So I usually warm up playing mini tennis. But recently i havnt played mini tennis and it seems easier to keep my stroke full and long with lots of racket head speed from the baseline. imo when I play mini tennis I get tentative with my strokes because I'm trying to keep the ball in the service box. I also don't use a lot of racket head speed warming up because were so close. Has anyone else experienced this? Please let me know how you feel about mini tennis.
mini tennis warm up good or bad?
- Thread starter makos101
- Start date
hrstrat57
Hall of Fame
I like mini tennis but most of the folks I play with now don't....my 2 tennis playing youngsters who both played/ play D III tennis will not even think about skipping the mini tennis warmup.
The old Agassi "Attack" instructional video has a really nice segment on mini tennis, which is where we first picked it up when my no 1 was about 7 or 8 yr old junior.
maverick66
Hall of Fame
Its where you really learn to feel the ball and groove a stroke. If you cant control a stroke in mini tennis then it wont be very good when you move back. You gotta learn to control before you can blast.
So I think its good.
So I think its good.
S
saigonbond
Guest
Greetings,
I use mini-tennis at the beginning of training with all my teams and students. Its a great way too get loose, practice proper footwork, and practice good mechanics (feet can't stop moving and use exaggerated strokes). I have them start at the service line, then 1/2 court, then the baseline. They must be able to hit 50 in a row w/ their partner from the service line and 1/2 court before they can move back to the baseline. If they can't control the ball from 21 ft away from the net, how can they control it from 39 ft away...
CHEERS!
I use mini-tennis at the beginning of training with all my teams and students. Its a great way too get loose, practice proper footwork, and practice good mechanics (feet can't stop moving and use exaggerated strokes). I have them start at the service line, then 1/2 court, then the baseline. They must be able to hit 50 in a row w/ their partner from the service line and 1/2 court before they can move back to the baseline. If they can't control the ball from 21 ft away from the net, how can they control it from 39 ft away...
CHEERS!
maverick66
Hall of Fame
yes they do.
1 problem with mini tennis. Lots of players start to dink the ball because they can't hit it with spin and make it go in the service box. Some players get very little spin because they just go through their motion and don't swing.
You should be swinging but with no backswing. It should be looping back and forth with lots of topspin. also make sure you follow through completely. The really good players are able to swing really fast and keep the ball in when they play mini tennis. If you swing while playing mini tennis, then lengthen your stroke and hit through more when you move back, you'll feel like you're more consistent and have more control over your strokes.
There's no point of mini tennis if all you do is dink back and forth.
CptnRiceKrispy
New User
Mini Tennis is a MUST in my opinion. I do it for the same reason you warm up your serves. You can't just go out there and blast your shots at the beginning. Its a good way to get a good feel of your strokes. I usually start with heavy topspin then I flatten my shots out and then move on to slices.
You can do whatever you prefer or what you feel is best, but if you're not comfortable with mini-tennis chances are your regular strokes aren't all that strong.
You can do whatever you prefer or what you feel is best, but if you're not comfortable with mini-tennis chances are your regular strokes aren't all that strong.
pyrokid
Hall of Fame
Hell, if you play better without it, don't let us tell you what to do.
Personally, though, I need it.
Otherwise my I hit less spin.
thebuffman
Professional
i personally enjoy mini tennis because it helps me concentrate on grooving my stroke and finding my contact point. once you dial into your contact point, hitting base line rallies is a lot easier.
4sound
Semi-Pro
it depends on how you play mini tennis for it to help or hurt your strokes.
I have all my students do it but insist they use proper closed stance footwork, little to no back swing and meet the ball in front with control where they can see contact from behind the strings on both forehand and backhand (flat or slice only).
I then have them move back, to just inside the baseline and use the service box(es) as where the ball should bounce (topspin on both sides).
No sloppy footwork and define contact to the end of the swing.
I have all my students do it but insist they use proper closed stance footwork, little to no back swing and meet the ball in front with control where they can see contact from behind the strings on both forehand and backhand (flat or slice only).
I then have them move back, to just inside the baseline and use the service box(es) as where the ball should bounce (topspin on both sides).
No sloppy footwork and define contact to the end of the swing.
SystemicAnomaly
Bionic Poster
Many do, some don't. Regardless, it is still an excellent idea for those of us who do not have the touch, timing or the hand-eye of an elite, world-class tennis player. I've seen it used by many very high level junior players and by competitive collegiate players as well.
Justine Henin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb_yYgT-CL4
Nicole Luetolf (great mini-tennis footwork):
10 minutes on court with Nicole Luetolf 2003
.
ProgressoR
Hall of Fame
i like it for 5-10 mins at least. I try to move well, and aim to play both FH and BH with top spin, control and good form. I found it hard for a while, and just dinked it, now i feel comfortable and you use all the things you need from the baseline.
dizzlmcwizzl
Hall of Fame
I like to do mini tennis .. .but the thing I concentrate on is trunk rotation, foot work and swing path .... although it is slow I find very helpful
CoachingMastery
Professional
I prefer a warm up where players hit soft volleys close to the net as the initial warm up, moving to mini tennis then to more full-court hitting. The reason for this is that the soft volleys allow players to hit far more shots with far less swinging action, (blocking at best!), allowing the arm, hand, wrist, and fingers, to warm up under the least amount of stress as well as hit more balls in a row. Also, players don't work on or hit enough volleys in my opinion, so this little warm up increases the volley experience over time.
As mentioned, many who try to do mini tennis start dinking the ball to keep it in play. This is because they don't have the stroke patterns mastered to hit soft topspins and resort to the more rudementary pattern of 'gravity reliant' tennis...one of the best ways to become a dinker for life.
Yet, mini tennis CAN be a fabulous drill/game/exercise for players to develop softer hands while hitting topspin shots. And, of course, done right, using a very short back swing, hitting the ball correctly with the topspin needed to execute the mini game effectively, is indeed a great way to practice warming up or other times too.
Anything that gives the student/player means to become more familiar with what the racquet is doing will improve their ability to hit balls with command.
As mentioned, many who try to do mini tennis start dinking the ball to keep it in play. This is because they don't have the stroke patterns mastered to hit soft topspins and resort to the more rudementary pattern of 'gravity reliant' tennis...one of the best ways to become a dinker for life.
Yet, mini tennis CAN be a fabulous drill/game/exercise for players to develop softer hands while hitting topspin shots. And, of course, done right, using a very short back swing, hitting the ball correctly with the topspin needed to execute the mini game effectively, is indeed a great way to practice warming up or other times too.
Anything that gives the student/player means to become more familiar with what the racquet is doing will improve their ability to hit balls with command.
Falloutjr
Banned
I hate mini-tennis with a passion. I never hit late, and I have pretty solid feel on my groundstrokes, so I don't think it's necessary. In clinics, my coach doesn't make me do mini-tennis drills. The only thing I think it does is help your eyes adjust to the ball coming at you, which I adjust to long before my match starts anyways.
justsomeguy
Rookie
Yeah, brother. I like to start with volleys and half-volleys, then work my way back. The net work really gets the legs bending and the eye on the ball. Works for me.
Djlpenguin
Rookie
i kind of use a longer volley motion instead of my normal swing. mini tennis helps me see the ball beter and feel the ball and warm me up. my groundies are so fine tuned, especially my FH that if i do my normal swing in mini tieenis it screws up everything else. i think its just me 
Falloutjr
Banned
Lol at the idea that I'm a 3.5...just lol.
Davis937
Professional
Hey, Blake ... an excellent post ... and, yeah, I see too many players try to keep the ball in the service box by "bunting" or dinking the ball ... that's not what mini-tennis is about ... you need to groove your strokes by hitting with an abbreviated but pretty full stroke (definitely, need to follow through completely) ... the trick and challenge is to hit with a lot of topspin ... it's an excellent warm up for the strokes and also for the feet ... overall, just a great way to loosen up before hitting!
masterxfob
Semi-Pro
for me it's mini tennis or the wall for warmup. hell, once in a while, i play mini tennis for hours hitting cross court, down the line, topspin, slice, half volley, and drop shots.
if anything, it's sort of a ritual, and helps me get into a groove.
if anything, it's sort of a ritual, and helps me get into a groove.
ProgressoR
Hall of Fame
I think some players who prefer not to play mini tennis either do not have the racket control to play the correct shots at such a short distance (it took me a while to do that) or are decent players who just prefer not to do it. Personally I am bad at the discipline of warming up via stretching etc (I do a bit but not much) so mini tennis serves as getting warm using good movement and playing proper small strokes and loosening me up. For me skipping mini t would be a big hindrance. Others can prefer to skip it. But if playing with me I would probably insist on a few minutes. Though I have never had to insist.
ProgressoR
Hall of Fame
to clarify by decent i mean up to 6.0, its an engish understatement thing.
In a tournie, if you get 5 mins to warm up then i probably would not do mini tennis, but try to have warmed up with a friend beforehand.
However for those who dont do mini tennis because they technically cannot do it, i would say their level is probably not at high as 6.0. I would expect all 4.0's really to be able to do it, even if they prefer not to.
In a tournie, if you get 5 mins to warm up then i probably would not do mini tennis, but try to have warmed up with a friend beforehand.
However for those who dont do mini tennis because they technically cannot do it, i would say their level is probably not at high as 6.0. I would expect all 4.0's really to be able to do it, even if they prefer not to.
I have no preference either way and most of the time skip mini tennis, but the times that I have done it I always feel like once I step back to the baseline I hit the ball a lot cleaner. If I start at the baseline, I probably shank a ball or hit quite a few off center before I start getting into a groove.
The weird thing I've found about mini tennis is that it's somewhat detrimental to my onehander. Hitting OHBH during mini tennis really forces me to give the ball an extreme low to high to generate the spin needed to keep it in the service box. When I step back to the baseline I can't seem to get out of that mentality and end up hitting loopy backhands for a while before I can finally get back into hitting it through the court more.
I wouldn't know for sure though if that's an indication of bad technique on my part or a negative on doing mini tennis.
The weird thing I've found about mini tennis is that it's somewhat detrimental to my onehander. Hitting OHBH during mini tennis really forces me to give the ball an extreme low to high to generate the spin needed to keep it in the service box. When I step back to the baseline I can't seem to get out of that mentality and end up hitting loopy backhands for a while before I can finally get back into hitting it through the court more.
I wouldn't know for sure though if that's an indication of bad technique on my part or a negative on doing mini tennis.
Falloutjr
Banned
Well, that's a given I suppose. It's very easy, but I don't feel like it's that good for my preparation. I prefer to try and get the feel of real time strokes.
SystemicAnomaly
Bionic Poster
Sounds like you don't quite have the hang of executing mini-tennis properly. Can't see how it would make your strokes "tentative" unless you are not doing it right.
Are you just dinking the ball or not using a complete follow-thru? With mini-tennis the loops are moderate (or takebacks are relatively short) and a fair amount of spin is employed. But this should not bother your regular, full-court strokes. Not all strokes in your game should employ large loops or excessive takebacks -- you should use what is appropriate for the situation. Mini-tennis should help you deal with very deep balls, serve returns and half-volleys where the takeback is normally much shorter.
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naylor
Semi-Pro
When you play a tournament, you do your warm-up at two levels:- 1) before you go onto the match court - stretches, shuttle runs, mini-tennis (you can do this in the carpark if no court is available), and on-court hitting/serving/etc. whatever your proper "warm-up" routine comprises - for 40-60 minutes; and 2) the pre-match ritual (down-the-middle baseline rallies, half-a-dozen volleys, 5 smashes, 8-10 serves from each side).
The match court is not the place to "warm-up", so you won't find mini-tennis being played there just before the start of a match.
tennisdad65
Hall of Fame
When guys warm up using mini tennis with me, they probably wonder why I hit most balls flat or with underspin. Then when we go to full rallies and a match, they find out that I hit flat or underspin on both wings, for groundies, approaches and volleys 
I actually play mini tennis games to 21 with one partner. The service line acts as the baseline and we start with an underarm serve crosscourt. Fun game to improve your net skills. I think Laver/Rosewall etc. used to play a lot of this.
I actually play mini tennis games to 21 with one partner. The service line acts as the baseline and we start with an underarm serve crosscourt. Fun game to improve your net skills. I think Laver/Rosewall etc. used to play a lot of this.
When guys warm up using mini tennis with me, they probably wonder why I hit most balls flat or with underspin. Then when we go to full rallies and a match, they find out that I hit flat or underspin on both wings, for groundies, approaches and volleys
I actually play mini tennis games to 21 with one partner. The service line acts as the baseline and we start with an underarm serve crosscourt. Fun game to improve your net skills. I think Laver/Rosewall etc. used to play a lot of this.
We play the mini tennis game that way too for fun though, not as a warm up. We call it A-ball. 4 players all in the service box, and all you can do is slice and volley. Help's work on your touch and angles. First person to get to 5 (points are bad and you get them if you lose the point), we all get to serve at the guy (he stands at T, we go back and serve). Fun with big servers that can aim
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1stVolley
Professional
One thing mini tennis is NOT good at is warming up the legs--and the legs are, obviously, as critical to tennis as the arms/shoulders/trunk.
My preferred legs warm up: starting on the left side of the court, in the doubles alley, I jog to the net, then, still facing the net, I use the side step to quickly move to the right doubles alley, back pedal to the base line and side step back to the starting point. I try and do this twice, the second trip somewhat faster than the first. I've never had a leg issue when playing after this.
My preferred legs warm up: starting on the left side of the court, in the doubles alley, I jog to the net, then, still facing the net, I use the side step to quickly move to the right doubles alley, back pedal to the base line and side step back to the starting point. I try and do this twice, the second trip somewhat faster than the first. I've never had a leg issue when playing after this.
naylor
Semi-Pro
I'll give you that, since it's not meant to. But what it's meant to is to also get your proper footwork going, off both wings. If you do it properly, the feeling is you nearly wrap your racket over and around your ball, so you get extended contact. But this contact is not "hitting through 3-5 balls", it's hitting around the ball, putting topspin by running the strings fast along and around the surface of the ball. Now, the only way you can achieve this is by staying with the ball and actually gently extending along the forward path of the ball after contact. And because you're doing it in slow motion, it makes it easier to synchronise your pushing forward off your back foot (which starts putting your body mass into the shot), the uncoiling of hips and shoulders (back to square after the shoulder turn) and your racketarm coming through into contact as the next link of the kinetic chain.
I find that when I don't do mini-tennis in the warm-up I mishit a lot of early forehands, because I misjudge the contact point (it gets too close to my body), and in order to make room for the swing I fall away from the shot - whereas with mini-tennis, I lock onto a contact point in front of my body and then I have the space and time to get my weight forward and into the shot.
Davis937
Professional
Hey, SA ... a good post ... and ... an excellent response ... I couldn't agree with you more ... and, to respond to a point made by someone else in one of the earlier posts ... no player uses mini-tennis during the five minute pre-match warm up ... the mini-tennis would have been used an hour or two before the actual match (... when the player is warming up/working out prior to the match).
Davis937
Professional
Hey, naylor ... another good post that clearly explains the benefits of mini-tennis!
JRstriker12
Hall of Fame
Unless you are playing doubles where a lot of your points will happen in mini tennis range and touch a few feet from the net is important.
spacediver
Hall of Fame
thank you thank you thank you! I applied this advice today and had a wonderful mini tennis session followed by some very clean hitting.
Chanto
Rookie
But then you would practice volleys? Mini tennis, is to my knowledge, hitting regular motion strokes with less power, deep in. Unless I'm wrong, I would rather volley
I start with mini-tennis because it's easier on my arm (and my sore hamstring) to warm up slowly, and it's easier for me to warm up slowly when I'm not starting at the baseline. I think the reasons given about timing, spin, footwork, and so forth are also valid, but for me the biggest thing is injury prevention.
fluffy Beaver
Professional
Falloutjr
Banned
mmmhmmm
I made that post a while back, before I spent 3 hours a day with one of the top coaches in the state of Ohio for about 2 months straight
fluffy Beaver
Professional
I made that post a while back, before I spent 3 hours a day with one of the top coaches in the state of Ohio for about 2 months straight
Because we all know that people can go up 0.5 level every 2 months.
Plus, all that matters is match play and chances are you can't play very many tournaments in 2 months.
Now go practice some mini tennis. :twisted:
fluffy Beaver
Professional
PS85 vs. KPS88
3.5 using a ps 85? More post showing you're a poser. I have no problem with people being a 3.5 and love tennis, but don't laugh in other people's faces because they told you the truth.
3.5 using a ps 85? More post showing you're a poser. I have no problem with people being a 3.5 and love tennis, but don't laugh in other people's faces because they told you the truth.
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