Improve The Most Important Skills in Tennis - Tracking the Ball and Getting in Position

tracking and moving with the ball, from the book: Developing High Performance Tennis pPayers by Edgar Giffenig section 10 Dealing with competitive pressure. Grip Rally Players rally stopping the ball with their grip This is a fun drill to have players move and track the ball into the racket. In tennis most of the mistakes are due to the player not watching the ball from the bounce to the racquet. This is a nice fun exercise that will help players get the feeling of really focusing on the ball 100% The players hit the ball to each other and try to stop it with the grip and then hit it back high to their partners. As you can see the grill requires a little bit of coordination You have to turn to racquet around, place the grip right behind the ball, move your feet, set up and then tap it, turn the racquet around and hit it up back to you partner. It is very important that the players shuffle in get right behind the ball. It makes it a lot easier to make contact with the grip. Once the players feel comfortable with this drill, the next drill makes it a little bit tougher. Section 10: Dealing with competitive pressure - Butt Cap Rally Players rally stopping the ball with the butt cap. This drill is similar to the previous drill, except the players are gonna shuffle and try to stop the ball with the butt cap before hitting it over to their partners. With a little bit of practice the players will be able to stop the ball with the butt caps every single time. Once again the idea is to work on shuffling and tracking that ball getting right behind it and having the players follow the ball from the bounce to the racket. of following the ball from the bounce to the racquet. is key for players to minimize errors while they're playing. Practice this drill next time you're on the court and you will really understand what "watching the ball and tennis" really means