It is well-known from recent research that in order to improve in Tennis or any sport for that matter you have to push your boundaries in practice. Most learning takes place when you are challenged enough, but not too much.

How can we go about this in tennis practice ?

My first piece of advice is to start practicing with less balls on the court. What happens way too often is that people start hitting cross-court and as soon as you miss the next ball is being fed right away. The problem with that approach is that there are no consequences for missing shots. Therefore you are not pushed to minimize your mistakes.

I often have my high-performance students practice with one or two balls only. If someone misses they have to run to get the ball and then put it back in play. You will be amazed at how much less people will miss with this kind of an approach to practice. Of course you can adapt this to whatever level you are at. Using only 5 balls on the court might be the right challenge for you!

Essentially all practice drills and exercises should be constructed so that the players are instantly challenged. When practicing serves for example, people tend to get into a habit of rapid-fire serves. They simply take balls from the basket, throw them up in the air and hit them one after the other. This kind of practice will make you consistent at what you are doing but it will not lead to any significant improvement.

Ideally every shot that you practice should be with a purpose and should be evaluated. So when practicing your serve for example it is a good idea to take only one ball at a time, take your time for the serve and evaluate what you did right and/or wrong rather than simply serving up balls one after the other!

Have fun practicing!

Florian Meier

www.onlinetennisinstruction.com