Australian professional tennis player Storm Sanders made a brief appearance in the new Netflix documentary, “Break Point.” At approximately 9:40 into S1E2, Sanders is briefly pictured performing a dynamic warmup exercise that involves playing catch with a tennis ball. This is a variation of a tennis ball catch drill I don’t recall previously seeing.
Essentially Sanders is playing catch with someone off-screen using the forward and backward footwork and motions of an overhead. I am not sure exactly how Sanders starts this exercise, but the basic steps are catching a ball in the forward position, dropping back a few steps and throwing the ball in a simulated overhead, and then closing back to catch the ball that is returned by the training partner. I think this drill could also be done using a backboard or wall.
This drill is particularly good for warming up a tennis-specific movement in the absence of a court or even a lot of space. The throwing motion warms up the muscles for serves and overheads while reinforcing those shots’ proper “throwing” mechanics. Additionally, Sanders is light on her feet and uses good footwork.
This is definitely one that I will be adding to my toolbox.
