Imaginative one hour workout...

[don_budge]

Today I had four of my older and better players for an hour workout.

First order of business...two laps around the court and then from the middle of the baseline running to and from the corners of the service box as illustrated by Mark in his on court training part 2.

Then the four partnered up and the two pairs were given one ball to warm up with. Every time they missed they had to run and change sides with their partner. The four worked this drill with each of the three others for several minutes each. Repeat of Mark's service box running drill.

Part one of the next series of exercises consisted of one player moving forward to the net and then once reaching the net retreating to the baseline while rallying. The goal of each rally for the one moving forward and backward is to reach the net and retreat behind the baseline within the span their hitting six shots. You will find that you must move fairly aggressively to accomplish the journey in six shots. The baseline player's goal is to not miss so that the advancing and retreating player stays in motion. Each player did this with all three partners.

Part two of the advancing and retreating drill is that now one player starts at the net and immediately retreats while the baseline player begins to advance. Now both players are either advancing or retreating at the same time...both are working up and back but in opposite directions.

Part three was both players starting at the net and both start retreating at the same time and when they reach the baseline at the same time they begin to advance together and towards each other. I told them to get so close to the net that they could hug each other...and to control the ball to their partners racquet. Followed of course...by two more laps around the court and a couple of more repetitions of Mark's forward and backward running drill.

The next part of the session was a doubles game that I made up on the spot. We had opened two new cans of new balls and I told them to return all of the balls to me as I stood directly in the back of the court behind the server. The server got just one serve and had to follow it into the net. Immediately after each point all of the players had to run into position for the next point. After each game the players had to quickly change sides. The motivation of the drill was to get them to swing at their second serves and to get them to follow it in to the net...and also to get them to quickly get ready for the next point. Each player served two games. This went extremely well and afterwards I explained to them that doubles is a great game if all four players have their heads in the game. With younger players...they tend to dawdle and lose focus in between points which gets to be rather tedious and boring. They seemed to be all in after the initial shock of newness of the game wore off.

Finally we finished with a round robin of games up to fifteen that are played without serving. The players hit a routine ball to the forehand of their opponent and start the point from there. Oh yes...I forgot to mention...two more laps around the court and two more sets of Mark's running to the corners of the service court drill.

I think this workout took the "edge" off the kids today. I thought it was a great workout...they left nothing in the bag in the end.

[don_budge]

The journey forwards...will require a journey inwards.

In order to get to the net where you can execute a volley...you have to get there. To get there you must practice getting there. To play the midcourt and the forecourt is another game altogether. Different concepts...a different mode of operation. This requires thoughtful coaching...and experience. Too late? Extinct instincts? Extinct knowledge? Physically impossible due to the engineering?

Retool. Decrease the size of the racquet. Simple. Elementary my dear Watson.

This from the commentary that I wrote with John Yandel's music video. I quote myself...the ultimate literary and coaching indulgence.

"Approach Shots...Getting there"

"If a tennis player is intent on hitting the ball in the air...first he must get himself in position to do so and this involves hitting an effective approach shot that puts his opponent off balance or out of position by a combination of three elements for hitting a shot with pace, spin and placement. Much of the McEnroe artistry is attributed to his genius for playing such shots and moving in behind them. His ability to hit the ball early and on the rise, while moving forward and controlling the three elements of approach shots is in large degree the key to his productivity at the net. His service motion was also conductive to serve and volley tennis as his motion was designed to propel him into the court to land with his feet churning their way to the net. His anticipation of passing shots was second to none."