Getting kids or beginners out on the court is all about making it a good experience. The best tennis drills for kids are both active and fun so that the players are always involved and moving on the court. Here are some fun tennis drills to keep a beginning player interested and wanting to come back for more.
Fun Tennis Drills for Warming Up
Tennis Footwork Drills for Warmup
It’s important to get a good warm up routine that gets all the right muscles ready to go to play tennis. Skipping the warm up is tempting, but it can often lead to injury because the body isn’t ready to go full force right away. Getting the feet moving is especially important for any good warm up routine. Start off with the following targeting the legs and good footwork.
- Players 1 – 8 implement rotations with more more players
- Easy Jog Around the Court: 1-2 laps around the court will get the body going and loosen up the legs.
- Jog With Lateral Shuffle: 1-2 laps around the court, but on the baseline do a quick shuffle from side to side while facing the net.
- Jump Rope: 1-2 minutes of fast paced jumping. Try timing yourself for a minute and see how many jumps you can get, then repeat and improve.
Warming up the Strokes I
A great way to warm up the tennis stroke is to do targeted shadow hitting, or swings without a ball. Line players up along the center of the court facing the net, giving them plenty of room to swing freely without hitting each other. Designate numbers to different court locations. The center of the service box can be 1, the start of the alley 2, and the outer line of the alley 3.
Stand in front of the players as they face you and point left or right while calling out a number. The player will run to the designated location and take a shadow stroke This incorporates everything we’ve warmed up so far and continues to actively involve both backhands and forehands
- 1-6 Players if the group is bigger you can consider using both sides of the court, though you won’t be able to watch and correct everyone at once.
- Start in center of court, middle of service box is 1, first alley line is 2, outer alley line is 3.
- 5 minutes is a good amount of time for this drill
Warming up the Strokes II
A mini tennis warm up drill can a useful tool for all levels of player. This is where both players start on opposite service lines and play out a rally. For beginners it will be less important to hit and practice a lot of top spin. Beginners will instead focus on taking most of the pace off of the ball to keep it inside the service boxes.
- Players 2-4 with four players have two groups using one service box each
- Each player can rotate starting off the ball with a simple feed and then they play out a rally in the service box
- Use this as an opportunity to reinforce keeping correct score
- No longer than 5-10 minutes. Any longer any players will start losing interest
Active and Fun Tennis Drills for Kids
The Z Drill
This drill is called many different things, but the core idea is always the same. Players will practice all of their different shots while actively moving around the court. Start by lining the players up behind the center of the baseline, while feeding from the opposite side at the net. Each player gets a feed to the forehand, backhand, middle of the court, and then a forehand and backhand volley. This Z shape is where the name of the drill comes from.
For the middle of the court shot, feed a short ball in the middle of the court and have the players follow it diagonally into net where you give them an easy volley. Players should clear any balls that they hit into the net that might be rolling around the court and then jog to the back of the line.
- 1-4 Players is best, but can be done well with as many as 6. Anything beyond that will have players sitting and waiting for too long.
- On the short ball designate which side the players should come in to the net and rotate a few times
- One effective rule is to have the player finishing his turn pick up four balls before returning to the line while you continue the drill
- This drill can be done with different patterns, also focusing more on volleys
- Spend 10-15 minutes on this drill
Aim and Control Drill
New players will need to work on controlling their shots. The best way is to put out targets or cones on the court so that they have something more specific than the wide open court to focus on. Set up cones mostly well inside the base line and behind the service box. You want the player to only hit towards high percentage targets at this stage.
Have the players take turns hitting shots at each zone. Feed one or two shots to a player and then have them rotate. Count points for hitting the target to keep the drill competitive. When using a small target like a cone it is a good idea to reward points for a particular zone, with extra points coming from hitting the cone. We want to provide positive reinforcement and not cause frustration. Empty tennis ball buckets also make great targets
- 1-4 Players
- Have players keep track of the number of times they hit a target to keep it competitive
- Can do this drill for ground strokes and then volleys as a two part drill
- Spend 5-10 minutes on each set of strokes you want to target
Around the World (Younger Kids)
I’ve never quite understood the fascination that younger kids have with this game. You can go through a whole tennis lesson and they will be begging to play this game the entire time. It’s a great cardio workout though, so if they really enjoy it we might as well use it! It can also be very competitive and simple which I think is the main attraction.
Split up the number of kids into two groups and line them up on opposite sides of the baseline. Start the ball out hitting to the side with more people. The first in line will hit the ball and then immediately run to the other side of the court and get back in line. The rally continues until someone misses. The miss is counted as an out, usually 2-3 outs and a player is eliminated. Restart another ball whenever both lines are ready.
Play continues until you get down to 2 players. Once this happens instead of running around the court players will drop their racquet’s and spin around after a shot before they are allowed to hit the next one.
- 6-10 Players is a good amount
- Have players keep track of their outs
- The success of this game can depend on how vocal and encouraging you are. Applaud good shots and keep players moving safely from one side of the court to the other