Why is 'mini-tennis' considered a warm-up drill?

What happens if only one player wants to do mini tennis? Plus it's mostly a practice match type thing..I rarely see it in tournament matches
 
comeback said:
What happens if only one player wants to do mini tennis? Plus it's mostly a practice match type thing..I rarely see it in tournament matches
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Some players don't like mini-tennis cuz they don't know how to do it correctly. You can try to teach those players how to do it properly.

You are not going to get your match opponent do engage in mini-tennis at match time -- particularly cuz warmup time for tournament matches are limited. You need to find someone else to warm up with you earlier. Try for an extended warmup if possible -- with some mini-tennis and a full court tennis.
 
Personally, I've tried warming up with mini-tennis, but I just dont like it.

Rather, I prefer Xtra large tennis, where my partner and I stand a meter or 2 behind the baseline and just drive the ball towards each other, down the middle.

I find that this warms up my joints a lot better than dinking the ball back and forth, but that's just me.
 
^ You've missed the point of mini-tennis. It's NOT really meant for warming up joints and muscles. And if you are doing mini-tennis properly, you are NOT dinking the ball back and forth.

.
 
willeric said:
The whole point of mini tennis warmup is that it looks identical to you full court shots albeit slower. You need good footwork and setup. With practice, you can pretty much be exact on where you want the ball to bounce on the other side, close to the net or by the service line. I bet if someone looked at your full stroke, they would know what your problem with mini tennis is.
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But how can mini tennis just be swinging slower than full court tennis? In full court tennis you have double the length of court to get the ball to drop into, so you only need to hit half the topspin. In mini tennis, the court is so short that extreme topspin and thus extreme racket head speed is needed to make the ball dip in time. However you also need such an extremely vertical swing path that the resultant ball travels very slowly (thus keeping the drill cooperative) yet still has that huge topspin on it. My coach has said that mini tennis done right is extremely tough and makes sure you have very good racket head speed.
 
thomasferrett said:
But how can mini tennis just be swinging slower than full court tennis? In full court tennis you have double the length of court to get the ball to drop into, so you only need to hit half the topspin. In mini tennis, the court is so short that extreme topspin and thus extreme racket head speed is needed to make the ball dip in time. However you also need such an extremely vertical swing path that the resultant ball travels very slowly (thus keeping the drill cooperative) yet still has that huge topspin on it. My coach has said that mini tennis done right is extremely tough and makes sure you have very good racket head speed.
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I think mini tennis strokes are slower because your takeback is much shorter. you're not actively trying to slow down your swing, (I try to swing fast), but like a drag car on a short strip, I have less distance to contact to accelerate my racquet head.
 
thomasferrett said:
I do have what I think of as modern strokes - I use a semi-western one handed backhand and a full western forehand.

Mini tennis requires me to swing pretty extremely steeply otherwise I won't clear the net, and then once I am clearing the net I can't clear the net without hitting a lot of speed (because of the closed racket face), so then I have to swing even faster than normal to make it dip before it goes long.

It is certainly much harder for me to hold a rally in mini tennis than in normal tennis.

Sure, I could just switch my grip to an eastern forehand and a continental backhand and 'dink' the shots in with a more open face than I am used to hitting with, but in mini tennis you're meant to be using your proper ground-game technique.
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I hit with those same grips. You are doing it very very wrong. Its strange because balls are hit WITHOUT topspin everyday and some how they manage to drop.

For a long long time I hated mini because I couldnt do it and ended up going conti and slicing. I was arming the ball and well its hard hitting like that.

But now I am hitting really loose and mini is a lot easier. I just have to focus on the prep and it all kind of falls into place.

Another video dodge. Sad. Its really easy to post vids these days....

A vid you can watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap7qKOaiPxw
 
SystemicAnomaly said:
^ You've missed the point of mini-tennis. It's NOT really meant for warming up joints and muscles. And if you are doing mini-tennis properly, you are NOT dinking the ball back and forth.

.
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Good point. Most of the time, I'm warmed up (ie I've jogged, etc for about 10 minutes) before I get on the court, so the object of mini tennis is to get my footwork, take-back and contact point "warmed up" in a confined and controlled space. It's pretty hard to just go out and control the ball over an 80' space from the outset. Mini, at about 25', is better.
 
thomasferrett said:
You won't see any video because I can't do it, which is why I'm having difficulties with this drill.

If I could hit balls that travel as slow as 40mph yet have as much as 5000rpm of spin on them, then I could play mini-tennis easily!

I can't, hence I am struggling with it.
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I think everyone agrees here that OP should post a video of them playing or trying to hit mini tennis or even just regular tennis. We are getting nowhere trying to explain mini tennis to you. You should have your coach or someone video tape you while to attempt to play mini tennis. And then everyone else on the board can post of video of themselves playing mini tennis. If you really want to learn how to properly play mini tennis you should hep us understand visually what you are doing. Otherwise, you are just wasting our time with your excuses, and trying to seek validation from other posters about your ineptitude. I know this sounds harsh, but I see a lot good posts on here. However, you seem to only want to argue that you can't do this or can't to that. And that to me is the wrong attitude, and you will never get better or improve. But if all you want to do is argue that mini tennis is impossible, so be it.
 
thomasferrett said:
But how can mini tennis just be swinging slower than full court tennis? In full court tennis you have double the length of court to get the ball to drop into, so you only need to hit half the topspin. In mini tennis, the court is so short that extreme topspin and thus extreme racket head speed is needed to make the ball dip in time. However you also need such an extremely vertical swing path that the resultant ball travels very slowly (thus keeping the drill cooperative) yet still has that huge topspin on it. My coach has said that mini tennis done right is extremely tough and makes sure you have very good racket head speed.
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The ball is going slower . . . a lot slower . . . a super, freakin' lot slower than is would be from the baseline so you don't need huge spin to pull it down. Gravity will do most of the work.

Shorten the backswing, take a full, controlled, slow forward swing with your real form emphasizing the vertical component with almost no through component to the swing. The ball should be spinny (but no where near the spin you'd get from a full swing), slow, and high-ish over the net. Warm up the joints, find the contact point, groove the form.

As you move back you hit a bit harder.

The tough part about mini-tennis for me is finding the contact point and letting the stroke freely flow without over hitting the ball and making it difficult or impossible for your partner (not opponent) to return your shot.

What you're describing sounds like something totally different.
 
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rkelley said:
The ball is going slower . . . a lot slower . . . a super, freakin' lot slower than is would be from the baseline so you don't need huge spin to pull it down. Gravity will do most of the work.

Shorten the backswing, take a full, controlled, slow forward swing with your real form emphasizing the vertical component with almost no through component to the swing. The ball should be spinny (but no where near the spin you'd get from a full swing), slow, and high-ish over the net. Warm up the joints, find the contact point, groove the form.

As you move back you hit a bit harder.

The tough part about mini-tennis for me is finding the contact point and letting the stroke freely flow without over hitting the ball and making it difficult or impossible for your partner (not opponent) to return your shot.

What you're describing sounds like something totally different.
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Best description yet! Mini isn't about racket head speed and spin, it's about slowing down and using correct, deliberate footwork and technique.
 
thomasferrett's idiotic descriptions of what he does never include video showing the idiocy. 5000rpm mini tennis.

OP, please post a video to prove that you're not just trolling.
 
tennis_ocd said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r12VBPj8WLI

This is not what I experience when asked to play mini ;)

These guys are swinging away....
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That's what I aim for when doing mini tennis... they are swinging away, but the stroke is very abbreviated, so it's much slower relative to their normal stroke (but I am not trying to actively "slow down the stroke" to control the shot).

I agree, though, most folks doing mini tennis are really doing volley drills :)
 
BMC9670 said:
^^^ That's not a warm-up, though. It is a drill/game to work on short angles with topspin. They are trying to win a mini point. It's a different thing.

Here's a good example of a mini-warm up with slow but correct and deliberate footwork and strokes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fdSuZNkHL8
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This is what I expect! It is a useful warm-up. I notice Haas is mid-way from service to baseline -- as presumably is his partner (and he still gets the occasional too deep ball.) I find mini tennis doable from this position. From service line to service line it quickly breaks down and I find myself almost immediately in a continental grip practicing volley and soft half-volleys. I don't know why I hold firm to the service line until rapidly retreating all the way to baseline.

The vid a few posts further up sounds like what the OP is trying for and I find much more difficult but then I virtually never have practiced it....
 
tennis_ocd said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r12VBPj8WLI

This is not what I experience when asked to play mini ;)

These guys are swinging away....
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This is how I do mini warmup, topspin aimed halfway between net and service line. The bounce typically moves the ball behind the service line for the partner to hit. Then occasionally, I slice the ball or half volley topspin on the rise, by standing on the service line. Builds the focus nicely, and grooves the topspin motion!
 
Lukhas said:
I second that. Mini-tennis is good for warmup even with full strokes.
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Can't really do full strokes with full bed natural gut in mini tennis, even if just brushing the ball; I have to sit inside the baseline at best (and not on the service line).
 
torpantennis said:
Maybe your troubles are also related to your flatter hitting? Hard to play mini with flat strokes...
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What's up with players with full western grips hitting really flat shots? It's like they are holding the ESR and using body rotation. I see this a lot with juniors.
 
willeric said:
What's up with players with full western grips hitting really flat shots? It's like they are holding the ESR and using body rotation. I see this a lot with juniors.
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Maybe that's the easiest way to handle and counter high bouncing topspin shots? Western grip allows high contact point, and flat hitting counters heavy topspin.
 
rkelley said:
Shorten the backswing, take a full, controlled, slow forward swing with your real form emphasizing the vertical component with almost no through component to the swing. The ball should be spinny (but no where near the spin you'd get from a full swing), slow, and high-ish over the net. Warm up the joints, find the contact point, groove the form.
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The bolded items are key. Shortened backswing and emphatic low-to-high swingpath. I always finish with full follow throughs but I have a large backswing and I need to shorten it quite a bit to avoid overhitting.
 
I play mini tennis as a warm up but mostly at the end a tennis practice session and it can be very tough. when to players of equal level play mini tennis with points and can make each other going from one side to the other of the court many times for one point can be very demanding but fun. it's great way to improve foot work anticipation net game touch and how to control of your shot
 
You can use mini tennis as a warm up, or as a drill.. With the former you hit slower, usually with a slightly abbreviated racquet takeback, usually hit a couple dozen shots to warm yourselves up and groove your strokes before gradually working your way back to the baseline (like the first 30 seconds or so of these videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEk9ivMyjTc and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6rNzdVuET0); with the latter, you will probably use a full takeback but put way more spin in the strokes, like in the drill video below:
tennis_ocd said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r12VBPj8WLI

This is not what I experience when asked to play mini ;)

These guys are swinging away....
Click to expand...
 
BMC9670 said:
... Here's a good example of a mini-warm up with slow but correct and deliberate footwork and strokes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fdSuZNkHL8
Click to expand...

Excellent short court warmup. One thing that is particularly good here is the footwork. Take note of how much he moves his feet. He is not only performing split steps and recovery steps, he is also using additional ready steps prior to the split steps.

This puts some additional bounce in his movement which better works his heart and lungs as well as his other muscles and joints. Many players do not do this with their mini-tennis warmups.
 
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