Most people's stroke warm-up on a tennis court consists of a few minutes of half baked mini-tennis. This is then followed by moving back to the baseline ASAP and flailing away at groundies with reckless abandon. After five or so minutes of this you have even less rhythm and 10 times more frustration than when you began.
At MMT my players are constantly working on improving and ingraining their fundamentals. Even if we are about to embark on a situational training session, more often than not I insist on the younger players in particular running through an organized structured warm-up. Because for me, it's not about quantity of reps, it's about the quality. And if you only have a one hour session then you better make sure the quality is high.
As a result, after warming up physically, here is one sample groundstroke warm-up I get my players to do. Depending on the amount of players on court, either the coach will feed the balls or players will split up into groups and take turns feeding each other.
1. From the service line hit10 forehands and 10 two-handed backhands starting in the looking through the strings position. This emphasizes waiting for and tracking the ball. You look through the strings until the ball bounces and then play your shot.
2. Starting from 3/4 court, hit 10 forehands and 10 backhands counting '1' when your partner tosses you the ball and not hitting your stroke until you get to '5'. This reinforces timing and observing how the ball slows down. More advanced players can do this while moving back to hit the first shot and forwards to hit the next ball.
3. Starting from the baseline, hit 10 forehands and 10 backhands where you have to hold your finish until the ball bounces on the other side of the court. This reinforces finishing the stroke. My favourite version of this is to have players move a few steps to the right or left and hit from an open stance before moving back towards the centre with the racket still in the finish position.
This is just one example of the stroke warm-ups my players do. This is a great way to reinforce key fundamentals of your groundies at the beginning of a training session. The better and more ingrained your fundamentals, the better you'll play so never think you are too good to not concentrate on the basics.
(Note: I learnt these exercises from Oscar Wegner's DVD's. For more great material visit www.tennisteacher.org)
At MMT my players are constantly working on improving and ingraining their fundamentals. Even if we are about to embark on a situational training session, more often than not I insist on the younger players in particular running through an organized structured warm-up. Because for me, it's not about quantity of reps, it's about the quality. And if you only have a one hour session then you better make sure the quality is high.
As a result, after warming up physically, here is one sample groundstroke warm-up I get my players to do. Depending on the amount of players on court, either the coach will feed the balls or players will split up into groups and take turns feeding each other.
1. From the service line hit10 forehands and 10 two-handed backhands starting in the looking through the strings position. This emphasizes waiting for and tracking the ball. You look through the strings until the ball bounces and then play your shot.
2. Starting from 3/4 court, hit 10 forehands and 10 backhands counting '1' when your partner tosses you the ball and not hitting your stroke until you get to '5'. This reinforces timing and observing how the ball slows down. More advanced players can do this while moving back to hit the first shot and forwards to hit the next ball.
3. Starting from the baseline, hit 10 forehands and 10 backhands where you have to hold your finish until the ball bounces on the other side of the court. This reinforces finishing the stroke. My favourite version of this is to have players move a few steps to the right or left and hit from an open stance before moving back towards the centre with the racket still in the finish position.
This is just one example of the stroke warm-ups my players do. This is a great way to reinforce key fundamentals of your groundies at the beginning of a training session. The better and more ingrained your fundamentals, the better you'll play so never think you are too good to not concentrate on the basics.
(Note: I learnt these exercises from Oscar Wegner's DVD's. For more great material visit www.tennisteacher.org)
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