Every Tuesday, this site examines a training or technology concept that shapes how tennis is played. This week, I am going to attempt to justify my recent purchase of four small inflatable penguin punching bags as legitimate tennis training equipment. Stick with me on this one.
The idea came from a USTA Coaching Drill of the Week video that I can no longer seem to find. The demonstration featured a Red Ball-level child on a pickleball court, working through a drill that I did not find particularly inspiring. In fact, I apparently thought so little of the drill itself that I neglected to save the link.
However, the targets they were using were another matter entirely.
I do quite a bit of target practice during my solo tennis sessions, particularly when I am hitting baskets of serves or working on groundstrokes. My usual approach is to place cones where I want the ball to go and attempt to knock them over. Cones are inexpensive, portable, and perfectly adequate for establishing a target. They are also rather boring.
An inflatable penguin is a substantial improvement.
After a little searching, I found what appeared to be the same product on Amazon as the ones used in the USTA Coaching video. They are sold in pairs, stand approximately 27.5 inches tall when inflated, and have sand-weighted bases that allow them to return upright after being knocked over. They are technically marketed as party decorations and children’s punching bags, but I see no reason to limit myself to those applications.
I ordered four.
As tennis targets, they have several appealing characteristics. Their size makes them easy to see from across the court, and the weighted bases mean that hitting one should produce a satisfying reaction without requiring someone to walk over and reset it after every successful shot. I can arrange them in different locations depending on what I am practicing, much as I currently do with cones.
There is one fairly obvious limitation. Inflatable penguins are unlikely to be particularly useful on a windy day, even with the sand in their bases. I suspect there will be some experimentation involved in determining how much wind they can tolerate before the targets become a moving obstacle course.
My enthusiasm for this particular training innovation may not be universally shared. I do not expect the Trophy Husband to be especially excited about hitting tennis balls at inflatable penguins. Truth be told, I probably won’t bother incorporating them into our practice sessions.
My granddaughter, on the other hand, is a more promising audience.
She is approaching the age when she could begin learning to swing a tennis racquet, although she has not demonstrated much interest in the sport so far. I am not convinced that setting up a few orange cones and asking her to hit balls toward them would do much to change that. Asking her to knock over a penguin might be an entirely different proposition.
That is my hope, anyway. There is a considerable difference between what an adult tennis player considers a useful drill and what makes a young child want to participate. The underlying objective can be exactly the same, but the equipment changes how the activity is perceived. Hitting a target sounds like work. Knocking over penguins sounds like fun.
Of course, I have not yet established whether the penguins will inspire my granddaughter to take up tennis. I also haven’t established whether they will prove more useful than my existing collection of cones. Those experiments are still to come.
In the meantime, four inflatable penguins have sparked immense joy for me. I am fairly confident I can find something productive to do with that combination.
Inflatable Penguin Punching Bags (<- Sponsored Link)
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