4 Best Tennis Drills For Beginners

For all tennis players at the beginning of their life on the court, it’s important to find easy ways to start building confidence and logging the hours necessary to feel comfortable with a racket in your hands. The best way to make this happen is to get on the court and practice! Then again, you can’t just expect to step foot on the court and instinctively know what to do – you need to have a plan.

That’s why we’re here to help with some drills that will specifically be helpful for beginners.

Around a Circle

To properly execute this drill, there needs to be a group of at least three tennis players available. As the players form a circle around their coach, the coach will gently hit the ball to one of the players on the outside of the circle. The goal is to hit the ball back to the coach, but only after it bounces off the ground. After the coach hits it back, they’ll have their choice of hitting the ball to anyone they want in the circle.

This drill allows tennis players to practice their on-court communication skills and covering their portion of the court.

Bouncing Ball

At least four people are needed for this drill to form multiple teams, which will position themselves on the baseline and making a right angle with the net. The coach will then mark a point near the net in front of the teams, which is where every player must turn around upon reaching it.

The first player in line must continually bounce the ball with their racket until reaching that point in front of the net. Once they’re there, the player will turn around and get back to the baseline, so their teammate can then start. If control is lost at any time, that particular player needs to start the process all over again.

Simple Serving Drill

As one might imagine, this drill is used to improve your serve (pretty simple title to it, right?). As long as a player has tennis balls available, they can participate in this drill on their own. In the opposite service box, the coach will draw a circle, giving the player a target to try and hit. If they don’t hit inside the circle, it’s declared a fault.

If you’re not alone and in a team setting, you can use this as an opportunity for players to compete with one another to see who can make their serve hit inside the circle the most over a predetermined period of time.

Hand and Eye Coordination Drill

You’ll need a partner for this drill, with one of you standing in the service box and the other on the sideline. Start by throwing the ball to your teammate and letting it bounce once before the other teammate catches it. Once you do that, progress to softly hitting it with your racquet back to your partner. After you’ve each done that a few times, just start hitting it back and forth to one another, continuing to limit the bouncing on the ground to just one between hits.