Crosscourt, then down the line

by James Chang
(Newbury Park, California)

To be played with two people:

One person hits down the line, the other person hits cross court. Whoever misses his/her mark loses the point. Good for developing match skill, coordination, and concentration.

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Comment by Tomaz:

Hi James, thanks for sharing a classic drill for improving accuracy and other skills you already mentioned.

Here's a variation I like to use: one player can play anywhere (cross court or down the line), the other has to play ALWAYS cross court.

That way at least one player has to keep deciding what to play and when.

In my opinion, deciding correctly is the most difficult thing in tennis and try to implement the decision making process in almost every drill.

Another variation of the above drill is this one:

The player who has to play cross court all the time, can also decide to play down the line.

In that case, the point is played normally and it's worth 2 points.

So if that player made a wrong decision when to change to the down the line, he will lose 2 points.

Also, he will win 2 for making the right decision.

All other points before he chooses to do go down the line are worth 1.