Ball Machine Drills: Basic Complete Workout

Groundstrokes Level 1

1 Short Court Narrow

Intent: Warm up. Go through “self-checklist”. Set your topspin and slice swing path at an easy pace. You should only need to hit a max of 40-50 balls in this drill.
2 Short Court Wide

Intent: Work on hitting tight shortcourt angles with lots of topspin and moving side-to-side. Move side to side. Loosen wrist so you can generate spin and hit tight cross court angles.
4 Baseline Narrow

Intent: Find your range for the opposite baseline. Utilize basic front-foot pivot footwork pattern.
4 Baseline Wide

Intent: Work on dynamic movement and recovery. Hit and immediately push off to be ready for the next ball. Do 3x 10-20 ball sequences and rest between sets. Commit to recovering past the center mark before the next ball is released.
Low Ball High Ball

Intent: Alternating low and high ball in the center of the court. An easy introduction to adjusting your swing path based on the trajectory of the ball.
Straight Ad Court

Intent: Hit a set of balls cross court. Then a set of balls down the line. Then alternate.
Straight Deuce Court

Intent: Hit a set of balls cross court. Then a set of balls down the line. Then alternate.

1 Deep and 2 Short Ad

Intent: 3 ball sequence of high and low balls. Move in to attack the short ball. Move back to the recovery point.
1 Deep and 2 Short Deuce

Intent: 3 ball sequence of high and low balls. Move in to attack the short ball. Move back to the recovery point.

1 Volley Narrow

Intent: Easy balls for anyone to warm up their volleys and focus on technique.
2 Easy Overheads

Intent: Gentle lobs alternating deuce and ad court so you can work on your basic overhead timing without too much backward movement.
High Volley Low Volley

Intent: Alternating high and low volleys in random directions
Volley Overhead

Intent: Alternating volleys and overheads so you practice your front and back movement and recovery.