Aticipation Drills

[jvinnell]

My 7 year old daughter who has been playing mini tennis for a few years now is able to rally quite well from the back of the court moving side to side but has trouble if the ball is dropped mid court or short in that she gets to it to late. she is not slow in a straight sprint but it is as if she doesn't realise/anticipate quickly enough that the ball is dropping short.

she is tall for her age so I am working with her to stay in a lower more athletic posture which i think will help but was wondering if anyone could recommend some drills to help

Thanks John

[julian1]

A better location for your interesting question

My 7 year old daughter who has been playing mini tennis for a few years now is able to rally quite well from the back of the court moving side to side but has trouble if the ball is dropped mid court or short in that she gets to it to late. she is not slow in a straight sprint but it is as if she doesn't realise/anticipate quickly enough that the ball is dropping short.

she is tall for her age so I am working with her to stay in a lower more athletic posture which i think will help but was wondering if anyone could recommend some drills to help

Thanks John

It would be better to post it in a section "Have a question for me"

[tennis_chiro]

Walk a mile in her shoes!

My 7 year old daughter who has been playing mini tennis for a few years now is able to rally quite well from the back of the court moving side to side but has trouble if the ball is dropped mid court or short in that she gets to it to late. she is not slow in a straight sprint but it is as if she doesn't realise/anticipate quickly enough that the ball is dropping short.

she is tall for her age so I am working with her to stay in a lower more athletic posture which i think will help but was wondering if anyone could recommend some drills to help

Thanks John

Just imagine. Your daughter is about 2/3 of her future adult height. So let's take you and put you on a court that is 60 feet to the net instead of 39'. How do you think you would look trying to cover short balls.

Playing on a shorter court and reacting naturally will motivate her more to run fast for balls she can get to and soon she will be able to tranfer that speed to a real court as she gets just a little bigger. Check out the QuickStart stuff at USTA.com and see if you can get her to play on the 60 foot court instead of the 78' one with QuickStart balls. She will be able to compete effectively and that will motivate her more than anything else to run fast.

don brosseau

[jvinnell]

Anticipation Drills

Don,
Thanks for the reply, I did say she was playing MINI tennis (clue is in the name) which in England means she is playing in a small (almost badminton sized court) with small net and soft balls I hope you didn't think I had her on a full size court as that would be ridiculous for many reasons.

Even in this small court she does not anticipate short balls well so any helpful suggestions on drills to help with this would be appreciated. I have already had one which was to get her to see how early she could call out short or deep when a ball is hit to her.

Thanks John

[tennis_chiro]

Sorry, John, I misunderstood

Don,
Thanks for the reply, I did say she was playing MINI tennis (clue is in the name) which in England means she is playing in a small (almost badminton sized court) with small net and soft balls I hope you didn't think I had her on a full size court as that would be ridiculous for many reasons.

Even in this small court she does not anticipate short balls well so any helpful suggestions on drills to help with this would be appreciated. I have already had one which was to get her to see how early she could call out short or deep when a ball is hit to her.

Thanks John

Sorry, John. I misunderstood. I thought you were trying to transition her to a full court. There are a number of drills you can do, but it takes some time for kids to just develop that athletic anticipation. A lot of it is learning to focus on your opponents racket as the ball is struck and actually seeing the impact. Young kids don't always do that automatically. Others who have taught more "tiny tots" and QuickStart programs can probably give you better suggestions, but a lot of it is just developing basic movement skills. I don't teach the classes, but they run next to me all the time with the little kids and they are constantly doing movement drills to develop those skills.

One thing you might take a look at is www.sports-split-step.com

Vic Borgognio's work is primarily about lateral movement, but the principles are the same for moving forward. The stuff on his web site may give you some good ideas. You might also check the videos on www.OncourtOffcourt.com. Joe Dinoffer has done a lot of work on this kind of stuff and put it in a useable form. Check out his Agility and Quickness DVD, for example. I think you'll find a lot of good ideas there.

Again, sorry to have misunderstood. Sounds like you are doing the right things.

don

[jvinnell]

Thanks

Don,

No problem. Thanks for the info and links I'm taking a look now

John