Tennis Technology and Training
I have an absolute favorite ball machine drill. In fact, I use this pattern almost every time I work with a machine that supports shot sequences. It is super simple to set up and execute. This pattern reinforces positive footwork habits and the aerobic intensity can be modulated on the fly. It also emulates point composition that regularly occurs during my match play.
It is a simple three ball sequence. The first feed is delivered as a wide forehand, the second feed is a wide backhand, and the third feed simply repeats the second shot to the backhand. In other words, it is one wide forehand followed by two wide backhands. The angle of the spread pattern can be adjusted to suit the court coverage range of the player.
The magic of this drill isn’t so much where the ball machine delivers each shot, but rather the footwork patterns that are used to play each ball. There are three intensity modes:
- Low Intensity: The player plays each shot conventionally as delivered.
- Moderate Intensity: The player hits the forehand but then takes the second shot (delivered to the backhand) as an inside out forehand. The third shot is played as a conventional backhand. Alternatively the player may elect to play the second ball as a conventional backhand and go inside out on the third feed.
- High Intensity: Every ball is played as a forehand.
Good recovery footwork is essential to this drill. The player must recover to the middle after every shot. It is better to do the drill at low intensity with good footwork than high intensity with poor footwork.
One of the challenges of hitting off the ball machine is that it is difficult to find the sweet spot between “too easy” and “too taxing.” Tennis is a game of short high intensity bursts of energy. The average point lasts somewhere around 35 seconds. No one can play out an entire hopper of balls at the intensity of a real point in competition.
This simple three feed sequence, can be used to work on those short bursts of intense energy required to play tennis points. The higher intensity modes can be played until fatigue sets in. Dropping to the low intensity mode is essentially an active recovery period. Those short bursts develop match specific aerobic conditioning and realistic point pattern play.
If you don’t work out regularly with a ball machine, you should give it a try. If you do frequently use a ball machine and want to kick your workouts up a notch, I highly recommend this drill. It works very well for me.
