Re: Motivating movement on the court

Jerry,

This is a tough one. I believe it is one of the hardest things to teach
someone if their desire is not there. Two things that I have found to help
when struggling with a player who doesn't like to move. I usually do a
10-ball drill where they have to at least get a racket on each of the 10
balls that I feed to them or else they have to start "all over again!" I
usually go throught the 10 ball drill at least twice; sometimes three
times. The other drill that has helped I learned from watching a Pat
Etcheberry video called the zig-zag drill. You put out 6 cones; 3 on the
deuce side and 3 on the ad-court side. Each cone progresses toward the net
in a zig-zag pattern back and forth across the court. The first cone will
be two giant steps forward and to the right (deuce court) of the center
mark. The next cone will be two giant steps forward and to the left of the
center of the court in the ad-court. The next cone will be two giant steps
forward and the right (deuce court) of the center mark and so on until you
have 3 cones on the deuce court and 3 cones on the ad court with the last
cone about half way to the net from the service line in the ad- court.

The student starts from the center mark and moves to right (forhand assuming
they are right handed) and load and explode *shadowing the forehand.* They
will then move to the left and load and explode the backhand on the second
cone (again -- *shadowing the backhand)*. This is shadow drill and no balls
are being used at this point. They proceed through all 6 cones and then do
it again. I usually follow up this shadowing drill by feeding balls to the
same approximate places while they load & explode on each shot. Usually
when feeding I can only get 4 feeds in before they are right on the net.

Good luck. This is a very challenging time. Hopefully it will be very
rewarding down the road. Good luck!!!

Mike

Mike Alcott, USPTA
Head Tennis Professional,
The Briar Club
Houston, TX 77027



Received on Sat May 12 2007 - 23:16:22 CDT