Tennis Ball Machine Drills - Improve Your Forehand, Backhand and Volleys. Using a tennis ball machine is one of the best ways to improve your tennis when you're alone. There are many different drills you can do on the ball machine and in this video lesson, coach Simon Konov of Top Tennis Training will show you ten different drills that will help you improve your tennis forehand, tennis backhand, tennis slice backhand, forehand volley, backhand volley and you tennis footwork and movement. There are two common errors that tennis players make when they're using a ball machine, the first one is they use poor footwork. Because we know where the ball is going, it's easy to start cheating and forget about our split step, our footwork to the ball and the recovery from the shot. This creates a bad habit that is hard to break when you play tennis matches. The second mistake is late preparation. We know which side the ball will be fed to, so we can delay the racket preparation and wait for the ball to arrive quite close to us before we start the swing. So when you are working out on the ball machine, focus on these two key things on every drill you're doing: 1. Using good footwork at all times. This doesn't mean you have to use fully intensity on every step but you want to be using a split step, a few steps to and from the ball. 2. Early preparation. By focusing on when the ball leaves the machine, you'll be able to start your swing early and get into a good habit of preparing early for the shot.
Here are the drills you can use to work on each area of your game:
Drill One - Forehands with recovery steps. Place a cone just off centre and get the balls to land a few feet inside the singles sideline. Start behind the cone and run out to the ball using fast feet, hit your shot and then recover back to the cone. Go for 8-12 balls in a row then have a 10-20 second rest before repeating. Aim to do at least five sets of this drill which would be around 50 balls. Don't forget your split step when doing this drill.
Drill Two - Backhands with recovery steps. The same method as with the forehand drill but this time you're hitting backhands crosscourt and focusing on pushing off with your left leg (if right-handed).
Drill Three - Slice backhands with recovery steps. Similar to the forehand and backhand drill but now you'll be hitting the slice backhand from further off the court so you'll have to use more recovery steps and slow down the tempo.
Drill Four - Low forehand volleys down the line. Make the ball machine feed balls that are dipping inside the service box and start slightly behind the service line. Move forward to pick up the low forehand volley and aim down the line, make sure to get down low using your legs to lunge into the ball. After you hit the volley, recover one or two steps back and repeat. Work on cutting under the ball with your strings opening up towards the sky which will help you produce underspin which will keep the ball low.
Drill Five - Medium height forehand volleys. Set up the ball machine to feed you mid-range balls and focus once again on producing good underspin on the volleys. Now you can start working on using the two-step footwork pattern which would be loading up on the right leg then stepping onto the left leg as you hit the ball.
Drill Six - High forehand volleys. Set up the machine to feed you higher balls on your forehand side. In this drill, your targets will open up and include the down the line shot, deep crosscourt and also the short angle crosscourt. Focus on transferring your body weight through the volley and then recover.
Drill Seven - Low backhand volleys down the line. Set up the ball machine to feed balls that are dipping inside the service box and start slightly behind the service line. Move forward to pick up the low backhand volley and aim down the line, make sure to get down low using your legs to lunge into the ball. After you hit the volley, recover one or two steps back and repeat. Work on cutting under the ball with your strings opening up towards the sky which will help you produce underspin which will keep the ball low.
Drill Eight - Medium height backhand volleys. Set up the ball machine to feed you mid-range balls and focus once again on producing good underspin on the volleys. Focus on using the two-step footwork pattern which would be loading up on the left leg then jumping onto the right leg as you hit the ball.
Drill Nine - High backhand volleys. Set up the machine to feed you higher balls on your backhand side. In this drill, your targets will open up and include the down the line shot, deep crosscourt and also the short angle crosscourt. Focus on transferring your body weight through the volley and then recover.
With all of these drills, your focus should be on hitting the ball in the court consistently and making sure you're keeping good intensity throughout.
Hey everyone Simon here from Top Tennis Training and in this video I'm going to show you some
drills that you can be using on your ball machine to have a really good workout and
improve your tennis game.
In this drill I'm working on my forehand and that recovery so what I'm going to do is have
my marker just off center, I'm going to be hitting forehands cross court and I'm going
to be recovering behind that marker. I'm going to aim the machine so that it's going quite
wide in the singles court, it doesn't have to be all the way in the singles court or
in your tramlines but I want to have a couple of steps to move to and from the ball. My
main focus here is hitting that shot and recovering back using a crossover and a side shuffle.
I'm split stepping when the ball is just about to fire out, I know the tempo and then I'm
going out to the ball as quickly as I can, setting up to hit that shot and then recovering.
Now when you're doing a drill like this where there is a lot of movement,
it's very hard to maintain high intensity for more than 10 or 12 balls, so what I'm
going to do is focus on 10 shots, having that high intensity, moving out wide,
hitting the shot and recovering.
In this drill I'm now doing the same on the backhand side, so I'm hitting a wide backhand
and recovering off center. Once again my focus is early preparation, getting to the ball as
quickly as I can, hitting that shot and then recovering using the crossover or the side
have the ball a little bit wider and then I'm going to have a longer recovery, so the
tempo has to change, I'm reducing the tempo. What I'm focusing on here is as soon as I
see the ball is coming out of the machine, I'm getting that unit turn with the upper
body, I'm getting behind the bounce hopefully, I'm slicing and then I'm getting back as
quickly as I can. Those first initial push off steps from that wide ball are crucial
in helping you get back into a good position.
In this drill I'm working on my low forehand volley, so the ball machine is a great time
to work on the different heights and the different types of balls you're going to
receive when you're at the net. One of the most important balls to master is picking
up low volleys, because if you are someone who comes into the net a lot, you will be
picking up low balls against stronger players. Those stronger players will try to pass you
with those one-two combinations, one ball into the feet where you have to volley up
and then pass you on the next shot. So it's important that you master picking up these
low volleys and hitting a good volley off of these. So my focus on this will be getting
down low, using my legs to lunge into the low volley, so I'm not bending with my back
and I'm definitely not staying up straight like so. What I want to feel is that I'm
getting down, I'm lunging into this left leg now and I'm under the ball. Once I hit
the ball, I'm opening the string slightly to put that backspin on the ball and I want
to keep the ball as low as possible so that it doesn't bounce high for my opponent to
hit the next shot. When you do have a low ball, you're mainly going to go down the
line, so I'm working on that down the line on the low forehand volley.
In this drill, I'm working now on that mid-range forehand volley. Once again, my focus is on
keeping the ball as low as possible. Here I can start changing directions, I can go
down the line or cross court. Again, you want to focus on keeping that ball low by producing
that underspin so you're opening the strings as you make contact. You're not doing this,
you're coming under the ball to produce that slice and hopefully keep the ball bouncing
nice and low, extra hard for your opponent to pass you on that next shot.
In this drill, I'm now working on the high forehand volley. So we've worked on the low,
we've worked on the medium range, now the high volley, I can start flattening out the
shot. I don't have to put this underspin so I can really go through the ball with a more
flatter racket face. This time I can go down the line, cross court or I can use a short angle.
Once again, with all of these drills, my focus is using the legs. So I'm getting to the ball,
I'm hitting and then I'll have a small recovery. I'm timing the split step to hopefully feel
that I'm split stepping and I'm imagining that I'm split stepping when the opponent is making contact
and the ball's coming out of the machine. Instead of doing one split step, I can do
multiple split steps. So instead of just doing one, I can have two or three small ones, then go,
two or three small ones and then go. I'm working on that fast footwork at a net because that's what
I need when I'm playing a match. In this drill, I'm now working on that low backhand volley. So
we've done the low forehand volley, now it's all about getting down with the right leg. If you're
a right-handed player, making sure you really get down, bending this front knee and getting under
the ball. Once again, opening the strings to impart that slice onto the ball. In this drill,
I'm now working on that medium range backhand volley. So I'm hitting it mainly down the line,
but I can start to go cross-court as well. What I want to feel is that I'm imparting that slice
so that the ball stays low. Everything comes back to the footwork. Once again, I'm focusing on
loading up on this left leg, my outside leg, and then stepping through as I make contact.
And now on the high backhand volley, we're going to be working on going down the line,
cross-court and that short angle. What I want to focus on here is really loading up on this left
leg. I'm loading up and as I make contact, I'm going through with that lunging jump onto the
right leg. So it's always that left, right. So left, right. And again, recovering and getting
ready for the next ball. Now, a very common question that we get asked is what type of
ball machine is the best to have a really good session? And the answer is any type of machine
that will allow you to do the basics in training. Now, some machines will give you random feeds so
you don't know where the ball is coming. Some will give you actual targets on the court. So you'll
know that it's coming short to your forehand, deep to your forehand. So some of the programs
available are incredible. You can have a really good session using those high-end ball machines.
However, you can still have a really great session even if you have the most basic one,
one that just fires in one direction with no spin and you know that it's coming there time and time
again. You can still work on the fundamentals and you can still have a great workout using those
cheaper versions. Now, there are two common errors that players make when they're working out on the
ball machine. The first one is because they know where the ball is going unless they have it on
random. They know that the ball is coming to their forehand, for instance. They stop using their feet
so their footwork really becomes sloppy and lazy. And what happens is they start just arming the
ball and just working on their swing. So there's no movement to and from the ball. There's no split
step. They may be getting their swing better but their footwork is getting worse and they're
getting lazier using the correct steps. So their footwork suffers and actually working out in that
method will make you a worse tennis player because you're becoming lazy and you're getting into a
habit of not moving your feet. Think about the tennis players that we watch on TV. Players like
Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, Andy Murray. All these players who have really good footwork. When you
watch them, even in training, they're still doing at least the minimum, the split step and a few
steps to and from the ball. There's never a time where you'll see them just doing this
up and down the middle without using their footwork to at least a 50% level. And on the ball
machine you should be using your footwork. You should be using correct footwork patterns all the
time. This doesn't mean that you have to have full intensity on every single shot but you want to
have at least one step, two steps to the ball, a small recovery step and a split step. So you're
getting into those good habits even when you're training on the machine. The second thing is
because players know which side it's coming to, they'll get lazy with their preparation. Now if I
know that the ball is coming to my forehand, I can wait for the ball to come almost halfway
towards me from the other side and then I'll start the preparation. Now this will get you into a bad
habit of preparing late. So what you want to focus on when you are working on the machine is two
things. Having good footwork all the time and this means even if you know the ball is coming to the
same spot time and time again, instead of being this and doing this lazy sloppy footwork, have the
split step. Have one step to the ball, hit the shot and then even this tiny recovery step. So you're
having two or three steps on every single shot even if the ball is coming to the same spot.
What you might have to do is reduce the tempo. So instead of having the ball coming bam bam bam
where you won't have time to do those steps, you have the ball coming a little bit slower
which will allow you the time to go hit one recovery step, split step and move out again.
The second thing you want to focus on is having early racket preparation. Even if I know the ball
is coming to my forehand time and time again, what I want to do is make sure that as soon as the ball
comes out of the machine, as soon as it leaves that machine, my first step is there. I'm turning,
I'm coiling the upper body and I'm starting that early preparation. This will reinforce what I want
to be doing when I'm rallying with somebody or when I'm playing a match. What I don't want to
be doing if I'm playing a point with somebody is waiting for the ball to come to my side,
bounce and then prepare. I want to be in that early preparation. Is it a forehand? Yes, I'm
preparing. Is it a backhand? Yes, I'm preparing. So quick early preparation using at least 50 to
60 percent of your maximum footwork potential. So there you have it guys, some of the basic
fundamentals that you can work on using a ball machine. Now if you do this kind of workout a
couple of times a week you'll see a big difference in your tennis game, especially your movement.
This will really help you reinforce using the correct footwork patterns, that split step, that
first push off to the ball and then the recovery steps. Now if you've enjoyed the video give it a
thumbs up, subscribe to the channel and make sure you turn on that notification bell so you get our
videos as soon as we release them. Signing off, Simon from TTT, all the best and see you soon.
