TOP 4 Tennis Drills For INTERMEDIATE Players

What is up athletes? You saw it in the title. If you're an advanced player, we're about to cover our top five drills on mastering the baseline game. Let's get into it. First off, we've got the deep court drill. Now, hitting the ball consistently and with a lot of depth is probably one of the most important qualities that you can have in your ground strokes. Players like Medvedev use depth to neutralize shots and go from defense to offense in a heartbeat. So to start this, we're going to set up a cone in front of the baseline and we're going to stand about three feet behind the baseline and rally at about 50% of the pace to start. The first one to hit the cone is going to win. From here, try to get 10 balls in a row past the service line before moving on. Now you can see that we're trying these from the baseline and you can work your way back to the baseline. We just wanted to make it fun for you to watch. Number two, we've got the pace control drill. For these, we're going to be hitting on the rise. By learning how to control the pace and hit the ball as it rises, you can actually pacify your opponent's hardest shots, taking away time from your opponents and getting crazy pace with minimal effort. So to master the ball hitting on the rise, we're going to work on keeping the cone in the same place, except now we're going to move it up so that we're standing right behind the baseline. Take the ball early here, as early as you can, and don't let the ball cross the baseline. And instead of trying to swing hard, you want to focus on redirecting the ball's pace with a good, clean contact point. Right here, you also want to keep your hips pretty low, rotate through contact, and tighten your grip to stabilize the racket against harder balls. And try to swing up more aggressively if you're redirecting a very hard ball right at your feet. For drill number three, we have the low ball consistency drill. Until you can easily handle low balls, these slicey dicey players that chip everything back will always come to haunt you. So to practice hitting these low balls, you're going to have your opponent slice balls right to your feet while you pick them up with your topspin. Start down the middle, and then you can start to add in movement as you get comfortable with this. So first, you want to focus on adding shape to your shots by staying low and rotating that hand over while swinging up aggressively. When you're consistently starting to spin the ball back over, you could start to add depth and pace to the same shot by rotating your hips harder and extending your arm. And when you gain the confidence to start attacking these low balls, they'll start to think twice before they chip it back over again. For drill number four, we've got the cross-court king drill. The cross-court battle is the foundation of every high-level player's ground stroke game. The deep ball cross-court is special because you can hit it from almost anywhere in the court, and it'll prevent your opponents from attacking. For this, you're going to set up your cone about two feet from the singles line and in front of the baseline. Being able to target right in this spot is going to give you a safe margin while keeping you on the offense and hitting your shots aggressively. An important note here is that the court geometry is actually going to change when you start hitting cross-court. When you're up the center, your hitting zone is pretty symmetrical. You can hit the ball with equal pace and depth to both sides, and it will get the ball in. But as we start hitting the ball cross-court, the court becomes a little more asymmetrical, and you can actually hit further to the side that's shorter in the court. And against good players, if you hit weak down the line, you'll immediately be on defense. So your best bet here is to aim deep to the corner until you get a slower and shorter ball. Then you can start to use angles or finish down the line. And there you have it, athletes. Work on these drills for about two to three times a week, and you'll instantly start seeing yourself increasing your power, consistency, footwork, and timing. Now, if you guys like this style of video, we'll be making a part two on the advanced strategy drills. But make sure to let us know whether you like these videos or not by smashing the like button below and letting us know in the comments what you guys like to see. And as always, athletes, thank you so much for watching. Go out and train hard. I'll see you in the next video.