Solo tennis drills: how to practise alone

1. Choose a broad service-box target, comfortable effort and camera view. For both usual-motion blocks, score the same two observations: serve lands legally, and finish stays controlled as you recover ready for the next ball. Do not require a particular landing foot. Film ten single-delivery attempts and count both, plus the attempts meeting both.
2. Try ten comfortable standing serves with an abbreviated motion to the same target. Keep this block separate: the toss and rhythm can change with the task. Observe the same outcomes; a higher score here does not establish improvement in your usual serve.
3. Return to your usual motion for ten single-delivery attempts at similar effort. Keep faults and out-of-target attempts in the ten. Your score is the number that land legally and finish under control in this final block. Compare it with the same combined count from the first block, and notice any change in target, effort or observation conditions.

1. Lay a towel at the ideal contact spot, slightly in front and into the court. Toss with a straight arm, release at eye level and let the ball fall. Twenty tosses. Count the ones that land on the towel.
2. Toss and reach to catch the ball at full extension without moving your feet. Twenty tosses.
3. With a partner, toss and serve. Your partner calls T, body or wide after the ball is up. Nine serves.

1. Put a marker on the back fence at your shoulder height and take a basket of balls.
2. Hit ten flat serves to the deuce T, brushing from 6 to 12.
3. Hit ten slice serves to the deuce wide corner, brushing around the outside of the ball.
4. Hit ten kick serves to the ad backhand corner, brushing from 7 to 1. Count the bounces that pass the marker.

1. After your usual warm-up, choose one broad target and one service side. Keep a familiar second serve at comfortable effort; full brush does not mean maximum effort. Allow about 15 minutes, with rest as needed.
2. Play a scoring game: two points for a first serve in; after a miss, one for a second serve in and zero for a double fault. Stop at 21 or more points, or after ten minutes. Keep the game score and count doubles separately.
3. Then hit a separate block of ten second serves from the chosen side, with no first serves. Count the first ten attempts, including misses. Count how many land in the correct service box; tally hits in your smaller target separately.
4. If you stop before ten attempts, a partial block doesn't count toward the number to beat. Nine in ten is an authored practice goal. On another day, keep the same side, target, balls and effort before adding a returner.

1. Put a flat marker beside your intended contact area, clear of your feet and swing. Adjust it for comfortable spacing.
2. Drop-feed 20 forehands and aim for clean contact in that area.
3. Count clean contacts in the chosen area. Repeat with the same setup next session.

1. Hit ten drop-fed forehands and finish each stroke normally. Pause the side-view recording near contact to inspect the ball relative to the hip.
2. Take twenty fed balls to alternating depths. Adjust with small steps; review every fifth stroke on video.
3. Film ten comparable rally forehands from the same side view. Mark the contact frame and count contacts in front of the hip; count ambiguous frames separately.

1. Choose a visible clearance reference and a broad landing area inside the singles lines. Take ten comfortable drop-feed attempts with a rising path. Count clearance and landing separately.
2. With a partner, repeat ten similar feeds; alone, repeat the drop feeds. Score success only when both targets are met. Keep every miss in the ten.
3. With a partner, test ten rally attempts. Keep that score separate from the feeds. Alone, repeat the same feed conditions before comparing rounds.

1. Choose two visible height references above the net and a broad landing area within the singles court. Keep the reference heights fixed; these are practice choices.
2. Take ten similar feeds or drop feeds. Score one only if the ball passes between the references and its first bounce lands in the area. Net, low, high, long and wide attempts stay in the ten.
3. Repeat under the same conditions, then try a separate ten-attempt rally block with a partner. Keep fed and live results separate.

1. Hold the racquet with your thumb and two fingers. Make twenty shadow forehands and feel the head fall behind your hand as your hips turn.
2. Take a full grip, held loose. Hit twenty drop-feed forehands. Listen for the sound at contact, not before it.
3. Film from behind. Count the swings where the racquet head is visibly behind your hand as your chest starts to face the net.

1. Tie a band to the fence at hip height. Do twenty reps: open the hips against the band while the shoulders hold, then release.
2. Shadow twenty forehands with your off-hand on the throat of the racquet through the turn. Count "hips, shoulders" out loud.
3. Drop-feed twenty forehands with a phone filming from behind you. Count the swings where your belt buckle turns before your chest.

1. Have a partner clap at random gaps of one to three seconds. Hop so you land on the clap. Do 20 reps.
2. Have your partner feed from the service line. Hop on their forward swing, land on contact, then go. Do 20 balls.
3. Film 20 rally balls from the side on a phone at 60 fps. Count the frames between the contact sound and your landing.

1. Raise for 3 minutes: light jog, skips, side shuffles, then mini-tennis.
2. Activate and mobilize for 6 minutes: band external rotations, scapular Ws and Ts, glute bridges and dead bugs, then leg swings, lunges with rotation, open books and ankle rockers.
3. Potentiate for 3 minutes: accelerations, split steps into sprints, and a handful of progressive serves and groundstrokes.
4. Open every session with it, and do your prehab 3–5 times a week.

1. Throw a medicine ball side-on into a wall or to a partner, hips first, on both sides. Feel the order: legs, hips, trunk, arms.
2. Do shotput throws, then overhead throws, in the same order, with full intent and full rest between.
3. Finish with ten first serves measured on a radar or ball tracker. Your number is the median speed.
4. Repeat the serve test on the same device six weeks later.

1. After a warm-up, sprint sideline to sideline for 10 seconds, touching each line, then walk back for 20 seconds. Do ten reps. Count your touches on the first rep.
2. Rest exactly 90 seconds, like a changeover. Do two more sets. Count your touches on the last rep of each set.
3. Your number is the touches lost from the first rep to the last. Retest every four weeks.

1. Use ten consecutive service points with a partner, or ten first-serve attempts alone. After the previous point or ball finishes, release it with one exhale and return to your serving position.
2. Settle your breathing and choose the intended serve target. Keep these phases brief enough to leave time for your service motion within the applicable limit.
3. Run your familiar ritual: your practised bounce count and last look, then the toss. Keep the same order without adding time to reach a fixed duration.
4. Count every attempt, including faults and skipped routines. Count whether all four phases happened before the toss, with serve or point outcome separate. Finish all ten for a score; a partial block doesn't count toward the number to beat. Eight of ten is an authored practice aim.

You needYour phone · Two cones

1. Record a voice memo of yourself calling 'left' or 'right' at random gaps of two to five seconds, twenty calls in all.
2. Stand at the centre mark. Play the memo. Split on each call and take three fast steps toward the called side, then return.
3. Film from behind and count controlled arrivals in the called area. Review the whole movement; do not reject an initial counter-step automatically.

The first step toward the ball, cued by a signal instead of a partner.

You needThree cones

1. Put a cone on the centre mark and one about a metre either side of it.
2. Shadow a cross-court forehand from near your deuce-side sideline, then recover to the cone on the side you hit from and split. Do the same from the other side.
3. Time yourself with a count of three: hit, recover, split.

Recovering to the middle of the opponent's options, not the centre mark.

You needA basket of balls

1. Drop-feed balls a step to your forehand side and hit with a step-in, neutral stance. Ten balls.
2. Now drop-feed two big steps wide and hit from an open stance, pushing back off the outside leg. Ten balls.
3. Mix them: call 'step' or 'open' before each feed, and hold your finish for a count of one.

Choosing the stance from where the ball is, and staying balanced.

You needYour phone as a stopwatch · 5 balls or cones

1. Place a ball on each baseline corner, each service-line sideline point and the T.
2. From the centre mark, fetch each ball and bring it back to the centre, one at a time, as fast as you can. Time it.
3. Rest fully between runs. Do three timed runs; your number is the best.

Court speed, measured the same way every time so you can see progress.

You needA practice wall · Masking tape or chalk · 2–3 balls

1. Mark a line on the wall at net height, 0.9 m, and a second line about a metre above it.
2. Stand 8–10 m back. Rally forehands off one bounce, aiming every ball between the two lines.
3. Count balls in a row that land between the lines. A ball below the lower line is a net, so the count restarts.

Net clearance: aiming a metre over the net is the margin that keeps balls in.

You needA practice wall · 2–3 balls

1. Stand about 6 m from the wall and rally at half pace.
2. For the first ten balls, freeze at contact and check the ball was in front of your front hip.
3. Then rally continuously, keeping that contact point. If you have to back up to hit, the count restarts.

An early contact point in front of the body, which a close wall forces.

You needA practice wall · 2 balls

1. Stand 3–4 m from the wall with a continental grip.
2. Volley without letting the ball bounce: a short punch, racquet face set early, no swing.
3. When you can keep it going, alternate forehand and backhand volleys.

A compact, firm volley that uses the ball's pace instead of a swing.

You needA practice wall · Tape · A basket of balls

1. Tape a box on the wall above your net-height line, about a metre wide.
2. Stand as far back as the space allows and serve with your full motion, aiming into the box.
3. Serve in sets of ten, then switch to second serves with more spin and the same swing speed.

A repeatable motion and a spin second serve you can hit at full speed.