core drills can benefit even novices.
Women’s tennis drills can increase skill and agility, but without knowing the right ones for you or your players, you may be playing to lose.
Continue reading to learn about the best tennis drills you can practice or implement in tennis clinics or centers!
Back to Basics
Basic drills are good for players that are recovering from an injury, returning after a hiatus, or just starting.
Good warm-up drills include bouncing a ball on a racket or dribbling the ball from the ground. Women’s tennis players can also build muscle by throwing tennis or other sports balls with as much force as they can. These drills can build stability in hand and arm joints, while also reinforcing racket skills.
Another classic tennis drill is to run around the court forwards, backward, and sideways. This builds good foot coordination and better endurance for the game.
Advanced Drills
For those experienced in practicing tennis drills, using a partner or machine can amp up your game.
To build speed skills, practice return drills with a partner. One player will use randomized serve types from the service line. While the other player at the baseline tries to return the ball and then alternates player roles as needed for practice.
Using peppering in a drill works on speed and coordination by having a player throw as many balls as possible to the other one. The other player must try to hit or return however many tennis balls they can in a set time period.
A ball machine can also be useful to randomize the throw location of tennis balls. This will help players practice their reactions and technique for hitting a ball from different directions.
Group Drills
Groups drills can make building force and stamina fun for everyone! Just be sure to have a good court reservation system to keep things organized.
Two teams of three players or more can be placed on opposite court sides. With one player from each team at the baseline and balls placed in the middle of the tennis net. Players can race to get the first ball and then whoever scores a point first can get more balls till one team has the majority.
Another fun drill is to compete in teams and using a forehand or backhand return to get the ball to a designated spot. If a player can not get it to the spot then they are eliminated until they can catch a ball from the game. Last player remaining wins!
Facilitating Women’s Tennis Practice
Women’s tennis drills can build technical skills and ability within a short practice period.
Whether it’s 40 minutes or 4 hours in a day, these drills and having an accessible place to practice them will turn players into professionals!
To be able to grow the women’s tennis skills for you or your clients, contact us today for help managing your local club!
