The Frying Pan

If your player is a complete beginner and just getting started with tennis, it can be extremely beneficial to start with the basics, such as hand-eye coordination. Most players who’ve been playing for some time take it for granted; however, hand-eye coordination is a key fundamental and critical to any player’s success.

The dribble, while a simple drill, can help your player develop their hand-eye coordination, while at the same time helping them become familiar with the feel of their tennis racquet and developing a sense of touch when contacting the tennis ball.

To start, have your player hold their racquet in their dominant hand face-up, like a frying pan, and have them place a tennis ball on the face, or strings of their racquet. Then, have them slowly start moving the head of the racquet up and down until the ball begins bouncing on their strings. Once it starts bouncing, have them keep it bouncing for as long as possible.

Some players will find this drop-dead simple, especially those who have developed great hand-eye coordination through other sports. Seeing how your student performs at this drill will help you identify their basic level of skill.

If they struggle at first, don’t let them get discouraged. Confidence is key for new players, so encourage them to keep trying and assure them that if they practice frequently, they’ll have it down in no time.

Once they get comfortable with the drill, you can have them begin twisting the racquet 180 degrees in their hand between bounces to help further develop their skill.

The Dribble

This next drill is simply an upside-down version of the frying pan. Again, have your player hold their racquet in their dominant hand and a tennis ball in their opposite hand.

Next, have them drop the ball in front of themselves and hit it with their racquet toward the ground. The ball should move toward the ground and then bounce back up so that they can continue hitting until they get a nice consistent dribble going.

Depending on the type of tennis racquet your player is using, it might be helpful for them to choke up a bit on the handle to make the drill a bit less harsh on their wrist and forearm.

Encourage your player to move around as the ball moves to make sure they can keep the dribble going. Have them keep it going as long as they can and count how many seconds they last to make a game out of it.

If you’re looking to change the level of difficulty, you can have them start at a slow dribble, increase the speed of the dribble, and then slowly decrease back to a slow dribble.