As coaches, there are some drills that we love to do. Its different from one coach to the other. But the drill will be done repetitively by one coach no matter he realize it or not.
Being a tennis coach, we are brought up by certain ways of coaching. Our previous coach might have made us do the drills that he or she is comfortable with. By doing the repetitive drills, coaches know what they need to see and correct the techniques and tactics of their players.
In my side of coaching in Kangar, Perlis, I believe in repetition. The more you hit, the better you are. The more matches you play, the better competitor you become. Tournaments and matches are different from drills, but it is essential to get the numbers in the players to hit enough tennis balls.
People might argue about the tactical drills and technical drills but we just can’t separate both of them entirely. When you do a drill for tactical, the technical must be met first to execute the tactics. That is also true for technical, we need to have good tactical thinking to execute the techniques.
The one drill that I love embed both technical and tactical drills. It is the 3 balls drill for baseline to baseline game situation. In this drill, players need to hit forehand crosscourt, backhand crosscourt and one forehand killing shot. The third ball is fed a little short into the court so that the players aware about the intention of attacking when receiving a short ball.
Assuming the players are right hand dominant, the 3 balls drill is feed from the centre of the court. With “1” is the first ball to hit crosscourt, “2” is hit backhand crosscourt and “3” is hit down the line or inside out. This tactical and technical drills combined together to get the players hit with lots of repetition.
By doing this basic drills, a coach can be creative in varying the spin of the balls, the height of the balls, and the depth.
The tactical mindset is given to players where they should be aware of short balls when facing this situation in their match. A lot can be done with just this drill alone. The deicision making can be done at the 2nd ball or 3rd ball.
Repeat this enough, players will have good consistent forehand and backhand with good attacking mindset. After all, this is the “close drill” where players are not making decision on where to hit. It is needed to be done to get repetition.
The decision making can come after the players have a good grasp on the ball placement. Be patient on the results.