The Tennis Drill Book (The Drill Book)

By Tina Hoskins and Tina Hoskins-Burney

Book Overview

Effective practice is the foundation for good performance. With a wealth of drills and games to choose from, The Tennis Drill Book will help you develop skills, work on weaknesses, and prepare for upcoming matches. This extensive manual features 245 drills that can be integrated into practice sessions to improve performance in every area of the game: -Progressive technique drills help you master every stroke and shot combination. -Tactics drills help you develop winning strategies for every game situation--aggressive or defensive, doubles or singles--on any court surface, against any style of play. -Mental training drills help you stay focused when the pressure is on. -Warm-up, cool-down, and conditioning drills are designed to increase speed, agility, and endurance so that you can move swiftly into position, outlast opponents, and reduce the chance of injury. -Game-based drills simulate match play for singles and doubles.Written by a teaching pro and former Women's Tennis Association player, this essential reference provides more than just drills for every game situation. Game-based drills simulate match situations, and drills and games for juniors help you prepare younger players for higher competition. With more to offer than any other drill reference, The Tennis Drill Book will be an essential part of your tennis library.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0736049126
• ISBN13: 9780736049122
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Human Kinetics
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 0.6" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Very good collection of drills for all situations.

Overall, this is a very good collection of tennis drills. Tina Hoskins covers tennis drills for numerous situations including: singles, doubles, group and children drills, competitive games, and even backboard drills. That is how she reaches the staggering number of 245 tennis drills. Given that most players have specific needs and desire associated with tennis drills, you will probably find only a small percentage of these drills useful. And, that is perfectly OK. In my case, I am a former varsity college tennis player still hitting at the NTRP 4.5 level with a technical orientation to the game. I actually love challenging singles drills. Within this book, I actually found only 8 drills (3% of total drills) useful. But, these 8 drills include some of the most physically and technically challenging drills I ever came across. The most extreme drill is the one actually portrayed on the cover page. Frankly, if it was not for this book, I did not think this drill was possible. This is because it is composed of shots that are typically outright winners (passing shots down the line, and cross court volleys in the open court). In any case, I tried these 8 drills this past weekend. And, they worked. After an hour and half of intermittently doing these drills, and then just hitting around to catch our breath; We did all these drills, had a lot of fun, were more exhausted than usual, but hit the best we ever hit. I can see how if I keep the work up on these extreme-8s, my game and physical condition will reach the next level.If you are a tennis coach teaching clinics, there are probably many more drills you will find useful within this book. But even if you are not, you may find the book very useful just like I did. The drills shown in the book, opens your mind and body to what is possible. Out of the drills shown, it is easy to tweak them a bit to your own needs. Thus, tennis drills becomes also a mental game of creativity. The one drawback of the book is that a slight majority of the drills are explained without drawing. I think the book would have been more effective by concentrating on maybe the best 100 drills and illustrate all of them instead of 245 drills where only a minority of the drills is illustrated. But, overall this is still a valuable book on tennis drills.