If you are weeks away from your match schedule, you’re probably working on your team’s ability to play, rather than just their stroke skills. At the high school level, forcing errors and opening up the court for winners — not hitting winners — is the key to winning more matches.

Progressing from dead-ball and cooperative drills to live-ball and competitive drills will help your players practice like they play, so they can play like they practice.

NOTE: For newer coaches, a dead-ball drill is a drill which the ball is “dead” or the point is over after the player hits the ball once. For example, if you are feeding balls to a player’s forehand so that they can practice a number of repetitions short and crosscourt, and each time they hit the ball, the receive a new ball fed from the coach, that is a dead-ball drill. If the ball comes back and is played again (a rally), that is a live-ball drill.

Dead-ball drilling has limited benefits for developing playing skills and should be used primarily to develop or improve stroke skills. See the article, The Dead Ball is Dead and others in the Drills & Articles Database on drilling and practicing for more on this topic.

Below are a variety of patterns your players can practice and groove for later use in their matches. If executing these patterns and shot combinations become automatic in practice, they’ll reduce the pressure your player feels in matches.

Side-to-Side
At the recreational level, one key way to force an opponent to hit wide, long or into the net is to make them hit on the run.

Making players run side-to-side not only forces errors, but produces weak balls that can be attacked, opens up the court for winners, allows your player to hit behind an opponent (wrong-footing them) and tires an opponent out over the course of a long match.

Have your players learn to hit side-to-side, near the sidelines, without going for winners. Players should start receiving balls fed from a basket to learn how to hit balls coming from crosscourt back crosscourt, as well as how to hit balls coming from down the line back crosscourt.

Start out feeding one type of ball, and having players return only one type of ball to get into a groove. As players develop the ability to hit crosscourt, begin feeding them balls from both sides of the court, and having them hit to both sides of the court.

NOTE: Remember, if your player hits a ball crosscourt, the next ball they receive in a match would come back to them from crosscourt. As you progress in this drill, you may have two players feeding balls from crosscourt to make this drill more beneficial. If your players never receive a ball from down the line in practice, or only receive balls from one direction in practice (the center of the court), they will not know how to set the racquet to play different balls or how project the ball from different angles.

Once your players begin to groove their crosscourt strokes, have them play cooperative, live-ball points with a partner, hitting all balls crosscourt.

Eventually, players can begin to play competitive points, with rules such as, the first four shots must be crosscourt, then, anything goes. You players will start to identify when to hit behind an opponent, and how to anticipate whether or not an opponent is likely to go down the line or crosscourt on a ball.

NOTE: Using angles opens up the court for an opponent to hit a winner either down the line or crosscourt. This type of drilling will teach players when NOT to use the angles, either based on the skill level of their opponent, their own skill level or the particular situation.

Short-Crosscourt/Deep-Crosscourt
Another great way to force an error or produce a weak ball is to hit one ball short in front of a player, then the second ball deep behind them, forcing them to hit on the run while falling backwards. At the recreational level, this will probably work best with a short, crosscourt ball to the opponent’s forehand, then a deep ball to the backhand. Depending on where the opponent hits the first ball received (the short ball), your player will have to hit the second ball either down the line or crosscourt, so practice both in your drilling pattern. See the drill,

NOTE: Using angles opens up the court for an opponent to hit a winner either down the line or crosscourt. This type of drilling will teach players when NOT to use the angles, either based on the skill level of their opponent, their own skill level or the particular situation.

Moonball to Backhand/Short Crosscourt
While higher-level players love high-bouncing balls to the baseline they can rip, a high-bouncing ball to most high school players is their worst nightmare. Even a slow, deep moonball (a ball hit almost as a lob) to the backhand is barely playable for many recreational players, who, if they do get it back in the court, hit a weak ball, short into the court.

Have your players master the moonball to the backhand with dead-ball drilling. Next have them learn how to take the resultant weak, short ball with a forehand, hitting it short and crosscourt for a winner. After learning the moonball, have your players learn how to play a short, high-bouncing ball from mid-court short crosscourt. Finally, put these two shots together in a pattern your players can use during their matches.

As you can see, using patterns turns your team members into proactive players, rather than just reactive hitter. Ask your players if they see any patterns in their matches which have worked for them — or which have worked against them.

Remember, if you teach your players how to use a pattern to exploit a weakness or create an opening, you can also use drills to help your players defend against these patterns.

More Directional Drills

Changing Directions Successfully

Second-ball Passing Shot

Singles Depth and Direction

Serve ’em Out Wide