When you think of ground strokes, great tennis champions such as Chris Evert and Roger Federer come to mind. There are a variety of drills for ground strokes that can break the monotony of practice and even be fun. No matter your skill level, ground-stroke drills are essential for improving your game.
Warm-Up
Optimum Tennis has 10 drills for ground strokes that are used at tennis academies and other teaching facilities. As a warm-up drill, service-box rallying will get you prepared for more vigorous drills. The drill calls for you to rally down the line with a partner, using only one service box. Move your feet, hit backhands and forehands and get yourself loosened up. No volleys are allowed.
Baseline
One recommended drill consists of cross-court ground strokes from the baseline. Put more spin on the ball and shoot for angles. Try widening your stance to more than shoulder-width. A variation is the alternate ground-stroke drill, which simulates live play. The person with whom you are practicing is tasked with hitting balls to alternate sides. Using both corners, hit a forehand, then a backhand and keep alternating. Focus on proper footwork.
Volley
Volleys to the forehand side only and the backhand side only constitute two drills. One player hits to your forehand side and you return volleys from the service line. Form and footwork are the two main skills in this drill. Another drill is to volley at the net, exchanging forehand and backhand volleys, a drill designed to improve form, footwork and reaction time.
Low-Ball Toss
Stand just behind the baseline. A coach or fellow player stands about 6 feet in front of you and off to one side with a basket of 60 tennis balls, tossing them to you at a height of less than 2 feet, and slightly varying the direction of the tosses. You shuffle to the ball, hit it on the rise and shuffle back to your position behind the baseline. Repeat until all 60 balls have been hit. Do this from the forehand and the backhand sides. The drill will test your endurance and help you maintain proper form -- racket back early, knees bent, back straight -- as exhaustion sets in.
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