Favorite hopper drills

[FiddlerDog]

Found a new hitting partner who loves to drill.

I fed him a hopper of shoulder high short sitter approach shots. I would then feed a 2nd volley ball if I couldn’t get the ball back in play. I noticed his first move towards the ball was lazy and slow. I told him to explode off the first step of ball recognition and it made an immediate difference for getting into position faster. He did a good job of attacking when appropriate and just placing the ball when not in optimal setup position. Rule #1, hit the approach shot in play.

Then he wanted to do serve practice!! I got a full hopper of serve return practice, and took my own advice about explosive first step. Really intensely focused in on the serve ball and exploded off the split step landing. He is def. not used to seeing his serves hit back with such aggression.

What are your favorite hopper drills with a hitting partner ?

 

[FiddlerDog]

The silence is deafening here, LOL.

Today ....

• I fed backhands from the net. I volleyed his shots when possible.
• Did a full hopper of short balls and overheads.
• Then we did serve return practice.

Great practice session.

 

[FiddlerDog]

Did a full hour of serve and serve return practice.
Focused on serves. Tossed deep into the court was my only focus. I was getting way more action on the ball.
For serve returns, I just crushed the returns at 100%.

 

[FiddlerDog]

Fed an entire hopper of backhands to partner. I volleyed his returns. Great mutual drill.
Then I served an entire hopper of 2nd serves. Focused on tossing into the court.

 

[tlm]

I have been working on short sitters and no trouble hitting some pretty good shots but still missing more than I should. I just started using the hopper again, usually I just use it to feed shots so my wife can work on her net game.
But I started hitting fed balls from different parts of the court trying to hit hard shots into the corners consistently. Drilling is helpful and like other sports if you can’t do it at a very high % in practice then you will not be consistent in live play.

 

[tlm]

Why did you have to reply? Please people keep it sane and keep it reply free when someone is on a roll..

Why not?

 

[FiddlerDog]

Did some serve practice with the hopper today.
Then my hitting partner served at me for some return practice.

Then we did approach shot feeds.

 

[Mungo]

I did hopper drills with a friend today. We would take turns serving and then play out a point cross court using doubles lines. My friend is strictly a doubles player (double knee replacement) whereas I enjoy it all.

 

[FiddlerDog]

Served a hopper of balls
Then did hand feed approach shots to both wings.
Then did wide ball hand feeds at baseline with recover to middle

 

[FiddlerDog]

Did a hand feed of 3 balls sequence.
One at baseline
One at service line
One near the net (most unpracticed shot in tennis)
Feeder moves towards net on each ball

I did BH, partner wanted FHs
Can't find a video example right now, but I've seen it online

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

My feeds include:
- in my strike zone without moving
- Moving laterally, out to the doubles alley
- Moving forward
- Moving backward
- Short-hopping
- Swinging Volleys