Ideas for Drills with Kids

[Dan R]

I play with my 14 year old daughters all the time, and I need some ideas for fun drills or games. They are getting tired of what we usually do (so am I), and since they are not both at the same level it's not much fun for either of them to play points against each other all the time. It would be nice to have all 3 of us on the court but not essential. I'd like both them to be on the court as much as possible.

Thanks.

 

[happyandbob]

I like to play Canadian doubles (or "American doubles" as my Canadian friend likes to call it lol) if I have two of my kids at the court. It's nice because you're always on the court so you can adjust the type of ball you're hitting to each kid. We do singles always serves and then rotate clockwise after each game.

 

[nyta2]

I play with my 14 year old daughters all the time, and I need some ideas for fun drills or games. They are getting tired of what we usually do (so am I), and since they are not both at the same level it's not much fun for either of them to play points against each other all the time. It would be nice to have all 3 of us on the court but not essential. I'd like both them to be on the court as much as possible.

Thanks.

hey dan

i like doing isolation drills/games: 2v1 (lots of variations) where:
[singles side stays on 1half)
* 1 stays on one half only, has to only hit fh or bh (depending on the side they are), but alternate cc & dtl
* 1 is at net, same as above, but for volleys
<alternate when either team gets to 11, so everyone is playing on the "singles" side for every variation>
[singles side full court]
* singles side plays full court and either high cc only, or dtl only, and doubles side *cooperatively* hits iether cc/dtl only (eg. butterfly pattern)
* same with volleys
* depth drill: let singles side hit 5ft beyond the baseline, but they must pass the service line by 5ft also
<play by time, say 10-15m, it's tough (phsyically/conditioning) on the singles side, especially if doubles side is "not being nice" >
[king of the hill]
* king vs. "team singles" (dobules side alternates playing singles)
* max 2pts, the doubles side switches... play to 11
* or only become king if you win 2 pts in a row

etc...

can isolate specific shots, targets, movement patterns, etc...
if someone (you?) is much stronger than the other two, then the stronger player has to play a weaker shot (eg. if you're working on slice, then only can hit slice, if you're working on offensive bh, can only hit winners with bh, if you're working on depth, then you must hit closer to the baseline, etc...)

 

[Dan R]

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[eah123]

We do a lot of drills and game situation practice with my family of 3.

For doubles like situation, “puerto rican” doubles is superior to “Canadian doubles”. How it works is that the single player side, only the the ad or deuce side singles court and doubles alley is in, and on the doubles side, the entire court is in play. The singles side player gets to act like the back player and can even serve/volley and chip/charge. The doubles side can also practice plays like stay/go/fake poach, two back, I formation. It’s really fun to focus on strategy and placement instead of stroke production.