How exactly should I practice against a wall?

[ogruskie]

I get pretty damn bored of just practicing forehands/backhands/serves on the wall. Is there some sort of routine I can do to spice things up?

[TNT16]

I get pretty damn bored of just practicing forehands/backhands/serves on the wall. Is there some sort of routine I can do to spice things up?

Try practicing your overhead against the wall (hit floor before wall and the ball bounces up giving you a lob to hit) -- it is great for your overhead consistency etc.

Volleying against the wall would be the crowning achievement of course.

[user92626]

Hey OG,

Challenge yourself to hit 20 balls in a row. Then 1 FH-1 BH alternation...

I kinda like wall. I just learned to do bh slices today against a wall before games. I did many sets of 5 slices. Then, in games I tried a few and it worked!!! :)

[scotus]

The best help on hitting against the wall is found in James Jensen's video series "Ultimate Pro Tennis". Check them out.

[SystemicAnomaly]

Wall practice is an excellent opportunity to practice the Federer vision technique that we've been discussing in the thread below. Be sure to check out the RevolutionaryTennis link provided in post #19.

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?p=2128939

[raiden031]

volleys, alternate between fh and bh. This will greatly improve them if they are one of your weaker shots.

[Djokovicfan4life]

volleys, alternate between fh and bh. This will greatly improve them if they are one of your weaker shots.

I tried this a couple days ago and it really does work. Stand really close if you want to develop your reflex volleys. :)

[Noisy Ninja]

http://www.tennisserver.com/turbo/turbo.html

[Loco4Tennis]

im gonna tell you a secret every one knows, practising against the wall SUCKKKKSSSSSSS!!!
really, i dont like it either, but i do it and have done it for years, its a good workout and groving tool, i have a ball machine and often times do both to vary the workout, your gonna hate it every single time you hit the wall, but you know its something that's helping you
as for the exercises, many have different ones, good ones too, but nothing is going to change the fact that the wall sucks in comparason to practising agains someone else, but it is a good/great tool that no one likes, and if they say they like it, then their laying
just like going to the dentist, its good to go and some do it religiously, but people donot like going to it :-) i hope my dentist is not reading this :-)

[TNT16]

GREAT posts by SystemicAnomaly and Noisy Ninja!

[tbini87]

http://www.tennisserver.com/turbo/turbo.html

thanks for posting. he covers plenty of good drills to do on the wall. all that should keep one busy for a while!

[raiden031]

im gonna tell you a secret every one knows, practising against the wall SUCKKKKSSSSSSS!!!
really, i dont like it either, but i do it and have done it for years, its a good workout and groving tool, i have a ball machine and often times do both to vary the workout, your gonna hate it every single time you hit the wall, but you know its something that's helping you
as for the exercises, many have different ones, good ones too, but nothing is going to change the fact that the wall sucks in comparason to practising agains someone else, but it is a good/great tool that no one likes, and if they say they like it, then their laying
just like going to the dentist, its good to go and some do it religiously, but people donot like going to it :-) i hope my dentist is not reading this :-)

I wouldn't go as far as to say the wall sucks. When I'm changing something in my strokes, I prefer to hit against the wall because I can get triple the number of repetitions in as hitting with a partner, so its much more efficient. Not to mention my partner won't have to deal with me hitting poorly due to this change in technique. I'll admit it gets boring quicker against the wall, but when I have a plan and know what I want to work on, I always look forward to going to hit against the wall.

Every touring pro I've read about used to spend many hours as a child hitting against a wall when they didn't have the opportunity to play against another person.

[Noisy Ninja]

thanks for posting. he covers plenty of good drills to do on the wall. all that should keep one busy for a while!

No problem; glad to hear that the article proved useful to some people.

[Cindysphinx]

I serve against the wall. It's good for warming up, and it's good for working the fundamentals efficiently. I just focus on extension, toss, weight transfer . . . all the things that are hard to do when you want so badly for it to go IN.

I like volleying against the wall too, but it's frustrating.

I almost got a ball in the face trying to practice overheads. It's hard to think about making it go into the ground, not the wall.

[user92626]

loco,
I said I liked wall and I didn't lie :) Wall is the only tool I have to teach myself most things about tennis. Nobody likes to practice anything. They just like getting down to games, and you can't learn the mechanics in game.

Here's the secret to like wall (and most things in life). Stay with the moment. Don't look outside or expect anything. Everything has its time and place! :)

K, enough philosophy 101 for today heheheheh :)

[tennisdad65]

It gets boring real quick against the wall.
So do a lot of different things.
Here are some things I do:
1) Only backhands. Alternate between topspin and slice
2) Only forehands. Alternate between topspin and flat
3) BH to FH
4) Half volleys
5) reflex volleys up close. My forearm feel like lead after 3-5 minutes of this.
7) approach shots (flat/underspin on forehand or slice on backhand)
8) Slam ball against ground about 5-10 feet in front of wall and hit overheads.

2-3 minutes each and I end up with about 20-30 minutes on the wall.