How do you practice?

DonPepe

DonPepe

Rookie
I wonder what do you guys who compete in leagues and play tournaments do to prepare , practice? How long are your sessions?
 
I practice at least a few times per week. A normal session will have like 5-10 minutes of at net warm-up rolling into some mini-tennis, then backing up over several shots to baseline rallies to get a groove. Again, always building up pace but trying to give each other something hittable. In that we usually throw in cross court to either side and that ends after maybe 20 minutes. Then we pick something to concentrate on. Might be volley work, could be return of serve, might be something in stroke, but it just depends on what is needed. It is usually pretty isolated though. Then after practicing that we always try to find ways to setup scenarios to use it in point play, if possible.

An example is, a few weeks back I wanted to work on my doubles transition game and get more feel for taking a ball in no-man's land, so I stood there while I had a partner hitting cross court from their baseline to me and I volley'd back to them. Then we mixed it into me starting at the baseline with a drop feed and I had to pick a ball coming in to move up and take that volley in no-man's land, continue in and try to finish at the net. Also did it as serve an volley. My partner's job to start was to get it to me easy, but as we played out points they could go more middle or wide so I had to get the split step right. It was fugly to start but came together better.

So we usually do 30-40 mins of that. So takes us to about 1.5 hours in. If we booked for 2 hours we usually do open points, speed drills, or something like that.
 
I only enter tournaments in doubles, so my practice sessions are more designed around that.

My usual practice session is mini tennis CC warm up for a few minutes, full groundstroke CC for 5-10 minutes, then 5 minutes of volley practice from different depths followed by a few minutes of overhead practice. Then I play practice set of singles and a practice set of one on one cross court doubles.

i do that 2-3 times a week and then play my men's social doubles matches on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
 
I play 2-3 league matches a week right now.
So off days practice is:

1 day a week: Hitting partner for 2 hours ... either cooperative rallying with a purpose (e.g. only cross court, or cross-cross-DTL, or cross-approach-volley), or work on serves and returns ... rarely if ever play points in this setting.

1 day a week ... play sets, doubles: 2 hours

1 day a week ... team clinic with a teaching pro. Mostly strategy/positioning live-ball situational drills: 2 hours
 
I do 5-6 clinics a week from 1-3 hours each, matches after if anyone is game (benefits are variety of players, some 4.5 and 5.0 mixed in too helps). Singles tourneys as often as I can. Ball machine when raining indoors. Gym 4-5 times a week.
 
There are players on my team that dont pick up a racquet between seasons and only play league matches.

So their practice is league matches.
 
MRfStop said:
There are players on my team that dont pick up a racquet between seasons and only play league matches.

So their practice is league matches.
Click to expand...

At my level ... people cannot get away with that and play at all okay.

I hate more than anything hearing from my partner 15 minutes before a match: Oh I haven't touched my racket in weeks ha ha ha.
Usually the start of a less than great showing.
 
OnTheLine said:
At my level ... people cannot get away with that and play at all okay.

I hate more than anything hearing from my partner 15 minutes before a match: Oh I haven't touched my racket in weeks ha ha ha.
Usually the start of a less than great showing.
Click to expand...
As a captain its worse o_O especially when they dont even warm up before the match.
 
FuzzyYellowBalls said:
I do 5-6 clinics a week from 1-3 hours each, matches after if anyone is game (benefits are variety of players, some 4.5 and 5.0 mixed in too helps). Singles tourneys as often as I can. Ball machine when raining indoors. Gym 4-5 times a week.
Click to expand...
Do u have a Slinger ball machine ? I wonder if it’s any good .
 
MRfStop said:
As a captain its worse o_O especially when they dont even warm up before the match.
Click to expand...

As a captain myself, I always struggle with what to do with the players that just never practice. For my teams I set up a weekly clinic and weekly courts for practice sets ... some show every time, some never do. Aside from the singles players who do this ... what to do with the others is a pain. At least until I can find a way to uninvite them ....
 
DonPepe said:
Do u have a Slinger ball machine ? I wonder if it’s any good .
Click to expand...
I don't, I've debated, I think they are good based on my research, the only pressure point is the price and will it get used often. I don't think it is overpriced per se, but I don't trust myself to use it enough, yet, to justify me buying it.
 
When I played regionally I did 2-3 two hour advanced clinics, inter-county team matches (doubles) once a week and 4-6 hours of hitting/matches with level appropriate partners 3-4 times a week. I guess I practiced serves about twice a week for an hour each as well.
 
FuzzyYellowBalls said:
I do 5-6 clinics a week from 1-3 hours each, matches after if anyone is game (benefits are variety of players, some 4.5 and 5.0 mixed in too helps). Singles tourneys as often as I can. Ball machine when raining indoors. Gym 4-5 times a week.
Click to expand...
damn 5-6 clinics a week?
i'm happy for the 1 that i'm in currently (similar makeup 4.5 to low5.0 players)
hard to find a manicured group like that... scheduling is a pain, so 1 is "alot"... can't imagine being able to coord 5-6 (at that point i'm doing a "junior academy" :P)
 
nyta2 said:
damn 5-6 clinics a week?
i'm happy for the 1 that i'm in currently (similar makeup 4.5 to low5.0 players)
hard to find a manicured group like that... scheduling is a pain, so 1 is "alot"... can't imagine being able to coord 5-6 (at that point i'm doing a "junior academy" :p)
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's a bit much, but Covid and not much else going on, I got into the groove, I do drive to some 30-45 minutes away. But, it's my favorite way to exercise. I like it during summer a lot because quite a few college players join in when they are home for the summer.
 
FuzzyYellowBalls said:
Yeah, it's a bit much, but Covid and not much else going on, I got into the groove, I do drive to some 30-45 minutes away. But, it's my favorite way to exercise. I like it during summer a lot because quite a few college players join in when they are home for the summer.
Click to expand...
i would do it too, if it were avail to me.
curious, how much is it? package? per diem? always 4.5+?
there are clinics avail that i can go to most days, but it's mostly 3.5's, and the drills are geared towards 3.5s (eg. stand in line and hit a ball)

so i'm usually left to organize my own practice... which is fine, but things i love about a group clinic of high level focus:
* constant competition within everyone
* never seeing the same ball twice forcing me to hit against a variety of balls (i can't rely on getting into a "rhythm"... i really need to up my focus, watching how they prep, reading the bounce/spin, etc...)
* focused drills (some isolation drills are better when fed by a 3rd person)
 
Last edited:
nyta2 said:
i would do it too, if it were avail to me.
curious, how much is it? package? per diem? always 4.5+?
there are clinics avail that i can go to most days, but it's mostly 3.5's, and the drills are geared towards 3.5s (eg. stand in line and hit a ball)

so i'm usually left to organize my own practice... which is fine, but things i love about a group clinic of high level focus:
* constant competition within everyone
* never seeing the same ball twice forcing me to hit against a variety of balls (i can't rely on getting into a "rhythm"... i really need to up my focus, watching how they prep, reading the bounce/spin, etc...)
* focused drills (some isolation drills are better when fed by a 3rd person)
Click to expand...
Usually $10-$15 an hour. Most drills are 1 hour, the best one is 2 hours and it is strictly high 4.0-5.0, very good. Another weekend one is 1.5 hours for $30, but they divide the courts by level so ends up with good 4.0 with the occasional 4.5 mixed in. I do play in an indoor that can have 3.5 mixed in, not ideal, but I still get to hit and run around.

All these drills are king of the court style, either doubles, half court singles, dingles, some are 105 (1 point for regular point won, 5 points for baseline clean winner, 10 for volley, 20 for overhead or lob winner with teams) etc. etc. I understand your pain about stand in line and hit a ball, I might not do that unless I got really desperate.
 
FuzzyYellowBalls said:
Usually $10-$15 an hour. Most drills are 1 hour, the best one is 2 hours and it is strictly high 4.0-5.0, very good. Another weekend one is 1.5 hours for $30, but they divide the courts by level so ends up with good 4.0 with the occasional 4.5 mixed in. I do play in an indoor that can have 3.5 mixed in, not ideal, but I still get to hit and run around.

All these drills are king of the court style, either doubles, half court singles, dingles, some are 105 (1 point for regular point won, 5 points for baseline clean winner, 10 for volley, 20 for overhead or lob winner with teams) etc. etc. I understand your pain about stand in line and hit a ball, I might not do that unless I got really desperate.
Click to expand...
15/h... that's fantastic.
it's 55/1.5h, and that's a prepaid 16x package (75 per diem adhoc)
for 15, i probably wouldn't care as much about the quality.
the one i go to, like yours, is run like a junior clinic, king of the court style, bonus points for executing & winning whatever isolation we're working on
 
FuzzyYellowBalls said:
I do 5-6 clinics a week from 1-3 hours each, matches after if anyone is game (benefits are variety of players, some 4.5 and 5.0 mixed in too helps). Singles tourneys as often as I can. Ball machine when raining indoors. Gym 4-5 times a week.
Click to expand...
What great country do you live in? Texas? :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

dsb
League vs. Non-league Play
Replies
30
Views
3K
Fintft
Fintft
J011yroger
Tennis growing, competition declining?
2 3
Replies
139
Views
5K
FuzzyYellowBalls
FuzzyYellowBalls
S
Serious players-how much do you practice?
Replies
14
Views
20K
tbini87
T
F
Competitive league players in their 30s-40s how often do you play?
Replies
16
Views
1K
dsp9753
dsp9753
W
Tell me about USTA tourneys
Replies
8
Views
1K
cknobman
cknobman
Back
Top