How do I get better faster? Here are two of my favorite drills to take an athlete up a level of play. One I touched in a recent post, hit a great drive serve. If you are practicing your great drive serve, you are probably also practicing your forehand (or in rare cases backhand, if you have a backhand serve.) Start hitting a hundred drive serves three times per week, charting your perfect serve percentages, and you will have a great forehand and a great serve. Be sure to bring your practice book, and write down what you are doing when you hit a good serve and maybe even what you are not doing when you hit a bad one. In other words, coach yourself up!
Then, step two, practice your backhand ceiling ball. See if you can ten in a row. Get into the rhythm of hitting a ceiling ball, moving your feet and getting into position to hit another one. You will be practicing footwork, ceiling ball, and backhand in one drill. Add shooting the weak or short ceiling balls, and you have another dimension to this drill. Combined with the forehand and serve you are cultivating, your game will go up at least one level.
Oh, and one more thing-make sure you are hitting them correctly. That’s where I come in!
Go Get’em Tigers!