Most people probably still don't like hitting against the wall

L

lidation

Rookie
I started playing tennis <5 months ago. I had a coach, whom I meet every 2-3 weeks; I hit with a few beginner friends and I also hit with a 3.0 friend. But more than 50% of the time I hit against the wall 'cause I found that I learned so much doing it. I could never have achieved the consistency, accuracy and power I have today without these exercises. I can now easily sustain rally against the wall for 80+ times on myforehand, 20+ on my backhand ground strokes. And I am still improving. It gives me a lot of work out on serve and volley too.

However, the other people who use the couple of walls I'm hitting against were 100% beginners who could barely hit a ball. I have yet to see anybody who could sustain rally for more than 5 times while against the wall. I am basically the only one who know how to play tennis there.

I'm just curious, the wall is such a good training aid, but why no one else who at least know something about hitting balls there at the wall? :confused: In my area, I do see many good tennis players at the court though.
 
I'm just curious, the wall is such a good training aid, but why no one else who at least know something about hitting balls there at the wall? In my area, I do see many good tennis players at the court though.
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It's not fun.

Pete
 
lidation said:
I started playing tennis <5 months ago. I had a coach, whom I meet every 2-3 weeks; I hit with a few beginner friends and I also hit with a 3.0 friend. But more than 50% of the time I hit against the wall 'cause I found that I learned so much doing it. I could never have achieved the consistency, accuracy and power I have today without these exercises. I can now easily sustain rally against the wall for 80+ times on myforehand, 20+ on my backhand ground strokes. And I am still improving. It gives me a lot of work out on serve and volley too.

However, the other people who use the couple of walls I'm hitting against were 100% beginners who could barely hit a ball. I have yet to see anybody who could sustain rally for more than 5 times while against the wall. I am basically the only one who know how to play tennis there.

I'm just curious, the wall is such a good training aid, but why no one else who at least know something about hitting balls there at the wall? :confused: In my area, I do see many good tennis players at the court though.
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I do, and it is the perfect litmus test for your volleys. If you are doing anything technically wrong with your volleys, the ball won't come back the way you want it. This is how I somewhat perfected my volleys.
 
I started out hitting against a wall also...I still enjoy it. You can groove your strokes and or technique and get a workout. It's more of a muscle memory thing for me. It does help.
 
lidation said:
I started playing tennis <5 months ago. I had a coach, whom I meet every 2-3 weeks; I hit with a few beginner friends and I also hit with a 3.0 friend. But more than 50% of the time I hit against the wall 'cause I found that I learned so much doing it. I could never have achieved the consistency, accuracy and power I have today without these exercises. I can now easily sustain rally against the wall for 80+ times on myforehand, 20+ on my backhand ground strokes. And I am still improving. It gives me a lot of work out on serve and volley too.

However, the other people who use the couple of walls I'm hitting against were 100% beginners who could barely hit a ball. I have yet to see anybody who could sustain rally for more than 5 times while against the wall. I am basically the only one who know how to play tennis there.

I'm just curious, the wall is such a good training aid, but why no one else who at least know something about hitting balls there at the wall? :confused: In my area, I do see many good tennis players at the court though.
Click to expand...

I thank the wall for helping to develop my killer top spin backhand.
 
king of swing said:
I would like to .... but I don't know of a wall close to me... all the tennis courts I know don't have one :(
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i am in the same situation as KingofSwing up there... would love to hit with the wall i did it all through junior high but there are just no walls here
 
Sometimes when my strokes are going on vacation, I take some time to play against the wall. It really helps to groove the strokes and it really tells me that I shouldn't be trying to hit so hard a lot of the time. I find out that I end up muscling shots and the wall helps me find the relaxed groove that lets my shots flow.

Of course, the one accessible wall around here is at a set of courts that are being re-done, and the County doesn't tell us when these public courts will be open again, so it's back to the bucket and having a friend feed me balls and I'll have to groove my shots on the regular court...which couldn't hurt either.
 
Whow! On this forum there ARE many people who loves the drill. Maybe in real life we are just minority among all the tennis players.

I don't find playing against the wall boring at all. It's pretty fun. It's like jogging. Do you find jogging boring? I don't.
 
When I was 3.5 and below, I used to absolutely LOVE hitting against the wall. In fact, I probably used the wall 5-6 times a week, for at least 30-60 minutes at a time, however, after playing almost a year of club tennis now, I reacquainted myself with the wall briefly. I can tell you hitting against the wall is quite detrimental to your timing and rhythm as it promotes rushed shots. If you truly want to work on your form and make sure you're doing things properly (or at least closer to proper as you can get), there's no substitute for a human player. That said, I certainly don't discourage practicing against the wall, but just know that the wall can hurt you if you don't continually keep in mind that it's vastly different from playing against someone and your strokes will NOT be the same.
 
I love hitting against the wall.

For all those that say they can't find a wall, go find a elementary school or middle school. Usually those have covered areas with a brick wall that plays well. Also, if you can't find that, just find a flat section of wall in the back of the school or something and play on that. Those walls are really common around here.
 
boojay said:
When I was 3.5 and below, I used to absolutely LOVE hitting against the wall. In fact, I probably used the wall 5-6 times a week, for at least 30-60 minutes at a time, however, after playing almost a year of club tennis now, I reacquainted myself with the wall briefly. I can tell you hitting against the wall is quite detrimental to your timing and rhythm as it promotes rushed shots. If you truly want to work on your form and make sure you're doing things properly (or at least closer to proper as you can get), there's no substitute for a human player. That said, I certainly don't discourage practicing against the wall, but just know that the wall can hurt you if you don't continually keep in mind that it's vastly different from playing against someone and your strokes will NOT be the same.
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Thanks for the heads up.

Most of my hitting partners are not very consistent and it's very hard to groove strokes by playing with them. However, I do understand what you mean -- the timing issue. So I'll keep that in mind. Oh, well, I'm just starting right now and it will take me a while to get to 3 - 3.5. lol.
 
lidation said:
Thanks for the heads up.

Most of my hitting partners are not very consistent and it's very hard to groove strokes by playing with them.
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NP.

Absolutely, this is the truth. If you can ever find someone of equal play who can rally consistently with you and is willing to practice and learn as you, keep this person on your list. It's not easy to find this person, but once you do.......man oh man, it's so awesome.

As for grooving strokes, certainly you can groove strokes hitting with the wall because the wall always gets the ball back. Unfortunately, you have to ask yourself, what types of shot/rhythm are you grooving? Always err on the side of caution when hitting with the wall. It can be your friend and enemy at the same time.
 
Hitting aginst a wall is only for hacks, or so I thought; then I was pleased to hear that Monica Seles says she honed her strokes hitting against a wall as a child.
 
boojay said:
When I was 3.5 and below, I used to absolutely LOVE hitting against the wall. In fact, I probably used the wall 5-6 times a week, for at least 30-60 minutes at a time, however, after playing almost a year of club tennis now, I reacquainted myself with the wall briefly. I can tell you hitting against the wall is quite detrimental to your timing and rhythm as it promotes rushed shots. If you truly want to work on your form and make sure you're doing things properly (or at least closer to proper as you can get), there's no substitute for a human player. That said, I certainly don't discourage practicing against the wall, but just know that the wall can hurt you if you don't continually keep in mind that it's vastly different from playing against someone and your strokes will NOT be the same.
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I completely disagree with this. My shots were almost completely developed against a wall because I have always had a hard time finding any human players who want to practice groundstroke drills. I would say my strokes are well-grooved as far as form, and without trying to seem arrogant, fit the advanced model much better than most of the people in my league who have had lessons and practice with other humans. The wall does have limitations, but you can EASILY develop sound groundstrokes for a 3.X player. But certainly to move to higher levels, direction, depth, as well as the ability to handle various spins becomes more important, so a drilling partner is essential.

But when hitting against a wall it is CRUCIAL that you know what good technique looks and feels like. But the same goes for hitting against a human in a court who isn't providing feedback to you on your form.
 
I do not like hitting against the wall. Balls bouncing off the wall does not have a true bounce off the wall and have a relatively flat and low bounce off the ground. Balls also slow down considerably. This forces me to 'pick up' low balls with a difference in timing which is completely different than rallying - as I play with individuals with an incredible amount of topspin. It is not an issue of just "hitting higher" up the wall to get a good bounce because that trains me to overhit while in a rally.

Hitting against the wall is slightly beneficial for consistency. One of the drills I am able to do without a stop is the 15 minute wall rally. I put a mark on the wall that represents a good clearance point above the net and hit easy, trying not to break my rhythm. Unfortunately, this does not translate well once I switch to rallying with a partner.
 
lidation said:
I'm just curious, the wall is such a good training aid, but why no one else who at least know something about hitting balls there at the wall? :confused: In my area, I do see many good tennis players at the court though.
Click to expand...

I think the wall is a great training aide for beginners to intermediate players working on consistency. It's also a great tool to work on your footwork.

The good players on your court are already consistent. They're probably working on things like hitting winners, varying shots and increasing serve speed which are things that don't work that well against the wall. The wall also gets kind of boring once you become consistent.

With that said, you can get pretty good by just hitting against the wall. Keep working on your consistency, and make it a point to become more consistent than your opponents. You'll climb the ranks pretty quickly that way.
 
raiden031 said:
I completely disagree with this. My shots were almost completely developed against a wall because I have always had a hard time finding any human players who want to practice groundstroke drills. I would say my strokes are well-grooved as far as form, and without trying to seem arrogant, fit the advanced model much better than most of the people in my league who have had lessons and practice with other humans. The wall does have limitations, but you can EASILY develop sound groundstrokes for a 3.X player. But certainly to move to higher levels, direction, depth, as well as the ability to handle various spins becomes more important, so a drilling partner is essential.

But when hitting against a wall it is CRUCIAL that you know what good technique looks and feels like. But the same goes for hitting against a human in a court who isn't providing feedback to you on your form.
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Ummmm......so you didn't really disagree with me at all. In fact, you completely supported me. I had said when I was 3.5 & below, I used the wall all the time, almost implying that it was an important tool in learning how to hit since I was using it nearly everyday. I'm sorry if you misunderstood.
 
Swissv2 said:
I do not like hitting against the wall. Balls bouncing off the wall does not have a true bounce off the wall and have a relatively flat and low bounce off the ground. Balls also slow down considerably. This forces me to 'pick up' low balls with a difference in timing which is completely different than rallying - as I play with individuals with an incredible amount of topspin. It is not an issue of just "hitting higher" up the wall to get a good bounce because that trains me to overhit while in a rally.

Hitting against the wall is slightly beneficial for consistency. One of the drills I am able to do without a stop is the 15 minute wall rally. I put a mark on the wall that represents a good clearance point above the net and hit easy, trying not to break my rhythm. Unfortunately, this does not translate well once I switch to rallying with a partner.
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Exactly. Totally agree. I think the worst thing about hitting against the wall is being rushed though. I like to be in a smoother rhythm when I'm hitting/rallying, but the wall forces me to quickly takeback after finishing a shot, then takeback again, follow through, takeback, and so on, and so on. It does not simulate a true rally very well. I'm sure it has some benefits, but I wouldn't want to groove in THAT type of rhythm for my strokes at my particular level now.
 
boojay said:
Ummmm......so you didn't really disagree with me at all. In fact, you completely supported me. I had said when I was 3.5 & below, I used the wall all the time, almost implying that it was an important tool in learning how to hit since I was using it nearly everyday. I'm sorry if you misunderstood.
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I will agree if you are trying to imply that the higher the level, the less useful the wall is, and eventually can become counterproductive.

My belief is that the wall is GREAT for developing stroke mechanics because of the greater number of repititions you can get in a short period of time. I think that a 3.X player is much better off hitting against a wall than hitting against another player when 1) they don't have alot of opportunity to work with a pro feeding balls to them and 2) they don't have access to a ball machine. The reason is that alot of hitting partners at the lower levels can't sustain a rally or will hit erratic balls that will never allow you to have any rhythm. You can't isolate your shots in these conditions like you can against a wall.
 
Yup, that's fine. I see nothing wrong with that as long as players keep in mind that eventually you will have to move beyond the wall due to its limitations if you want to get better, but I felt the wall certainly fostered my growth up to a certain point. I've abandoned the wall for a good year now, though, and my game's skyrocketed since thanks to human play. That is actually such a weird statement now that I read it to myself.
 
I've been playing for 3 years and I'm still learning new things from hitting the wall from time to time. I can practice endless slice and just now recently consistently practice overhead with it.

FYI, I also started out hitting with the wall and sometimes I prefer it over some of my inconsistent hitting partners. :)
 
There was one thing I really enjoyed testing myself with when I spent endless hours with the wall; on days when it was misting, but not quite enough to run me off the court (though I've been known to play in the rain) and the ball would get wet enough to leave marks on the wall, I would try to hit the same mark every single time. By the end of my session, I gauged how successful I was based on the precision of spots left on the wall and how concentrated they were. I surprised myself how many times I could hit the exact same spot. Echizen, anyone?
 
I can hit 1,000 balls against the wall but it's tough for me to hit more than 10 balls against a good opponent. The thing about hitting against the wall is that the wall would just bounce back the ball, whereas a good opponent would try to end the point and he would vary the pace of the ball.
 
bank5 said:
I think the wall is a great training aide for beginners to intermediate players working on consistency. It's also a great tool to work on your footwork.

The good players on your court are already consistent. They're probably working on things like hitting winners, varying shots and increasing serve speed which are things that don't work that well against the wall. The wall also gets kind of boring once you become consistent.

With that said, you can get pretty good by just hitting against the wall. Keep working on your consistency, and make it a point to become more consistent than your opponents. You'll climb the ranks pretty quickly that way.
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I think what you said makes a lot of sense! Yeah, since I'm still in early stages of tennis playing, my consisency needs a lot of improvements. Hitting against the wall will help build that consistency much better than hitting against fellow players with no consistency. But up to a certain point, when consistency is mostly aquired, you should be working on other stuffs.
 
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