Tennis Tryouts- Coach-Recommended Specifics to Work On

[Freestyle]

Hi all.

I'm getting ready to try out for my school team this year. The coach saw me hitting, and told me what she wants me to improve on to make the team.

1. My serve's consistency.
2. My backhand.
3. My on-court composure (I actually know what to do here)
4. My volleys.

Anyone have tips with these? My toss is my main problem while serving. For backhands, I can work that out; my pro is helping me. Volleys- I feel like I hit them late. Tips? Suggestions? Try outs are March 5th, so I do have time. I play once or twice a week.

 

[ManuGinobili]

Practice the toss at home since all you need is a ball. and a space with enough vertical clearance.... do a hundred or two a day to get consistency.

 

[Zachol82]

Hi all.

I'm getting ready to try out for my school team this year. The coach saw me hitting, and told me what she wants me to improve on to make the team.

1. My serve's consistency.
2. My backhand.
3. My on-court composure (I actually know what to do here)
4. My volleys.

Anyone have tips with these? My toss is my main problem while serving. For backhands, I can work that out; my pro is helping me. Volleys- I feel like I hit them late. Tips? Suggestions? Try outs are March 5th, so I do have time. I play once or twice a week.

Repetition is a great way to practice, but take some time and research the correct form/motion for each shot. You don't want to waste time practicing the wrong form just to have that embedded into muscle memory.

I'll try to give you some tips, maybe it'd help but do your own research nonetheless.

Serve Toss:
- Toss with the entire arm and body.
- Relax your tossing arm and raise the entire arm using your shoulder muscles and make sure to bend the knees.
- Make sure you're not holding the ball too tight.
- The entire arm should be straight during the toss, do not use fingers, wrist or elbow...shoulder only
- Finally, keep your tossing arm up in the air until your racquet makes contact with the ball.

Volleys:
- Always be ready and have the racquet out in front of you.
- Make sure your racquet face never drop below your waist.
- Effective volleying distance from the net can be determined by holding a racquet, extending your arm and have the tip of the racquet almost touch the net.
- Step into your volleys.
- Don't take your racquet back too far, a volley is not a swing, it's more like a short punch or jab.
- Don't wrist for extra spin, unless it is for a drop-shot that you know will end the point.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Work on 2nd serves (spin serves) only for while. When you can get 85-90% of these serve in, then start to add more juice to it. If you can still get a high % of serves into the box, then consider working on flatter, faster 1st serves. Strive to get 60% or more of these in. If you will be playing doulbes, the shoot for getting 70% of 1st serves in.