Steal This Drill: Russian Warm-Up Drill

Are you the type of player who jumps straight into baseline-to-baseline rallies only to find yourself searching for rhythm and feel 15 minutes into the workout? If so, look to warm up your arms, feet and eyes by first rallying up-close with your practice partner (i.e., service line to service line). You will see and feel the ball gradually and then you can back up to the baseline. However, before jumping straight into a baseline slugfest, see if you can master this following warm-up drill (we call it "The Russian Warm Drill" because it has been brought to our attention by Ms. Elena Bovina). 

In this drill, two players rally from their respective service lines. After a few strokes, one of the players backs up towards his or her baseline. The player who reaches the baseline first must still aim her shots inside of the practice partner's service line; conversely, the service line player must punch his groundstrokes from inside the service line to just inside of the opposing baseline. After a few strokes, the service line player starts retreating towards his own baseline while the initial baseline player proceeds to move forward. The key to this drill is to keep the distance between the players constant so that neither has to step too far and too fast backwards or forwards to retrieve the practice partner's shot. This drill is great for practicing touch, dipping shots and also punching half-volleys deep. 

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Steal This Drill: Aggressive Movement Following Serve

Have you ever hit a decent serve just to be caught flat-footed by an even better return from your opponent? If so, here is a simple drill to help you with your post-serving movement. One of the reasons why we are often caught unprepared following a serve is due to the way we practice serves: out of context. We move and work on our groundstrokes but serving is often done in a vacuum - that is, hitting basket(s) (plural - when the student is motivated) of serves at the end of the workout. This type of practice does not prepare us for the ball coming back to us after the delivery of the serve. 

One way to practice is by playing points - however, merely playing points will not focus the workout for what we need most - quick, explosive steps. In the drill we are proposing, a line is marked 1-2ft inside of the baseline. After each serve, the player must step in, touch the line and immediately retreat behind the baseline. After warming up, the players play points where one person serves and must touch the line and the other returns. This drill forces the serving player to be aggressive with his serve (i.e. follow the ball in) and then immediately retract behind the baseline and rally. The returner is encouraged to hit aggressive returns deep into the middle of the court in order to jam the server. The players can then play out the point. This drill is also a good way to practice "faking" the serve-and-volley play (i.e. pretending to come in and tricking the opponent to hit a short ball which is then used as an approach shot). 

Steal This Drill: Disguised Serves

Learning how to disguise your serve in order to catch your opponent by surprise can be a tricky proposition. It is often difficult for us, as players, to practice an efficient disguise because, prior to striking the ball, we know exactly where we intend the ball to go. As a result, we often give the serve away by adjusting the toss and preparation just slightly in order to hit the target. 

One way to practice the disguise - that is, having the preparation be exactly the same for every serve - is to practice the serve while the coach is behind you calling out the target in the air. For example, set up three different targets: wide; middle; and T. When the ball reaches the apex of your toss, the coach calls out "wide" or "jam" or "T". S/he tries to mix up the signals so that no pattern is established. Once you get the hang of it, the player can practice the slice, top-spin, flat or kick-serve in the same fashion. 

Practice disguising your serve and you will have the element of surprise on your side. After mastering the basic drills, do it under pressure. For example, put something on the line where if you are within 3 feet of the target you run a brief sprint or do some kangaroo jumps. This will not only get the heart racing but will make serving practice competitive and exciting. 

Steal This Drill: 1-up 1-back variation

We've all done this drill: one player (coach) is at the net, the other is at the baseline. The net player moves the baseline player around the baseline thereby providing him with repetition and the opportunity to work on good footwork (due to shorter reaction time). There are a few downsides to this drill including (1) the baseline player is hitting against a ball that has little topspin (i.e., unrealistic for a run-of-the-mill baseline exchange); and (2) the baseline player can get winded pretty quickly (resulting in a practice of poor quality). 

To break things up, the net player should not only move around at the net and force the player to guide the ball towards various targets but he should also try to provide the baseline player with some top-spin shots. How does one achieve this from the net? The answer is that the net player can volley into his side of the court first and then, after the ball clears the net, it strikes the court on the baseline player's side of the court as well. That is, imagine a ping-pong serve where the ball must bounce on the server's side of the court first and then on the receiver's side. This action cause the ball to pick up some topsin from the ground which is then translated into a topsin shot on the baseliner's side of the court. With some practice, the net player can master various heights, depths and spins.

In another variant, the baseline player can try to take some of these ping-pong shots out of the air (i.e., before they bounce on his side of the court) or use these shots as put-away shots. In the latter drill, the net player/coach can feed a follow-up volley. It's amazing what can be achieved with some imagination. 

Playing Your Best(ie)

As an athlete participating in an individual sport, one of the most difficult things to handle growing up is playing against your best friend or doubles partner. The opportunities to practice against your peers are fairly limited - what with everyone having their own private coach and development that is heavily reliant on lessons.

Few things are as traumatic for a young player as finding out that they have drawn their best friend, doubles partner or practice partner in the first round of the tournament. Knowing that one of you will go home and the other will go on can be quite nerve-wracking. However, as with bad line calls, rain delays, lack of warm-ups at a myriad other tennis issues, this one of those things that a player will have to learn to deal with in his/her life. After all, if you want tennis to be easy, trying playing against the ball machine with the net down. That's as easy as it gets. Master your nerves and you may just learn to utilize these skills later in life (e.g. attorneys who have graduated from the same class facing each other in court). 

Here are some skills to assist you in dealing with the overwhelming emotions:

1. Does your best friend pay your bills? In other words, do you owe him anything? No?! Good. Then there's no reason to give him any more deference than any other opponent. 

2. Regardless of who is on the other side of the net remember that,  in tennis, you are really only playing the ball; ot the opponent (Bobby Knight: "You don't play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball)". Think of your best-friend opponent as an amalgamation of strokes: top-spin forehand; two handed backhand; kick-serve; weak volley; etc. Ignore the face and focus on his strokes and game-style. Figure out how to beat the game-style and stop worrying about the fact that you're about to beat your best friend. If you need help figuring things out, write a couple things about your friend's game-style (likes/dislikes) and read it over a couple of times.

3. The day before the encounter tell yourself: "I'm going to play the match tomorrow; I'll let her play the match tonight." In other words, don't lose the match before you've had the chance to spin for serve. Without a doubt, your opponent is as uncomfortable about the situation as you are. Let her sweat the match the night before. Take your mind off the match by focusing on other things that need attention (maybe cleaning up your room or reading a good book). Since you've played this person many times before, getting a good night's sleep is superior to fretting about the strategies. You know (or should know) what works and what doesn't (see #2 above). 

4. To relieve some tension, you can try calling (or texting) your opponent and tell him something along the lines of "whatever happens tomorrow, you mean a lot to me and I have a great deal of respect for you. Any c'mons or les'gos are nothing personal." This will releave a great deal of tension during the match and you are likely to have a more positive experience. 

5. Similar to #4, there's nothing wrong with applauding your friend's efforts during the match. The better he plays, the higher your own level. By laying well, he is actually doing you a favor by pushing you outside of your comfort zone. In the end, regardless of who loses, both of you will walk off the court better players. Playing against your BFF is also a great opportunity to practice sportmanship (which will make you a better person). As stated by Heywood Broun: "Sports do not build character. They reveal it." 

6. Remember that, whatever happens, this will not be the end of the world. You will have many opportunities to compete against your friend so it might as well happen tomorrow. If you stick with this game for long enough you may even room with your friend in college and drive with her to tournaments where you may end up playing each other again. Learn to enjoy it. It will make you a better person.