Template for 60-90 minute hitting session?

[LoanStar]

I'd like help putting together a template for a 60-90 minute one-on-one hitting session. Does anyone have one or suggestions for drills/point games to make it fun plus help with focus and consistency?

I've been doing the following:
1) Mini tennis and baseline rallying to warm-up
2) Deuce-Deuce baseline rallying with alleys
3) Ad-Ad baseline rallying with alleys
4) Deuce-Ad straight ahead baseline rallying
5) Deuce-Ad one up and one back (net player starts at service line and can't drop shot, baseline player can't lob); switch up and back starting positions
6) Same as 4) above only on other half of the court
7) Same as 5) above only on other half of the court; switch
8) Full court singles
2) thru 8) are usually games to 7 or 11 depending on court time

Could use ideas for serve-return and lob-overhead games, different scoring formats, etc..

 

[J011yroger]

Add movement and ball control, either 2&1s or one player stays and one moves or one hits cross and one hits line.

J

 

[vokazu]

My coach likes to have this cross court rallies and hit the ball as short as possible to make it land right on the sideline, wide away from the other player.

 

[socallefty]

We usually don’t play points in many of the drills during hitting sessions as we are there to practice accuracy, consistency, power or specific strokes and want to focus on technique/footwork improvements etc. As soon as you start keeping score, players usually don’t hit as freely or can’t focus as much on technique adjustments they are working on. We might play some tiebreakers with half-court points or full court points at the end of the session after we are done with drills. I play matches (singles or doubles) 4-5 times a week typically and so, keep the drill sessions focused on practice.

Generally, hitting sessions start with some mini-tennis and full-court baseline warmup before doing specific drills which can be any combination of the following:

Accuracy drills (half court with alleys) - crosscourt on deuce and ad, DTL on deuce and ad. Variation is to do crosscourt drills only with inside out shots.
Consistency drills - keep the ball in play as long as possible full court. A variation is to hit every ball outside the service box and keep it going as long as possible.
FH drill - one player hits only to other FH while the other player can hit full court.
BH drill - one player hits only to other BH while the other player can hit full court.
Figure 8 drill - One player has to hit every ball crosscourt while the other player has to hit every ball DTL. Good for footwork.
Winner drills - get points only by hitting outright winners - errors don’t count. Here we count points to 5 or 7.
Volley drills - one person at net is fed by other from baseline. Keep one ball going as long as possible.
Passing shot drills - similar to volley drill except that baseliner is trying to hit passing shots and not hitting cooperatively
Winner net drills - get points only by being within the service box after initial baseline feed. Here we count points to 5 or 7. If a player wins a point when he is outside the service box, it doesn’t count. So, you have to approach the net.
Lob/OH drill - net player can only smash to half the court (ad side or deuce side) to win points while baseline player can only lob and he can lob full court. We generally count to 5 points on each half-court.
Serve and return drills - one player serves while the other returns and we don’t play out the point.
Tiebreaker - with serves and without serves where we play out the point and keep score
Half-court Tiebreakers with serves - practice for doubles where you can hit only crosscourt including alleys.

If one player is willing to do handfeeds, we might alternate doing footwork drills like Spanish X drills or give three feeds to three different spots on the baseline (left, right, center to hit FHs only or BHs only). Or one person feeds from the net to the same spot (center of the baseline, deuce wide, ad wide) and the baseline player has to alternate hitting FHs and BHs with quick footwork.

 

[LoanStar]

We usually don’t play points in many of the drills during hitting sessions as we are there to practice accuracy, consistency, power or specific strokes and want to focus on technique/footwork improvements etc. As soon as you start keeping score, players usually don’t hit as freely or can’t focus as much on technique adjustments they are working on. We might play some tiebreakers with half-court points or full court points at the end of the session after we are done with drills. I play matches (singles or doubles) 4-5 times a week typically and so, keep the drill sessions focused on practice.

Generally, hitting sessions start with some mini-tennis and full-court baseline warmup before doing specific drills which can be any combination of the following:

Accuracy drills (half court with alleys) - crosscourt on deuce and ad, DTL on deuce and ad. Variation is to do crosscourt drills only with inside out shots.
Consistency drills - keep the ball in play as long as possible full court. A variation is to hit every ball outside the service box and keep it going as long as possible.
FH drill - one player hits only to other FH while the other player can hit full court.
BH drill - one player hits only to other BH while the other player can hit full court.
Figure 8 drill - One player has to hit every ball crosscourt while the other player has to hit every ball DTL. Good for footwork.
Winner drills - get points only by hitting outright winners - errors don’t count. Here we count points to 5 or 7.
Volley drills - one person at net is fed by other from baseline. Keep one ball going as long as possible.
Passing shot drills - similar to volley drill except that baseliner is trying to hit passing shots and not hitting cooperatively
Winner net drills - get points only by being within the service box after initial baseline feed. Here we count points to 5 or 7. If a player wins a point when he is outside the service box, it doesn’t count. So, you have to approach the net.
Lob/OH drill - net player can only smash to half the court (ad side or deuce side) to win points while baseline player can only lob and he can lob full court. We generally count to 5 points on each half-court.
Serve and return drills - one player serves while the other returns and we don’t play out the point.
Tiebreaker - with serves and without serves where we play out the point and keep score
Half-court Tiebreakers with serves - practice for doubles where you can hit only crosscourt including alleys.

If one player is willing to do handfeeds, we might alternate doing footwork drills like Spanish X drills or give three feeds to three different spots on the baseline (left, right, center to hit FHs only or BHs only). Or one person feeds from the net to the same spot (center of the baseline, deuce wide, ad wide) and the baseline player has to alternate hitting FHs and BHs with quick footwork.

Good stuff!