Usually, players rehearse on the court with opponents or coaches. But we don’t always have someone to practice with, right? So, How to practice tennis alone?
Here I am suggesting you few significant ways to do it alone. After going through the article, you won’t need to compromise on the rough volleys or shots of your family members or friends.
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How To Practice Tennis Alone| Best Five Tricks
We have compiled the best five tricks or techniques to become a great player without inviting anyone to join you. Let’s get into it.
1 – USE A TENNIS BALL MACHINE
The first and the most effective way to practice tennis isolation is using a tennis ball machine. One of its maximum benefits is that you can customize the machine to feed your forehands, backhands, and overhead shots.
Moreover, you can modify it to feed you the same shots over and over again. However, if you think buying a tennis ball machine is costly, you can buy a used tennis machine which will be reasonable. If you are using tennis machines you have a chance to master machine drills.
Another major aspect is you can upgrade your foot movements by customizing it on random shots. With the cheap tennis ball machine, you will receive accurate shots over a fixed period of time. And this precise feeding will enhance your consistency too.
Generally, your silent partner machine or coach feeds you the shots according to their own will. But with the tennis ball machine, you can possibly rehearse the shots which you want to upgrade. There is a variety of tennis machines. But the best one gives you the convenience to set the timing, speed, and angle.
Some of you might think that using a machine for rehearsing may be a tough task. If that is so, then peeps, you are wrong because these machines have remote controls. You can even command some machines using a mobile phone app.
Unpleasantly, there are machines with high rates. But you can still manage to play if you rent a tennis machine from the nearby tennis shop or court. If you are considering purchasing, then first try out the machine according to your need and level.
There are people and students who complain that why tennis machines are expensive. They think all tennis machines are the same but it is not like that. There are different types of machines for different levels and ranges.
2 – TRAIN YOUR FOOT MOVEMENTS
The second dominant way to practice tennis solo is to work on your foot movements. It is evident that tennis is a game that requires you to be highly efficient in foot movements. So when you have no partner, this is the perfect time to work on the important foot movements.
According to the world’s best tennis players like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, perfect foot movement is the key to success.
Some effective volleys that you should work on are side shuffle steps, split steps, and baseline foot movements. The other routines like a crossover, side steps, and explosive jumps are also valuable.
To train the foot movements exercises alone, judge and guide your activities by yourself. The most overlooked fact is that if you can’t get to the right position to beat the stroke, you won’t execute adequately. Your foot movement stability is also based on your earlier recovery from the shots.
Use saucers or cones to separate a specific area of the court and exercise shuffling your feet, corner to corner. Place the cones on the baseline and central line of the court.
Then place the balls at each end of the court, and run to pick them up one by one. This sequence will also excel your sprinting and positioning on the court.
3 – Bang AGAINST WALL
Another appropriate way to practice tennis alone is striking against the wall. The best factor about this method is the wall never misses the shots. It would be tough in the beginning but you will get used to it with time.
Professional players also use walls often when they don’t have any companions. Moreover, starters must choose to rehearse with two bounces; in this way, they will have more time for recovery. Finally, there is so many training that you can exercise with the walls.
Using the wall, you have to be more intended towards the shots when these come out from the wall to your side. It is helpful to mark the selected area of the wall to assume a target. If you don’t have access to the wall, then the backboard or the gym’s wooden wall or floor is enough for training.
Try to cover the wall more, commence your shots from one end and go to the other. This is how you can boost your sprinting and foot movements. It will also assist in improving your forehand and two-handed backhand.
The accuracy of the shots depends on how deep and precise are your slams toward the wall. Possibly you can make the larger swings according to the wall length.
4 – SHOOTING SERVES ALONE
The most crucial shot in tennis is the serve. And it requires a large amount of time to do it perfectly. So when you are alone, this is what you can exercise to be a next-level player. As the newbie, players don’t pay attention to striking the serves. But as they go higher, they understand the significance of the serves.
Usually, you don’t have extra time to exercise by hitting the ball at the clubs or courts. So this is the only way to rehearse when you are not playing the game with any partner. Also, unlike other ways, you don’t have to find a wall or accessories; it only needs a racquet and some balls to drill.
Exercise the way you want; either you want to enhance your forehand, backhand, or other strokes. You might get bored by smashing serves alone, but it won’t happen if you focus on the groundstrokes and feet exercises.
If you are on the court, you have a great chance to perform baseline and central lines. Furthermore, you will get expertise in playing tennis alone but you have to learn how to get better at tennis game.
To boost your consistency with the serves, mark and separate some areas so that you feel like smashing a proper target. You can use cones, saucers, or tape to do that.
Another interesting thing is you can score winning or losing points by yourself, for the serves you make or lose.
5 – SHADOW SWINGS
To practice tennis alone, the best thing you can do is to shadow swings. This doesn’t require a large ground or a bunch of equipment. Start rehearsing it with only a racquet in your hands. Exercise on whatever stroke that you want to boost.
If you want to work on the backhand, you will shadow your backhand in the same way over and over again. Likewise, repeat the same method when you are exercising the forehand. By rehearsing this method, you will learn to manage your racquet speed. Such as in which stroke you need to swing forcefully with high strength.
Moreover, swinging the racquet repeatedly will boost your consistency and foot movements. Because you are constantly moving while doing the shadow swings, you will get the extra benefit of enhanced foot movements.
The other useful aspect of exercising tennis alone is learning the best approach for the racquet’s grip. Like, which stroke needs what kind of grip? Also, rehearse some important grips, for instance, continental grip, western grip, and eastern grip.
6 – SELF FEEDING THE BALLS
If you are willing to practice tennis alone, feed the balls by yourself; this is what you can do. Decide what shots you are going to rehearse with, and then start the game. This way of rehearsing is entirely dependent on you. Because you give the feed and shot it back.
Grab a basket or hopper and put many tennis balls in that; you are good to go. Besides that, you can also hold the balls in your pockets. First, drop the balls when you are in the power position. Then, while holding the racquet in the right hand, feed the balls with the left hand, do it correspondingly.
Customize some areas in the court with the cones so that you can get the real feel of the game. For example, forehand, one-handed backhand, and two-handed backhand, you can rehearse all of them. For forehand, you place the racquet in one hand and throw the ball by the other.
You can mix up the heights of the feed according to yourself like some balls are higher, and some balls are lower. In order to work on the two-handed backhand stroke, feed the balls and recover your power position swiftly.
Any level player can rehearse the strokes this way because it is the simplest and the most effective method. However, you’d be surprised to know that even pros use this technique when they don’t have any coach or opponent.
7 – TENNIS FITNESS
This is a great way to make your body prepare for the hurdles and volleys in tennis. You don’t need to go to the gym and spend hours working with heavyweights.
Instead, do it conveniently like your home workouts in the garden. As tennis drills are different from the other games, so it demands you to train your body differently.
You might have realized that you have to run randomly to beat the shots back when you are in the rally. So just a simple exercise is not enough; you have to be more flexible and efficient. The tennis fitness at home includes your own bodyweight exercises; this doesn’t require highly optimized equipment.
Do sprint or jogging in your garden and a few other stretches to make your body more flexible. You must also try out warm-up exercises. When you become habitual to all these warm-ups. You won’t face complications while doing it on the court or playing tennis professionally.
To increase your arms strength, do shadow swings with one tennis racquet. This could need some space, but your garden will be enough. Rehearse your split steps doing these shots. Act like you are receiving the feed from the opponent and swing the racquet with full strength. Your arms extension, as well as your fitness, will be much better.
Is practicing Tennis Alone make you Skillful?
Well! It depends on your personality. There are so many tennis players in the world who have mastered the game completely and then they have invented or say introduced new ways of playing tennis alone. On the other hand, there are tennis players who are nowhere while getting trained by the most skilled tennis coach in the world.
Now you have to diagnose your personality. Are you the kind of tennis player who can learn from yourself or not? In my experience, if you have a burning desire for something you can do it alone doesn’t matter if the world supports you or not.
You should learn tennis alone after learning the basic rules if you have a burning desire. If you just want to give it a try then you must go to some courses and ask coaches to know if you can do this or not.
How many Tricks are there to Practice Tennis Alone?
There are many tricks to practicing tennis alone. One of the most famous ways is to get a tennis ball machine that is rich in mimicking the actual gameplay. You have dozens of options to customize a tennis machine.
On the other side, you can practice tennis alone by throwing a tennis ball against the wall and practicing with the best tennis racquet. Both these ways are best and proved by thousands of tennis players.
In my opinion, practicing tennis against the wall make you a good tennis player and makes you more skillful. On the other hand, tennis ball machines are good for making you practice tennis from scratch to an advanced level.
Why You Should Practice Tennis Alone?
First of all, you must learn tennis from any tennis academy or on YouTube videos. After that, you have to practice tennis alone on each and single stroke. That is what makes you a skillful tennis player.
If you do not practice tennis alone you will never know what are lacking points in your tennis game. Practicing tennis alone makes you think in deep what is your main power and what are your weakness. When you are alone rehearsing the game you get much space to think while practicing.
On the other side, when you practice tennis with others, you just focus on the winning and the excitement of the game. So, you don’t focus on your good and bad points. That is why every tennis player should practice tennis alone.
Is Practicing Tennis Alone Worth it?
Practicing tennis alone is like meditating on tennis. You learn so much more and you become more creative in a tennis games. You make new strategies and new ways of the game. Moreover, you polish your tennis game and out-perform all the competition.
Who Should Practice Tennis Alone?
Those who have mastered the tennis game should practice tennis alone 2 times a week just to know the sticking points, analyze, learn, and polish.
Furthermore, those who have no idea about tennis and just starting to practice tennis can also start rehearsing alone to know if they can practice tennis alone or if they need some coaching to follow this trick.
FAQS Regarding How to Practice Tennis Alone
CONCLUSION:
Resultantly, when you are alone don’t assume that you can’t enhance your tennis. As we have suggested to you are the best ways to practice tennis alone.
Now, if you are alone, don’t settle down thinking that you don’t have a buddy to play with. And without making excuses go and rehearse by all the prescribed methods. You will definitely rock like a pro.
We have concluded the most magnificent techniques for you to refine your game by yourself. Ask a professional they will tell you how they struggled a lot to polish up these tricks.
If you have an issue regarding understanding, you may ask us in the comments or email us. You can also suggest to us any other way to enhance your tennis skills alone. We will appreciate your effort.