Warming Up Your Ground Strokes
by Scott Mitchell / Staff Writer / Centre Court Magazine
When you go to the court as a player or a coach with your teams, how often do you go straight to the baseline to warm up? Some of you may warm up quickly from the service line, hitting a few balls with no real purpose and then head back to the baseline. If this is all you do you are missing a very important area of the court to practice. A great way to warm up is to hit different shots, from a few areas of the court. Here are my three MUST areas of the court to warm up your ground strokes during each practice or before every match. Always head to the court with a purpose for your practices and warm ups. You will see a big difference in the way you play in your matches.
Service Line
This is a great area of the court for players, especially those doubles players that like to head to the net. Start by hitting a slow, under control ground stroke that bounces to the player on the opposite side of the court. Hit a few flat shots or a little bit of spin and make sure you are doing a lot of footwork. This will help you get the blood moving and get you alert and ready to move. Next hit a few with topspin towards their forehand and a few towards their backhand. This will get you to begin focusing on targets and also get you to start concentrating. Next hit a few slice shots in the same manner, a few to the forehand and a few to the backhand side.
Don't spend too much time here but spend enough time to hit several of each of these shots. You want to feel like you are seeing the ball well and are getting a good feel of the ball coming off your racquet before you leave this area. Too many times recreational players spend 10 minutes in this area with no real purpose but to socialize. Then they head straight back to the baseline and start hitting.
3/4 court or " No Man's Land"
The next step is something a lot of players bypass, but this is one of the most important areas on the court. I call this the three quarters court area, others call it "no man's land", the backcourt and several other names. Whatever you want to call it, you need to practice in this area. This is the area between the service line and the baseline. This is the same area that a lot of players don't want to hit from or are told by coaches to not stand and play in this area. This is an area that you play A LOT of balls from. Think about it. You play approach shots from this area, soft second serve returns are in this area, deep first volleys, deep overheads, and more are all played in this area of the court. So why aren't we practicing and warming up in this area? All of my teams and players have learned to practice from this area. The more you practice in this area, the better you will get. So before you head back to the baseline, hit several different types of balls in this area. Different types of shots, with different types of spins and shots, with different heights over the net. inutes in this area with no real purpose but to socialize. Then they head straight back to the baseline and start hitting.
Let's clear up one thing before we get to the baseline. Am I telling you to play from this area? Not necessarily. But I do know one thing- you play a lot of shots in this area during a match in both singles and doubles. The one thing I do want you to do when playing is to play only one shot if possible in this area and then move out. Move forward or backward depending on the situation, but don't stay in that area for a second shot. This is where people get confused. If it is a short second serve return, hit your chosen shot and then recover. Don't stand and watch your shot and then have to play a difficult second shot in the same area. If you are moving into that area to play a shot in doubles, it is best to usually move forward from there and play a volley. Don't play two shots in a row from this area of the court.
Baseline
Lastly, during your warm up, hit from the baseline. When you first move back to the baseline, make sure you are hitting the ball with extra height and spin and not too hard. It is very important to first get into a rhythm and starting slowly and working your way into your strokes is very important now that you are at the baseline. Once you feel like you are in a rhythm you can then lower the height of your shots and pick up the pace. Make sure you are hitting both your favorite and your least favorite shots. Too many times the recreational or club player avoids hitting their weakest shot during the warm up. This is something that usually will come back to haunt them as they will at some point have to hit their weakest shot during the match. So you better warm it up. Make sure you are hitting to targets early in the warm up. Hit to your opponents forehand for a few shots in a row and then a few in a row to their backhand. Make sure you are hitting your topspin and your slice. This is the last time you are going to be able to hit a few balls without it "meaning" anything. So get them all out now.
I am not going into details of all the different shots, depth of shots, footwork and so on. This is just a basic overview of the three stages of the ground stroke warm up that should be done each time you step on the court to warm up or play. This is a very important step that I see time and time again overlooked by players and some coaches. Make sure you are hitting from half court or the service line, three quarters court and from the baseline every practice and warm up. I know you wouldn't skip warming up from the net so why would you skip these other important areas of the court as well.
Now that your ground strokes are warmed up for your practice or your match, you are ready to warm up the rest of your game. Volleys, overheads, serves and returns should always be warmed up as well and never overlooked. Head to the courts today and give this great warm up a try, you'll be happy you did.
Scott Mitchell is the Head Professional at Charlotte Country Club in North Carolina. He is our "go to" guy when it comes to instruction and advice when it comes to any part of the tennis game. When Scott talks, we here at Centre Court Magazine drop what we're doing, and listen. Scott Mitchell is a decorated veteran when it comes to tennis instruction. He was voted the PTR (Pro Tennis Registry) Clinician of the Year for 2009, and he was the PTR 5A National Clinician and Tester as well. In addition, the club where Scott is the head Tennis Professional; Charlotte Country Club, was voted #14 country club in the U.S. by Club Forum. Scott Mitchell will be writing numerous future articles for Centre Court Magazine, and we can't wait to improve our game.From The Current Issue
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