Tennis Technology and Training
I played a tournament last October at the Mission Hills Country Club. The COVID postponed BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells was going on at the same time. One morning WTA player Desirae Krawczyk and her doubles partner Alexa Guarachi strolled into the club for a practice session. Naturally, I watched their workout with rapt attention. They played the classic doubles practice game “Dingles!” against their coaches.
Dingles! is a doubles crosscourt hitting game that starts out with all four players at the baseline. Two balls are simultaneously put into play crosscourt. In essence there are two points going on simultaneously. When the first point is won or lost, the winning player yells “Dingles!” at which point the ball is in play for the full court with all four players participating. If one team wins both points, then they win a “Dingles!” point. If the points are split, there is no score.
Dingles! is so ubiquitous at the recreational level, I was surprised to see it in use by professional players. Perhaps my greatest takeaway from the practice session was the inordinate amount of stretching and warm up activities. There was a solid 30 minutes of stretching before a single ball was struck. Injury prevention is important when tennis is your livelihood.
The remainder of the practice that I observed was more situational rally play with the two coaches. Additionally, video was set up to capture some of Guarachi’s overheads and closing volleys.
Here is a clip that I took of one of their Dingles! points.
