Adult Tennis Drills for Home

Are you keen to try and improve your skills outside of your tennis lesson? You can find an Open Court session in your local area or you can practice some drills when you're t home without a court.

Here are some drills you can try:

Hit against a wall

Find an outdoor wall area where with plenty of room to swing a racket. Novak Djokovic, one of the best players in the world used to do this for hours when he was a junior. 'The best sparring partner you can have is a wall,' Djokovic says. 'Trust me, it never misses.'

Use string as a net

Find 2 trees and tie a piece of string between the two - this is your net! Find a partner and start rallying. This is a good way to practice rally skills and consistency. Alternatively, you can buy a mini-net if you have space in your backyard.

Bounce a ball on a racket

The drill only requires a racket and a ball. This is a fantastic way to improve hand-eye coordination. The game is to bounce a tennis ball up and down on a racket as many times in a row as possible. Count the number of bounces and watch yourself improve! This may seem a little easy however the key to if you want to improve your tennis skills as an adult, it is important to start getting a good feel for the ball.

The Serve Toss Drill

One of the most challenging parts of the serve is the ball toss. This drill is a great way to practice it! Toss the ball in the air with your non-dominant hand. Keep your arm in the air straight and try to catch the ball (your palm should be facing you. Resist the temptation to turn your hand to catch the ball). Toss the ball 20 times. Imagine after one week or one month how much better your toss would be?

This is a drill we consistently practise during our adult tennis lessons so we would recommend you try it at home.

Shadow Swing Drills

You can do this exercise at home. Just make sure you have enough space. This needs you to have good technique to begin with. If you have poor technique you may be reinforcing the same poor technique. In this case, copy your favourite pro player’s form, or watch a video tutorial on how to hit proper groundstrokes. Above all, find a coach who can show you good form. That way, you get personal feedback on how you are going. Once you have good form, you can shadow stroke.

From the ready position, start air swinging your forehand. shadow stroking your forehand. Do it at least 10 times. Start swinging slowly at first to make sure your form is good then gradually speed up the swing. You can use a racket as well. You can practice with low shots, medium and high shots. You can also experiment with open, closed and neutral stances and incorporate side-to-side, back and forwards. Pretend you are playing points.

Man Tennis Swing on Hard Court Canberra.