How to Cover the Court Like a Pro / Kids Tennis Court Positioning

Hi everyone, welcome to a new live MyDaddyMyCoach lesson. My name is Cosmin and I'm going to have my two daughters Cesara and Bianca join me in a few minutes. Today we have a special lesson. We'll be working on court coverage when playing at the baseline. This is something very important especially when playing a match. Knowing how to position yourself, how to cover the court will help you or your students, if you're teaching somebody, to get to the ball earlier and use less energy during the point. So basically what this court coverage means is a player has to learn after he or she hits the ball to position for the next shot in the middle of the possible angles that their opponent might hit to. If this sounds confusing for you don't worry about it because this lesson is going to explain and I'm going to show it step by step and with drills how you can learn how to cover the court when you play from the baseline or if you want to teach it to somebody this is going to be a great lesson. By the way today we are working on court coverage from the baseline but in a future lesson we'll be doing court coverage from the net. Some people also refer to it as court geometry. Either way this means positioning yourself on the course so that you get to the ball earlier and use less energy in singles. By the way this is going to be a singles lesson. So without any further introduction let's go ahead and start our lesson. I have my daughters warming up. They did some laps. They did their normal warm-up routine and I asked them to rally a little bit. So let's go ahead. Can you join me please? I have some cones over there as you can see they are going to be part of our lesson. So I have here Cesara. Cesara is 11 years old and Bianca over here. Bianca will turn 10 in about a month right? Girls are warmed up. You want to get a drink? Let's go for it. By the way for this lesson I recommend that you have cones, spots like let me show you what I mean by spots. I have everything set up here. So these are poly spots that you can find at any tennis store or you can order them online and also I will use the board. So I have a teaching board over here that I recommend tennis coaches should have. By the way our board is really scratched because my daughters like to steal it from me sometimes and draw on it. They are very good at anyway today we are not going to be drawing any cartoons. They are very good at drawing cats and dogs, superheroes. So let's go ahead girls. By the way I have not told the girls what we'll be studying today, what we'll be practicing. So girls what we do we learn core coverage. Have we talked about core coverage before? Come over here so everybody can see you. We have not talked about core coverage. You think we talked about this? Do you remember anything about that? If you don't you can say just now. Not really. Okay well that's all right so that's why we'll talk about this more in detail. So girls basically core coverage means this is more helpful for you when you play. It's not too much about technique, footwork. Obviously there's footwork involved but it's about you knowing where to move after you hit the ball. So you have to learn, you have to know how to position yourself so that when your opponent hits the ball you have to be in the middle of possible angles. Are you sure we haven't, we never talked about this? Probably briefly I told you something but I said that we'll be learning this more in detail some other time. All right so anyway this is a new lesson for them and we'll learn this together. For that one why don't we start with the board because we have the sun over there. Girls why don't you join me over here. I will be sitting down, you stay next to me. Irina our camera lady if you can come behind me and let me show you what what I mean by core coverage. Whoa I dropped this thing. If you can hold that that would be great. Thank you. All right so let's say that you are over here so this is you. Oh it's gonna be hard to draw like this. And this is your opponent we'll call it op. Now let's say that you're you're hitting the ball to your opponent. This is your board going to your opponent, bounces here and then Europe gets the opponent. Your opponent chooses to go with the ball cross court. All right so this is where the ball is coming to you and you will have to move over over here to meet the ball. So this is going to be the new you. Now let's go ahead and erase this so we don't have too many things. You are in this position. Your opponent is in that position. By the way this is an eraser. Now from here when you're in the corner you have the option to go either cross court all right or down the line. Can you see well Bia from where you are? You can come a little closer. Now the thing is that let's go ahead and talk about going cross court right. So if you hit ball cross court where do you want okay your opponent will go over here to hit the ball right. So this is your opponent all right. Now from here you're giving your opponent a big opening. Where do you think you should be coming from here? Let's say this is the center mark right. So far we learned that after the ball you come back behind the baseline center. So we try to keep it simple but there's a better option. From here you come over here okay. So if you come over here what do you think is going to happen? Your opponent will will hit it over here and then you have to run so much. All right I'll tell you what's the best option. Ideally when your opponent hits the ball you have to position yourself so if you hit the ball over here right. Can you see well you have to come to a spot which is halfway between the possible angles that your opponent can hit. So let me raise this so you can see it better. So your opponent is just about to hit a ball from here. Your opponent from here can go down the line all right or she can go cross the ball will bounce probably here and then continue to go over here. So let's say the ball bounces here and goes here. So your opponent can hit the ball either down the line or cross court. Now where do you where do you go from here to be in the middle of those those those uh those possible angles? Right here this is where the middle is. Okay see this this is where it comes. I'm not very good at drawing from this position. So this is where it comes. You see this is the center mark where you came here. All right so you understand that once you hit the ball in this spot your opponent can go either down the line or he can go cross court. You have to position yourself right in the middle. So you you go to a spot that is somewhere close to the the center mark. You understand that? All right so so we are not when we go cross court we are not going to behind the center mark. We will go somewhere close to the center mark. So this is where we will be for cross court. Now let me go ahead and erase that and give you a different situation. So that happens when you go when you hit your your ball cross court. But what if from here you decide to go down the line? Your opponent obviously goes here to get the ball. So your opponent it will be here just about to hit the ball. All right and you just hit the ball from here. If your opponent is here she can hit it cross court. Let's say the ball bounces here and goes all the way to here. All right or she can go down the line. All right so where should you run from here to cover the next shot? Here. Exactly. Why? Because this is where the middle of the possible angles would be. So you're going here. So this is where I go for down the line. Okay DTL down the line. Now my question is if you're in this position which is the best option for you to to hit your your shot cross court or down the line? Why? Because it gives us more time. Exactly. Because you have to to run run less to to cover the the next shot right? Good job. That's a good thinking. Okay so hitting cross court most of the shots especially when you're wide it's the best option. But if we hit down the line it might go here out. Exactly. Might go over there but and also hitting down the line means you're hitting over the the highest part of the net. Because let's say Bia if you're over here and you send your ball down the line. Down the line means the ball will travel over the highest part of the net. Did you did you notice that this this part is higher than the middle? Yeah. Okay so when you go down the line not only you go over the highest part of the net but you have less court. Do you realize that you have less court down the line than if you go diagonally? Diagonally you always have more court. So which means that cross court is the better option when you're pulled wide to always go cross court because you hit it over the lowest part of the the net and you have a lot more room. And not only that as I showed you on this board after after you hit the ball. Okay let's see this is you. So after you hit it down the line you have a lot more court to cover to be in the best position for for the next shot right? So what does it mean? If you want to run less you hit more balls where? Cross court. Do you understand? That applies the same on forehand and backhand right? So next so we have we have not done that before this before we we didn't really pay attention to to where we covered because I didn't want to give you too much information. By the way I had students who were like 17 or 18 years old and they still didn't learn how to cover the court properly. So I think this is good for you to learn how to do that early and you start applying it in your rallies especially matches all right? So if you know how to cover the court you're going to run less and you will use less energy that that means your opponent will get tired before you. So it's very very important that we understand how how to position ourself and how how to cover the court. Now let's go ahead and so I showed you on the board you have an idea what this means. By the way do you get a drink? Why don't you yeah you have your rackets I should get mine. Let's go ahead and I want to show you this you know you'll you'll join us behind behind the baseline. Let's go ahead and put it in practice on on the court you know you'll be behind us. Now we show that on the board but let's see how can we put it in practice from here. So let's say that my opponent why don't I leave this here my opponent sends the ball here and I'm about to hit. All right I can go cross court so I'm let's see I'll put a green spot over here I can go cross court or I can go down the line. Let's say if I go cross court from there my opponent can can either hit the ball cross court which means bounce is here can you toss me two balls can you bring me two balls no bring them over no no no come here. Let's say if if I if I hit the ball cross court my opponent hits it here let's say bounce is here and then I'll probably make contact with it here all right because by the way if I would be in this area I don't want to run parallel with the net because then I'll have to run more. A smart player cuts the angle so I'm going to step inside of the court and let's say I will catch it here because I'm I'm quite quite fast so this is where my opponent can can make me hit the ball if I hit cross court or if he or she goes down the line the ball will probably bounce let's say here and I'll have to make contact with it here so I have these two options. Bia can you get that ball over there so that doesn't get that that's not this distraction move it away and come behind me now so after I hit cross court my opponent can either go down the line where that ball is or he can go cross court so from here I have to position myself so that is I'm halfway between these these two balls which is right here by the way we don't have a a mark for for the center but let's say this is where where the center is so this is red okay why don't I put this red which means we should not come come behind this uh uh this mark okay this is something that we want to avoid so after after I hit cross court I have to come between those two possible possible angles which means right here so after I hit the ball cross court I want to to wait for the next ball somewhere close to the center on the other side if I decide yeah bring me that ball over there or cheesy cheesy okay one of you bring me the other ball quickly actually hold it hold it and come over here please so girls if I from this position if I go cross court I come and wait for the next shot in this spot which is close to the the center mark now if I hit it down the line where those orange cones are my opponent can hit it back down the line which means I'll hit the ball here or he or she can angle it hit the ball cross or maybe the ball bounces here and I'll I'll meet it here in this area all right so you notice that the cross court always gets me off the court so again I want to get back to this this this spot if I hit it here down the line I have to cover the court but position myself over here so which means when I hit the ball down the line I have to run more use more energy for the next shot all right now so that means that if I'm in this position the best shot most of the shots should go where once cross court all right so most of the shots should go should go cross court during the rally now does it mean you will never hit the ball down the line no sometimes we hit the ball down let's say maybe our opponent finds himself like off the court maybe they are too wide and I have a big opening down the line and of course I'm going to go down the line if I'm here right or maybe my opponent has a weak backhand I can go down the line but let's say if your opponent is like somewhere close to the middle of the court and doesn't have a very weak backhand the best option for you would be to go cross court all right so here's what we're going to do each one of you will take a ball from the basket can you bring that basket closer enough talking let's go ahead and get some action and let's practice a recovering so each one of you will take a ball from from the basket you'll come here drop and hit and go and send your ball cross court and then cover to where you should be waiting for the ball if you are in a rally all right so that's what we're going to do by the way we have Wisconsin over there our cat watch you guys good so Bianca what are you going to do you hit the ball cross court and recover to this spot you have a ball cheesy and that's where you should be that's it okay so pay pay attention so we are not coming back we are not waiting for the next ball behind the center line like we've been doing for cross court we have less to to travel we stop just before we get to to this to this center which is out of the same for you go ahead each one of you do it three times and cover by the way something very important i forgot to mention you have to recover get into the proper spot before the ball bounces on that side i mean on the other side it's very important that you don't you don't hit the ball and watch it you hit the ball and get back into the proper spot before it bounces on the other side it's very important that you're quick all right okay go ahead and do it two more times each so drop and hit try see if you can get in there that's it because you're so focused about running to the spot and that's it stop over there good all right so hit the ball and move make sure you get to it before it bounces on the other side good all right one more for Cesaro good all right by the way girls as far as footwork after we hit the ball bang first step is a crossover and then shuffle right you'll move a lot faster if you do a crossover first now let's go ahead and practice hitting ball so let's say our opponent again pulled us wide we are in the corner this time we'll go down the line so we hit the ball down the line and where you're gonna go you will pass this center mark and this is going to be where you wait for for the next ball basically girls when you when you cover the court from the baseline always cover the possible cross court shot from your opponent right to keep it simple let's say if i was right here and i hit the ball cross court where those yellow yellow cones are i want to cover the eventual cross court shot okay if you want to keep it simple position yourself where your opponent could hit cross court if i'm here and i go down the line where those orange cones are the cross court shot will be on the other side so i have to get here by the way when you're at the baseline think about the court like having two two halves this half all right which is let's let's say this center line is the middle of that is the middle that divides the court in two halves we have the left half and the right half so if i hit the ball cross court i want to cover the cross court possible cross shot to be closest to the possible cross shot because the cross court is the one that sends me off the court all right so Bianca you have a ball each one of you take a ball this time we practice hitting down the line and recovering to the proper spot yes the purple one is where it should be down the line and okay oh by the way you see that where Bianca hit it she hit it more like close closer to the center we haven't talked about center we talked about cross court or down the line but if you hit it in the center i mean to the center then your your your recovery point should be at the center all right girls all right now go ahead and try try to hit those uh orange cones that's it and your recovery should be that's it so you pass the center mark very good so this is red this is where we we go only if we hit it down down the center this is for cross court we see for down the line so go ahead and do it one uh two more times each perfect faster okay now Bianca if you could do a crossover first it would be much better right i know right now it's too much information go ahead Cesara and crossover quickly okay ideally you should be in place before the ball bounces on the other side all right before your opponent is going to hit oh we have a cat behind us that is trying to climb but be a watch a grape over there go for it one more time each and crossover quickly you forgot the crossover that's all right it's too too much to think about right now oh that's that center that's it perfect you see that chase you saw that she hit the ball actually i think that i kind of curved towards the the cross court so so this is this isn't this is basically where you should be uh guys um um covering um or recovering do we do the the same thing for uh from the back inside let me see if you actually i'll tell you what we'll i'm going to feed some balls for you that's when we'll be practicing uh um the back end recovery too it's it's the same thing every time you have a you have a option if you go cross court you pretty much stay on the same half if you go down the line you have to cross over to the other half to always cover the possible cross court shot okay now again i want to remind you which one do you have to work more which one to use more energy when you hit a cross court or or down down down the line down the line so when you hit it down the line you're going to have to cover a lot more court which gets you tired more so smart player hits more more balls cross court again you can go down the line if you have an opening or your opponent has a weak wing on that side okay all right let's go ahead and take a short short break and we'll come back we'll do some drills to to uh to solidify this information all right so we'll be right back in a minute let's move on with our lesson all right so we are back we picked up the balls and i wanted to reposition the the targets but eventually i let them the way they are right now so what we're going to do next girls we'll we'll do some drills so you better understand where you should position after hitting to certain spots so i have this cone over here the yellow one that shows you where the center baseline is which is the middle of the baseline right it's behind the imaginary extension of the center line now we said that after we hit the ball we come back behind the center only if we hit the ball towards our opponent's center otherwise we use positioning according to whether we go cross or or down down the line all right quick review if our opponent gets us into the corner here if we want to go cross court we recover closer to the center but we we travel a shorter distance on the other side if we go down the line then we have to cover a lot more court and our recovery passes the baseline center all right so this is something that we'll practice next um i will be where the basket is let's go ahead and start with forehands each one of you will hit three four hands and then switch next one who wants to start first bianca okay you start from here cesara you might want to step back a little bit that's it now bianca i will hit uh the ball into the corner to you i will feed the ball into the corner and you practice a few a few balls cross court let's go for three and show me where you will recover after ready here and where will it be that's it again next one whoop try again that's it and you recover over there perfect cesara go ahead and take take your place so each one of you hit three balls so you understand the proper recovery that's okay continue continue don't stop that's it go that's it and one more and recover quickly okay now girls you did very good so you went cross court you knew exactly where to recover for the next shot but next three balls do the same thing but this time i would like you to get back in the position before the ball bounces on that side so a little little faster recovery if you remember after you hit it cross over and shuffle a little faster so let's see if you can get it back in position before the ball bounces on the other side three balls go go go back that's it next one oh that was down the line okay your center you went to the center where will you be that's it okay so we learn according to where the ball goes and that's it good job cesara three four hands cross court recover before the ball bounces on the other side go for it good try that's okay keep going good hit those targets go for it and back did you get back in position before the ball bounces okay faster recovery that's that's one one aspect that we have to work on good moving on bianca get ready this time we'll practice going down the line so bianca the same thing i'll feed the ball over there in the corner go down the line i want to see where you will recover go for it and run run run run run that's it you see it takes a lot more energy to go down the line again good recover one more time good try and recover good job just out of the same thing so send your ball down the line go good hold the racket up cheesy go go go go go that's it harder and more power go good try good try you were just so focused on on on recovering but go ahead and hit this one go for it and that was cross court exactly good positioning good job even though you you were supposed to go down the line you hit a cross court it's okay you're nervous right now we are we are filming no problem by the way so do you see the difference where you have to recover go after you're going down the line versus cross court when you go cross court you run less okay one more time each so three boys bianca do you want to say something down the line one more time down the line yep that's it and you cover the court perfectly good hold the racket up longer bianca that's it perfect you see that good job good job so you recover you were fast you you went back in position before the ball bounced bounced i saw you were fast all right chisara three more for you go to the ball good try that's cross court then you stop over there hey you're not supposed to be there because you didn't hit it down the line okay focus on the shot go that's okay cross court where will it be chisara chisara you went cross court okay i want to see good core position even though you're supposed to go down the line you went cross court but i want to see your your position yourself for the next shot where you should go and where will it be perfect all right so both of you understood that and you saw that you have to run more faster and you have to use more energy when you go down the line so again down the line you use it only when you have an opening or your opponent has a weak shot all right now this is the same thing on the backhand side chisara why don't you start this time bianca in the back please i'll feed the ball here in the corner you go cross court and show me where you will recover okay i'm not i'm not going to tell you this time i want to see if you learned the lesson three balls each let me see i'm in the right spot over here chisara backhand go cross court and perfect again two times good good and that's it you got it good job bianca next yeah go ahead and move the ball away bianca same thing cross court and that's it that's your spot very good a little closer to the center next time okay now that's in the center where will you be exactly all right even though you were supposed to go cross court if you're missing you go down the center i want you to recover accordingly which was down the center chisara one more time same thing cross court go good that's it good placement excellent excellent you're less nervous on the back inside looks like you're more confident on the back end huh good bianca the same thing one more time so you understood both forehand and backhand go cross court where will you be you hit it down the center okay hitting the basket doesn't count huh let's go that's down the line where will you go exactly exactly let's try one more time this time aim cross court and that's cross court perfect chisara let's continue the same thing let's let's do only one more time this time we go down the line why don't we go for four balls four balls down the line cheesy that's down the line even though it's out that's all right go go cheesy there's something funky with your grip this is something i have to pay attention the girls to get more spin they have a tendency to go with uh with the top hand under the racket make sure you have the the right grip over there chisara down the line go good and you put your recoverings over there very good that's down the center perfect good job so that shows me that you learned the lesson very well bianca four balls for you you're you should aim down the line backhand go beautiful perfect recovery go nice good good one more good try one more step you were if it goes out you lost the point good so girls you understood the idea it's not about going behind the the um the center it's about covering the cross court all right so if you want to keep it keep it simple always think about where would my opponent cross court shot goes if i go down the line my opponent's cross court will be over here so i have to cover the cross so it means i have to cross uh cross this uh center mark so another way to say it is position yourself in in the middle of the the possible angles that that that your opponent can can throw at you i mean to you also um if there would be one important lesson to learn from from from from today would be that hitting down the line we have a lot more court to cover okay so if i'm right here and i go down the line i have to run a lot more to to cover the possible angle from my opponent so that makes the cross court shot a better option so most of your your your your your ball should go cross court go down the line if you if you like i said you have an opening or your opponent has a weak weak weak side over there obviously there are some other situations when when you can go down the line if you approach if you move up to the net but mostly from the baseline covering the court and using less energy is when when you play mostly cross court all right so i would say out of 10 shots probably around seven should go seven or eight should go cross court throwing it down the line down down the line once in a while but when you do hit it down the line remember they have a lot more court to cover okay do you have any questions in this regard well we learned that after we we hit a ball with this light that is a wide ball the first step should be a crossover and then shuffling but if you have a lot more court to cover you can do two crossovers and then a shuffle remember that when we when we practice the footwork we learned that the crossover is a lot faster than the shuffling all right so that's a good question so so let's say Bianca i got myself my opponent give me give me like a really wide angle so he or she got me off the court so i decide to go cross court i mean i'm sorry if i decide to go down the line i have to run a lot to cover that possible cross court from my opponent so i'm going to do like two crossovers like one two even three and then shuffle shuffle because shuffling which is the the last steps gets me in balance all right because for example okay so let's say like this so i hit the ball and i cross over i cross over here shuffling shuffling helps me get in balance and set up my my shot that's why i want the last steps before i hit the the ball to be to be a shuffling because shuffling get helps me helps get ready or in case let's let me give you another situation let's say so i hit the ball down the line and i'm running to cover the cross the the court but then my opponent is behind me if if i if my opponent catches me shuffling it's easier for me by the way cheesy can you stay over there please so the camera sees what what i'm showing Bianca you too so after i do the crossover if my opponent hits behind me if i'm shuffling it's easier for me to push off and come back and and get the ball if my opponent is behind me you understand so let me let me show you this again so i go down the line and i'm running to cover the opening so i'm going in slow motion i want to show you crossover crossover shuffle shuffle but instead my opponent hitting to the opening he or she hits over there behind me recovering so if i'm shuffling as the ball comes back it's easier for me to push back and get to the next shot that's why it's important that at least first step when you're recovering is a crossover but then shuffling because shuffling helps you get in balance and push off if you have to change direction that was a good question any any other question you don't all right so remember when you play from the baseline hit most of the shots cross court you know where to recover get down the line only if you have an opening for your opponent has a weak weak shot all right so this is something that now you know by the way chase you just broke the string do you know that yeah this is the first time you broke a string anyway so this is a string that came when we bought the when we bought the racket so i have to string your racket this is chase's first time she broke broke a string so you are 11 years old and you just broke your first string obviously if you play a lot more you're going to break more and more strings anyway so bianca you want to bring the cats where are your cats okay quickly quickly all right so i'm assuming that you you have been paying attention to what what i taught to the the girls um mostly was about um core coverage from from the baseline in in a future lesson we'll um we'll do um uh we'll do a core coverage in court coverage from uh the net but today we will keep it simple we'll uh we'll have to practice and the fact that they they have the information now i will have to remind them during their their uh uh practice matches or or our drills where they should position and hopefully in time they will make it natural or how can i say that they will make make it uh into a habit and we'll apply that in in their matches too okay now bianca insists that she shows all right so let me see let me give you my microphone there you go so go ahead and you don't have to look look at mine so what's what's with the cat you should hear felix purr but who's felix felix is this cat this cat and who who does felix belong to me i take care that's your cat how many cats you have i have two so you got two cats and where's the other one i'll see if i can find all right so anyway our lesson is over if you want to hang hang around to see to see the cats but uh yeah the other cat was here yeah i saw the cat while we had the lesson was on the roof don't worry let's uh let's go ahead and end this lesson yeah all right so anyway thank you for watching and uh we'll see you at the next lesson good all right guys is the lesson clear what what we talked to today good if you have any questions let me know let's go ahead because we we have some other things to do and somebody will come and take take the court let's go ahead and pick up the balls that's it for today actually girls have to pick up the balls do five laps slow jogger around the court yes five laps five laps go ahead quickly good job girls