Types of Tennis Drills   by Ian Shelley

in Sports / Tennis    (submitted 2011-02-08)

Tennis drills are widely-used by tennis players of most levels. They are needed for many reasons. Great tennis practice drills provide repetition, match experience, and fun. They can also be employed to elevate footwork and endurance. Every day tennis coaches world wide aim to find new games for beginners as well as advanced players. There are two main types of tennis training drills that are used today.

The picture that comes to mind when one thinks of tennis drills is an instructor constantly feeding balls to a line of people. This kind of drilling is called "dead-ball drill". Although it's still used today, it is probably not the most effective way to prepare students for matches. Players only hit one or simply a few balls once in awhile, and they don't engage in a point. Players who practice "dead-ball drills" way too much perform really poorly in matches. It is mostly because the instructor feeds the balls perfectly to the students. Consistent feeds prevent players from adapting to different types of balls. "Dead-ball drills" however are the most effective forms of footwork drills. They can keep a large number of players moving when they are designed well. Cardio tennis drills are good examples of the fitness benefit of properly designed tennis drills. "Dead-ball drills" also make great beginner drills simply because the best way to learn proper tennis technique at the start is through repetition.

The best quality as well as most requested kinds of drills are live drills. Usually the instructor or a player puts the ball in play and the point is played out. Live drills also have a purpose or goal that the players try to achieve. Frequently the goal is to simply win the game. In other cases participants cooperate to reach a common goal, for example, keeping the ball in play for a certain amount of shots. Experts debate even today whether competitive or cooperative drills are better. The actual answer is probably a good mixture of both types of tennis drills.

Properly designed drills offer the most significant ingredient that is fun. Every tennis coach should attempt to make drills game-like and engaging. Boring and mundane drilling can drive any player to certain burn-out. It is very important for instructors to keep up the attention and interest of students with fresh drills and games. It's always challenging for tennis instructors to come up with new drills repeatedly. Tennis coaches can be reluctant to share their drills and keep them privately. This is very counterproductive. All tennis pros would really benefit from sharing their knowledge instead of guarding it.

There are very few places where you can find quality tennis exercises. Protennisdrills.net is the best resource online to find quality tennis drills. This site has the largest growing collection of drills.

About the Author

The author is a tennis professional with over 20 years of experience. He's an expert on tennis drills.