Cardio Tennis Drills to try at Home

Not sure how to improve your tennis skills without being on court or a mate to hit with?

If you are looking to improve your tennis skills outside of your tournaments or tennis lesson and you don't have a mate or a court, the good news is you still can! Here are some drills you can try at home.

Hit against a wall

Find an outdoor wall area where with plenty of room to swing a racket. Practice a mix of your volleys and ground strokes. 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 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. This is a simple yet effective exercise for adults and kids.

Around the world on the Racket

Place the ball on the racket and then have the ball roll its way around the frame of the racket. Try it both ways and aim to get as many rounds as possible. This is a great exercise at any time of day. This drill helps you get more of a feel of the ball, the more comfortable you are with a racket and ball, the better you are at reading the ball on court.

The Serve Toss Drill

One of the most challenging parts of the serve is the ball toss. This drill is a great way to practise 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?

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 practise with low shots, medium height shots and high shots. Backhands Make sure you're doing the footwork as well. You can also experiment with open, closed and neutral stances and incorporate side-to-side, back and forwards. Pretend you are playing points.

With these simple drills, you will improve and be more confident with your tennis skills in no time. It's great to attend group lessons but it's also very effective if you're practicing in your own time as well.