Presented by Scott Cleere & Karl Akkerman.
This workshop is intended to give coaches, players and non-players a variety of drills and skills to use to help a beginner get started and an accomplished player polish their craft.
The workshop will be divided into three sessions:
1. Part One: Skills and Drills for Beginners. This will include verbal cues, dead ball feeding, drop hit and target practice. We will attempt to have some kids there to help demonstrate as students.
2. Part Two: Skills and Drills for Team Practice: In this sequence participants will learn how to feed three core game based drills that can be led by players from beginner to advanced. These drills are the Tracy Austin Drill, this doubles drill consists of three different feeds, first is a volley feed, second is a ground stroke feed and third is the overhead feed. Big Cheese Drill - a singles drill where the winner is determined by being the player who can stay on the winning side after 21 balls (this drill is sometimes referred to as King of the Court). Three and Out Drill - singles or doubles, this can be played as a volley or groundstroke drill, players seek to advance to the A court as players in the D, C and B courts miss, after three misses the player is out of the drill. Final four play out to the final two. The winner is the player with the fewest misses.
3. Part Three: Triples, played essentially the same as doubles, the net player starts each point in the same position as doubles when serving or returning. Serving is also the same as doubles. The BIG difference is that there are two people at the baseline to begin each point. The return team maintains the same positions throughout the game (ad, duce and net), serving teams also maintain the same position (server, baseliner and net player). Scoring is the same. Balls are the same. Rallies are extended. To my mind, this approach to playing tennis helps keep tennis players playing tennis when mobility becomes an issue. Triples is popular in Cardio tennis circles as a drill. This approach is intended to mirror regular game, set and match experience.
Conclusion: These drills have been the cornerstone of my approach to teaching for over 30 years. Once the students know where to go and what to anticipate, the energy and learning follow.