Olympics is always a top favorite among juniors. The drill gets its name mostly from the scoring system, but it also has Olympic-like variety.
Group or Individual: Run this drill the same way for an individual as for a group. Feed from the baseline to a player on the opposite end of the court. The player starts behind the center mark, runs to the forehand corner to hit a forehand groundstroke, to the backhand corner for a backhand, forward and to the forehand side for an approach shot, and then farther forward for a forehand volley followed by a backhand volley and an overhead smash.
For lower intermediates, the first five shots must simply land in the singles court. For higher intermediates, you might require depth and/or placement. For every level, you should require smashes to be hit with sufficient power and depth to bounce no more than twice between landing in and hitting the fence. In - bounce - bounce - fence shouldn't be overly difficult even for very small intermediates.
The scoring system uses the Olympic medals, with a few supplements. If the player gets all six shots in on a given turn, it's a gold. Five is silver, four bronze, three tin, two wood, one plastic, and zero cardboard. Kids usually find the cardboard idea pretty funny.
Most players enjoy an additional challenge on the smash, where if you do better than the minimum depth and power requirement of in - bounce - bounce - fence, you can "bump up" a medal or two. In - bounce - fence bumps you up to one higher medal, and in - fence (no bounce between the ball landing in and hitting the fence) bumps you up two.
If you already have a gold medal from getting all six balls in, bumping up one gives you a platinum, and bumping up two gives you a rhodium (a metal more valuable than platinum).
Difficulties: Inevitably, someone will miss the first couple of shots and therefore decide it will be funny to miss all the rest (sometimes rather dramatically) and earn a cardboard. Depending on maturity, others might follow suit, but as long as they're satisfied with one cardboard, which they usually are, the humor easily outweighs the small waste of time.
Tennis Drills Central
Group or Individual: Run this drill the same way for an individual as for a group. Feed from the baseline to a player on the opposite end of the court. The player starts behind the center mark, runs to the forehand corner to hit a forehand groundstroke, to the backhand corner for a backhand, forward and to the forehand side for an approach shot, and then farther forward for a forehand volley followed by a backhand volley and an overhead smash.
For lower intermediates, the first five shots must simply land in the singles court. For higher intermediates, you might require depth and/or placement. For every level, you should require smashes to be hit with sufficient power and depth to bounce no more than twice between landing in and hitting the fence. In - bounce - bounce - fence shouldn't be overly difficult even for very small intermediates.
The scoring system uses the Olympic medals, with a few supplements. If the player gets all six shots in on a given turn, it's a gold. Five is silver, four bronze, three tin, two wood, one plastic, and zero cardboard. Kids usually find the cardboard idea pretty funny.
Most players enjoy an additional challenge on the smash, where if you do better than the minimum depth and power requirement of in - bounce - bounce - fence, you can "bump up" a medal or two. In - bounce - fence bumps you up to one higher medal, and in - fence (no bounce between the ball landing in and hitting the fence) bumps you up two.
If you already have a gold medal from getting all six balls in, bumping up one gives you a platinum, and bumping up two gives you a rhodium (a metal more valuable than platinum).
Difficulties: Inevitably, someone will miss the first couple of shots and therefore decide it will be funny to miss all the rest (sometimes rather dramatically) and earn a cardboard. Depending on maturity, others might follow suit, but as long as they're satisfied with one cardboard, which they usually are, the humor easily outweighs the small waste of time.
Tennis Drills Central
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