are you struggling with putting the performance that you show in practices onto the match court
there are definitely a lot of mental reasons why we're having more stress when we're on the court
playing matches than practice but there's one thing that doesn't have anything to do with the
mental part it is one thing that we can control and I've seen it over and over that that is the
part that keeps people back from performing well in matches we simply don't serve and work on
return enough in fact in one of the clubs that I taught when I wanted to do serve and return work
the people complained that there were not paying me to not feed the ball in in other words they
insisted that I kept feeding the ball the other thing is if you see a lot of players coming out
and hitting they're hitting through the middle and they might be hitting 20 minutes of forehand's
Cross Court back ends Cross Court and that's great but you're working on the middle of the
point you're not working on the beginning of the point the serve and the return in this video I'm
going to show you a progression of drills four serves and returns that you can do by yourself
with somebody a hitting partner a coach or even with somebody who doesn't know how to play tennis
but at least who knows how to toss a ball so let's get going one of the first things you can do come
out by yourself and surf get a bucket 10 15 watts good enough go out and serve and when you do that
you're coming out by yourself and you're serving by yourself do make sure that you pay attention
to a few details to get the most out of your single server session start with second serves
everybody wants to bomb first serves but number one you're increasing the risk of injury also it's
so much more frustrating to have to decrease pace so start slow with just second serves
and then add one more thing to it you wouldn't just do that in a match
you wouldn't Surf and then just stand there so make sure that you're recovering and I would add
one Shadow swing if you don't have anybody else to hit with you second serve and one Shadow swing
when you're working on second serves do put out targets and I would go actually
for a depth Target because even if your serve is not quite placed to foreign or
backhand especially at lower levels every level people are trained to step in on shorter serves
especially when it's a second serve so if you manage to get your second serve
albeit it's a little slower but deeper you're in go check now of course I forgot my targets
so we're going to improvise just use tennis balls or tennis cans or put a sweater there
something if you do have somebody who can help you with these drills but doesn't play
tennis here's a variation of this drill very simple make sure that the person has insurance
so whether you do this drill by yourself or you have somebody there or even having somebody return
or the coach then feeding the next ball in make sure that you continue to move after you serve
we're still working on surf consistency and defending off of our second serve so the first
ball is my regular second serve and then Kenneth will help me and return the ball in a realistic
way so that I have to recover and continue to play the point but I'm immediately under pressure
now even though his ball was a little out I'm still gonna play it because
that ball is 10 centimeters further up that ball is in I gotta react to it
and if by accident he hits it a little shorter I can then jump on offense
if you want more of these high-level drills I suggest that you check out the fuzzy yellow
balls new rules of singles because that is where I got some of these drills from will Hamilton and
Craig or shantacy will run you through a ton of things that have changed quite a bit in recent
years and that I think you can benefit from all you do is go to the app swipe to whichever topic
you want to choose and then you see Will and Craig explain exactly all the moves that you
need to win more singles so I'll drop the link Down Below in the description let's get back
to it the next drill is your good surf plus one return plus one and it is somewhat Cooperative
you're not trying to have rip winners you're also not trying to just put the ball in play
do want to go for depth so I'm serving Kenneth is going to return one ball I hit the next ball
off of that return he hits one more ball and then I catch the ball so for a total of four touches
oh you aced me that didn't count that didn't count
the next drill and this drill usually you would Mark a line about halfway between the
service line and the baseline or if you have the junior the 60 foot lines those are your targets
since I forgot my targets and I don't want to put balls in the middle of the Court we're going to
be really creative we're going to use the shade and its extension as the target line here's how
the drill goes I'm going to serve and Kenneth is going to return so this time we're only hitting
one ball each he's trying to work on deep returns and we're playing points out like a regular game
so I'm starting on the deuce Court I'm serving the ball if Kenneth manages to get the ball
deeper than our imaginary line he gets one point so it's love 15. if he hits it shorter than the
service line I get one point 15 love if he hits it into that no man's land in between
he gets one do-over per game so for instance if I serve on the very first ball he returns into
that middle space we're playing the point over and from then on if he hits it short he loses a point
if he hits it inside our Target area I lose the point and that way you're playing out whole games
foreign and of course if he misses it deep I get the point so 15 love
second serve you do have first and second serve
30 love so far I'm ruling this
so that is short another point for me
yep so game for me now we're switching no matter which of these drills you're
using I would suggest that you're always always every time you step on court you
work on your serve and on your return because it's just such a huge part of
tennis if you can't start the point how are you going to play the middle of it and if you
want to work on a really really good spin Surf use the slicer first before you go to
the kick serve and if you want to learn how to hit it go ahead and check out this video