Playing into the Sunset: Part 2: Effective Practice

[johnyandell]

Would love to hear your thoughts on Rod Heckelman's latest "Playing into the Sunset: Part 2: Effective Practice"

[EdWeiss]

Excellent Article

I really enjoyed the article. Very solid practical drills to improve your game. I like that they put some pressure on the player. I tried the Solo Serving drill today with a good young student. He loves Federer and hates Djokovic for ever beating Roger so he decided to play he would play against Djokovic in the drill and when he won the set 6-4 he was genuinely happy!
Question for Ron: in the make five volleys game, if the volleyer hits (for example) three in a row and the baseline player misses off the third made volley what do you do? Does the ball get fed in and the volleyer has to make 2 more to get to five? Thanks.

[RodHeckelman]

Creating a pattern

I like to start the drill from scratch for two reasons; it creates consistency from both players and also makes both players realize that good practice requires a mutual effort. When you can create an atmosphere where the player is competing more against the challenge of the drill versus the opponent, you in turn help develop the psychological benefits of realizing that you are always trying to optimize your skills, not necessarily trying to beat an opponent.
Learning to become consistent, or battling the issue of unforced errors, is an ongoing task that is best mastered by practicing drills that reward you for accomplishing that goal. The more practice drills you perform that require consistency, the more you are likely to become a “living backboard.” Weapons are more likely to be discovered and successful when they evolve from a longer, more engineered point. I compare this to baseball where the good hitters always seem to be able to go longer into the count. Not only are they looking for a better pitch to hit, but are more likely to see a better pitch to hit.

[EdWeiss]

Thanks

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

[klacr]

Great Article

This was a great article. Simple, straightforward and easy to implement.

These drills are effective and I have used these exercises in the past with many of my students of all ages. Kudos to Rod for contributing.

The crosscourt volleys are a favorite I use with my ladies teams. Extremely beneficial.

An important thing to understand for many recreational players is that if they simply cut down on their unforced errors, the chance of them not only winning dramatically increases, but improving increases dramatically as they can develop rhythm, consistency, and flow. They must learn to make the other player miss, not try to win the point outright. These drills are crucial to helping players find a comfort zone and being held accountable.

I hope other coaches read this article.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[howardb]

First Rate !

Excellent article. I cannot wait to use these 'games'. Not just because I came to tennis late in life; but because the effectiveness of this type of practice can only help me (or any one) get closer to becoming "non-cognizant competent.

I'm only miffed because I did NOT think of these games.

Implore Mr. Heckelman to write more. Give him a couple of candy bars for me.
He deserves it.

[RodHeckelman]

Drilling good, candy bad

Although your response promotes a popular Pavlovian approach, (that of the candy reward), as you can see my need to expand on my game needs to be directed towards my strokes and tactics and not my silhouette. Having said that, many years back I wrote a manual called “Down Your Alley,” which has over 160 different drills and ways to play the game, along with about 60 drills for teachers to use during their lessons. The idea behind these games was to find ways of altering performance by changing the demands on the players. Telling a student to alter their style of play, or trying to explain to an experienced player how they should now perform, can be a slow and sometimes fruitless process. By changing the rules, the dimensions of the game, essentially the motivation of the player, they alter their play naturally and can translate that new style more readily into their competitive play. Here are a few more drills you may find helpful and fun to experiment with…they have been pulled randomly from the book…

DRILL 11: PAM'S DRILL
Learn to appreciate the importance of making that first volley after your serve. The rules are very simple. If you are able to keep your first volley in, you cannot lose the point. If the opponent ends up winning the point after you had made the first volley, then the point is replayed. Play an entire set this way and discover the importance of establishing this consistency. If you want to make the challenge more difficult for the first volley, pick areas in which the first volley must land. Make it even more challenging by requiring that this rule only be true following a successful first serve.

DRILL 3: MATCH POINT REPLAY
How often have you lost a big point and wanted to have another chance at it? This is your opportunity to live that dream, but not without risk. Each player serves a game, with the score starting at deuce. Play a regular set. Each player is allowed to replay only three points. Like those children's fairy tales where three wishes are granted, it's important to choose the right three points and not waste your replays on lesser opportunities. It is also important to be able to correct your tactics by experiencing a successful result. This drill will also help you understand what points are the big points during a set. Once again, if the two players are not at the same level of play, the amount of replayed points can be changed to help equalize the competition.

DRILL 2: CROSSCOURT DEPTH BATTLE
Again both players start at the baseline and one player puts the ball into play crosscourt. With this drill, the player who first hits the ball shallow enough to land in the service squares must then allow his opponent use of the entire court. The player who hit the first shallow ball must continue to use the original crosscourt half of the court until either the other player also hits a shallow ball or until the point is over. Keeping the ball deep and also trying to elicit a weak return is a perfect practice for any serious groundstroker. The first to seven points wins with the players changing angles after one player wins.

DRILL 7: NO DOUBLE FAULTS
With the fear of a double fault taken away, many players can really let loose on their serve. In this drill the rules are changed to encourage the server to attack the serve. If you make your first serve and win the point, you score three points; make the second serve and win the point and you score two points; make the third serve and win the point and you will receive one point. Any subsequent serve that results in your winning the point would simply be replayed. Each player takes turns serving games that are played to seven points. Players must win by two points. The server should do quite well in this drill and feel comfortable in attacking the serve.

This should keep you busy...Rod

[tennis_chiro]

Love the drills!

Although your response promotes a popular Pavlovian approach, (that of the candy reward), as you can see my need to expand on my game needs to be directed towards my strokes and tactics and not my silhouette. Having said that, many years back I wrote a manual called “Down Your Alley,” which has over 160 different drills and ways to play the game, along with about 60 drills for teachers to use during their lessons. The idea behind these games was to find ways of altering performance by changing the demands on the players. Telling a student to alter their style of play, or trying to explain to an experienced player how they should now perform, can be a slow and sometimes fruitless process. By changing the rules, the dimensions of the game, essentially the motivation of the player, they alter their play naturally and can translate that new style more readily into their competitive play. Here are a few more drills you may find helpful and fun to experiment with…they have been pulled randomly from the book…

DRILL 11: PAM'S DRILL
Learn to appreciate the importance of making that first volley after your serve. The rules are very simple. If you are able to keep your first volley in, you cannot lose the point. If the opponent ends up winning the point after you had made the first volley, then the point is replayed. Play an entire set this way and discover the importance of establishing this consistency. If you want to make the challenge more difficult for the first volley, pick areas in which the first volley must land. Make it even more challenging by requiring that this rule only be true following a successful first serve.

DRILL 3: MATCH POINT REPLAY
How often have you lost a big point and wanted to have another chance at it? This is your opportunity to live that dream, but not without risk. Each player serves a game, with the score starting at deuce. Play a regular set. Each player is allowed to replay only three points. Like those children's fairy tales where three wishes are granted, it's important to choose the right three points and not waste your replays on lesser opportunities. It is also important to be able to correct your tactics by experiencing a successful result. This drill will also help you understand what points are the big points during a set. Once again, if the two players are not at the same level of play, the amount of replayed points can be changed to help equalize the competition.

DRILL 2: CROSSCOURT DEPTH BATTLE
Again both players start at the baseline and one player puts the ball into play crosscourt. With this drill, the player who first hits the ball shallow enough to land in the service squares must then allow his opponent use of the entire court. The player who hit the first shallow ball must continue to use the original crosscourt half of the court until either the other player also hits a shallow ball or until the point is over. Keeping the ball deep and also trying to elicit a weak return is a perfect practice for any serious groundstroker. The first to seven points wins with the players changing angles after one player wins.

DRILL 7: NO DOUBLE FAULTS
With the fear of a double fault taken away, many players can really let loose on their serve. In this drill the rules are changed to encourage the server to attack the serve. If you make your first serve and win the point, you score three points; make the second serve and win the point and you score two points; make the third serve and win the point and you will receive one point. Any subsequent serve that results in your winning the point would simply be replayed. Each player takes turns serving games that are played to seven points. Players must win by two points. The server should do quite well in this drill and feel comfortable in attacking the serve.

This should keep you busy...Rod

Rod,
love the article and love the drills. Is "Down Your Alley" still available?

don

[stotty]

Great drills, great input from Rod.

Rod, these are great drills. And it's great to have an article writer who backs up his work in the forum, some don't.

Some of these drills I have never used or even heard of before. They are going to be useful...thank you.

One drill that I use a lot is this one:

Players toss for serve. The winner serves. The idea of the game is the server must to win four consecutive points in a row (the equivalent of winning a service game to love). If a player wins four points in a row he wins a set. The returner tries to stop the server doing this by winning a point (breaking serve) against the server. If he does this, he inherits the serve and tries to win four consecutive points himself. A best of five sets match is played out in this way, which can take some time if players are equal.

Note: If a player wins 1, 2, or even 3 points in a row but loses the next, it's back to zero and he must start from scratch next time he inherits the serve.

To add a further degree of difficulty make it so the players only have one serve...so no second serves. For even further difficult have it so players must serve deeper than a marked out point in the service box.

For variation, make the players serve either solely to the ad court or solely to the deuce court.

Thanks so much for the drills, Rod, and for taking to time to take part in the forum.

[RodHeckelman]

Available book

I still have the book on file, but what I am going to do is allocate a few drills with every chapter and add on. John's idea is to put out these chapters of "Playing Into the Sunset," little by little and then continue to use the forum to help create a productive dialog. I like the idea that people have already responded by adding their drills to the forum...as long as I have been teaching and playing, I am still amazed by how many ways one can practice and change at all levels and all ages.

[johnyandell]

Rod And All,

Spread the word so far as I am concerned! If these gentlemen get the book it won't hurt our article series at all.

John