Spider Drill speed
 

How fast should a junior run the spider drill? It is the drill where 5 balls are put on the court at the back corners of the service boxes and the back corners of the court. My 9 year old did it in 22 seconds and I KNOW that is slow.

I have two rather good 12 year old boys doing it on 21 sec, clay court.

I have a top 15 year old doing it on 17 seconds. And I have a 5 year old boy doing it on 27 sec...looks very slow.

To me 22 for a 9 year old sounds fine actually.

Hopefully someone else has more comparative data.

Yes. Lots of data needed. But first we must standardize. World need more standardization and structure for proper comparative analysis.

Where is the 5th ball? Do you ever use 8 balls for spider since actual spider has 8 legs. Where is the start: at T or at mid-court?
Do they deposit ball in middle or stack in Mickey mouse formation (3 ball base, then one on top of that base)?

Must go to YouTube for spider videos.

We put the racket on the serve hash mark. That is the starting point. The balls are put in the back corners and the service box corners of the back of the service boxes. So when on the baseline there are balls on either side and three in the front view. I know when my son went to the USTA CTC they timed all of the kids. My friend is getting the USTA norms for me. My 9 year old is 5ft tall and 90lbs. I know that is really large for his age. I am sure that affects his time at this age. I just think this is a good comparative speed test. He has a friend that is really fast on the court and very highly ranked in the same age group. I will ask his mom what his time is as well and post here.

I will try to get some times at practice later. We can compile a decent list on this thread I would think.

A video for those who need it.

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-do-...Drill-27820989

How about 28.9 seconds...

In a wheelchair...

bouncing a basketball...

no..?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjV1yg8L3a8

Cheers

7 year olds today, times ranged from 23.25-23.75 seconds. Hard court.

Maybe my son's 22.3 was not so bad for a large 9 year old. We are going to work on it.

I think your boy is right in line with the other kids. 25 for 5 year old, 23.5 for 7s, 22 for a nine year old.

when I read spider drill I thought of this snake drill http://no-cache.uspta.com/trc/CS05-1...ill-Mobile.mp4

Nice drill.

gp....timed a pretty fast 9 year old yesterday, averaged about 21.5 seconds. But that little guy is our fastest kid that age.

Why do these things matter? Only thing that counts in tennis is beating your opponent.

So why does anyone measure anything in any sport during development? Why run 40s, measure jumps, serve speeds, anything? Of course only wins matter at the higher levels. But you measure along the way to address weaknesses, measure development.

You maximize the physical tools each kid has, help them improve if they are slow, then let the intangibles decide which kids can turn those tools into wins. How can you tell your methods of making a kid faster are working with no measurements?

Because no one likes to win ugly if they had a choice...

As long as they are not used to filter out kids, I suppose they are OK. But I suspect they will be used to reject kids, sooner or later.

Also, why not just observe matches to see if the kid runs fast or not? Or serves fast or not? What is the need to quantify?

I hear you, good point.

Anyway, heading out now, will not have much time for posting anymore. I have enjoyed our debates on the Tennis Tips forum sureshs, even when we butted heads.

Best of luck to you!

You make valid points. I originally asked this question to see how my son compared to other players his age. It makes for a good comparison of speed on the court. It does not take into account other factors such as anticipation or the ability to read the point as it happens.

My general rant was about too much testing and quantification in general, whether in school or at work. It assumes that divide and conquer is the best strategy, and does not address the holistic nature. I was reading just yesterday that some companies are moving away from their annual employee appraisal strategies. It has come to a point where even intangible things are required to be quantified and assigned a score. True creativity cannot flourish in such an atmosphere.

I agree in general, but the flip side is motivation. Athletes like to compete against themselves (ie, the clock) as a measure of improvement. As a former track athlete, we tracked times and distances as a gauge of progress - in addition to competing against others, of course.

I time my kids doing drills and races just for the fun of it - they love it and don't want to stop. They want to see if they can keep beating their time. It's something fun to focus on in a competitive way.

I completely agree that using it to weed out at young ages isn't good. I've seen kids change dramatically in physical ability in just a few years.