Tennis Technology Tuesday
At some point in the near future I will most likely rebrand the Fiend at Court Tuesday content theme to “Tennis Technology & Training.” In the meantime, I am going to lean forward a little bit and talk about a training topic this week.
Last week, the Fiend at Court household had a very narrow window open to play tennis together. That time was sandwiched between persistent rain and other personal commitments. We wound up working around the puddles on a court that just… would… not… dry. Sometimes you have to just work with what the court drying gods provide.
One side effect of the USTA tournament restructuring in 2021 is that we are anticipating that we will be playing a lot more Husband-Wife Mixed doubles. Additionally we are likely to throw in some entries into Senior age group Mixed. This means that the Fiend at Court Spousal Unit needs to improve his volleys.
Today I am sharing one drill that is super effective for developing and improving touch volleys. This drill is referred to simply as the “Catch” drill. Essentially two (or more players) play “catch” with the ball, using the only the racquet.
Earlier this week, this video was shared directly with the umpire who gave birth to me. This prompted her to question the purpose of this drill other than to “look cool.” First off, yes – it is totally cool to be able to cleanly catch a ball off the fly with the racquet. In related news, this is visual evidence that I am way cooler than the Fiend at Court Spousal Unit.
The purpose of the drill is to develop the eye hand coordination and the soft hands required for touch volleys. At the point this video was taken, we were using pretty much the only two dry spots on the court. We also sometimes do this drill in our backyard while the Fiend at Court Spousal unit warms up the grill for steak night.
Next week I plan on sharing a second touch volley drill. Spoiler alert! I am still way cooler than the Fiend at Court Spousal unit in that drill as well.
