During the indoor tennis season, it’s tough to improve your game, or even keep it at your current level. Most people play in leagues during the winter, and this doesn't give you much opportunity to work on your strokes.

The best way to improve your tennis game is to find a practice partner who is also intent on improving her game. Once a month or so, rent a court for an hour and do some intense practice. Most of the strokes in tennis are complementary. So it stands to reason that if you can find someone who wants to work on their strokes with the same intensity that you do, then you will both improve.

Ground strokes. This is straightforward, but it is amazing how unimaginative some people can be. Don’t just hit baseline to baseline, put some objectives into it. Hit all crosscourt, e.g., forehand to forehand or backhand to backhand. The ultimate skill test is for one to hit crosscourt and the other to hit down the line. This results in both players running side to side on the baseline. It is a great workout, but you might have to slow the pace somewhat in order to maintain decent rallies. If this is above your level, just see how many consecutive balls you can hit before an error.

Serve-Return-of-serve. This is also straightforward. One player works on his serve, the other on his return. Work in both the deuce and ad courts. Hit a variety of serves—slice, flat, topspin. Hit out wide and down the middle. Returners should work on both crosscourt and down the line returns. Be sure to mix it up. You can make this more competitive by playing out the point. Another way is to play a game to ten points, with one player serving the entire game.

Volleys. You can do either groundstroke-volley drills or volley-volley drills. In the former, one player is at the baseline and the other at the net. In the volley-volley drills, both players are inside the service box. For volley-volley drills you can hit forehand to forehand, or backhand to backhand. Try alternating, too. Be sure to do some volleys on the diagonal, not just straight-on.

Lobs & Overheads. One player hits lobs, the other overheads. Start slow with baby lobs and overheads, then increase the distance between the two of you and hit with more pace. Don't forget the backhand overhead.

If you spend about 20-25 minutes on the groundstrokes (including the warm-up), 15 minutes on the serves and returns, and 10 minutes each on the volleys and lobs/overheads, you 'll get a great one-hour workout and your game will improve significantly.

You can get court time at the Southern Tier Sports Center in Vestal for only $24 per hour.  Call 729-5165 for more info.

Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts)