iTUSA recently began featuring tour secrets of playing on clay courts. While the Drill of the Week focuses on clay courts, the iTUSA Video Library will also be releasing nine new clay court drills each week, beginning with the fundamentals of learning how to slide. At the new iTUSA World Headquarters all players are taught and encouraged to master their clay court skills which build the foundation for a successful pro career. No matter what surface players compete on, mastering their skills on clay has been proven to accelerate player development no matter the court surface. It is much easier to go from clay courts to hard courts than it is to go the other way around. 88% of the top ten players learned to play on clay courts.
Objective: To develop safe, aggressive ground strokes by hitting aggressive, deep and down the middle of the court while moving side to side and finishing the short balls to the corners.
Description: At the iTUSA/Ferrer Tennis Academy, we design specific drills for each of our players. Rather than forcing a player to conform to a rigid system, the iTUSA Development System is built around a player’s individual abilities. iTUSA begins with the recognition that the game of tennis is constantly evolving, and players emerge with new skills and new ways to win.
This particular series of “Bullet Proof” drills was developed for Germany’s Jasmin Jebawy to teach her how to be aggressive as the first steps toward breaking her old mental habits of playing too defensively. We called them “Bullet Proof” drills because even though we want her to hit the ball aggressively, we are providing her a safety net by using the middle of the court.
Using the middle of the court aggressively is a very underrated concept. If done correctly you will be able to increase your consistency, reduce your unforced errors, reduce your opponents’ chances to play a winner by not creating openings and most importantly set up your winning patterns and reset plays when you are on the defensive.
You will see how Jasmin is aiming to the middle with DEPTH and PACE until she gets a weaker ball in the middle of the court. Once she gets the first opportunity, she can go for the corners with power for a winner.
The “Bullet Proof” series also covers net, returning game and serve and next shot as well. It can dramatically help a player with excessive defensive mentality to start playing more aggressively while maintaining some comfort level. It is the first step toward transforming a defensive mentality into a more attacking and aggressive game plan.
In the coming week, the iTUSA Training Drills Database will be expanded with at least 9 new drills.
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