warming up at the service line

[raiden031]

Do you all warm up at the service line before going to the baseline before a match? I basically follow what my opponent does. Sometimes I will have an opponent go right to the baseline, other times I will have an opponent go to the service line and hit after one bounce, and other times I will play opponents who just volley on the fly from the service line.

Which do you do? If at the service line, is it better to just volley to each other or let it bounce?

[Gugafan_Redux]

I like to do this. I call it warming up short. And, yes, let it bounce. Treat the service boxes and small versions of a full court, and warm up your strokes as small versions of groundstrokes. Softer, obviously, and slower but still using topspin, rounded motions, bounce steps, slice, recovering to center. Some people aren't used to this, and try to punch volley everything at you. Personally, I need to ease into the hand-eye coordination, especially when you play once a week, it's winter (-17 F a few days ago here in MN!), and you come indoors and adjust to the lights, your frame and strings and muscles are cold.

Warm it up short, everybody!

[kimizz]

We(Me and mi mates) start at the service line with one bounce and when the ball is going wide I volley. Then sometimes after that we volley to each other from the service line. Especially the volleying to each other is a great way to get the muscles warm.

Why we do it? Since my first lesson my coach always wanted to start like this, I dont know why and ive never asked. But now its a pregame ritual that I need to do or my game is crap LOL

At first it was a bit hard and also seemed weird to be hitting in the service box but as Ive developed my ground strokes(learned to hit top spin) I find it to be more fun and it acutally makes sense. To keep up a small "rally" you really need to hit top spin to get the ball down.

So should you just volley? My coach says no ;)

[fuzz nation]

When we're first heading out from our bags off the sideline, I'll ask my company if they're ok hitting a couple short balls before we back up. It's rare for anyone to refuse if they know what they're doing and I think it will soon become more the rule for starting a warm-up rather than an option. It wakes up eye-hand coordination and swing timing at a more reasonable rate than taking full cuts right out of the box.

[cam2]

We call it mini tennis and most players 4.0 and above do it. It helps timing and also is a good warmup for topspin.

[LuckyR]

Personally I play a lot of doubles, so I warmup at the service line, long after my opponent has retreated to the baseline to warm up his groundies, since my most critical shot is my first volley. I'm using slice 90% of the time to work on touch volleys.

I find that if my first volleys is dialed in, I don't even need to warm up my second volleys (since they are so much easier).

[Cindysphinx]

My short warm-up is like what Gugafan describes, just a minute, though.

Then we back up to baseline for a few groundies, then one side moves in to take volleys. Then other side comes up for volleys. Then everyone serves until the 10 minutes is up. For serves, I hit only slice second serves, as that is the stroke that will desert me under pressure.

Some people warm up overheads. At my lowly level, most people don't bother. Personally, I'd prefer to use my time for serves. It is the same motion, and I'd hate to hurt my shoulder trying to crush an overhead before I've warmed up my service motion.

[raiden031]

Some people warm up overheads. At my lowly level, most people don't bother. Personally, I'd prefer to use my time for serves. It is the same motion, and I'd hate to hurt my shoulder trying to crush an overhead before I've warmed up my service motion.

I never did much warming up, usually because the people I played against didn't care to warm up much. There was this one time I was playing with some strong 3.5 - weak 4.0 guys. The guy across from me wanted to practice overheads. So me, who never practices lobs much tried to give him a lob like 5 times and all of them either sailed way over his racquet or didn't go high enough to hit an overhead. So we ran out of time and he didn't actually get to hit an overhead. I felt like an idiot.

I am superstitious about serving. I only like to serve 2-3 times on each side at most. I'm afraid if I do too many I'll have a bad service day.

[Cindysphinx]

A lot of people who do take warm-up overheads at my level do it with really close to the net. This give me very little room to work with in giving them lobs.

Maybe ask him to go back and take his lobs at the service line? Then even if you get it a little too far back, he can back up and get it?

[raiden031]

A lot of people who do take warm-up overheads at my level do it with really close to the net. This give me very little room to work with in giving them lobs.

Maybe ask him to go back and take his lobs at the service line? Then even if you get it a little too far back, he can back up and get it?

The way I was hitting them, I think the baseline is more appropriate.