- Wall Drills
10 wall drills you can do on your own to improve your tennis game
Watch Abigail Spears demonstrate 10 Drills that will help your overall game – from your warm-up groundstrokes to your serve.
What You'll Learn
- Fine tuning your volley and ground stroke skills plus developing a great top spin lob.
- Building strength in your forearms and technique.
- Practicing good form in all strokes also practicing footwork and reaction time as well.
The Workout Plan
- Drill 1 - Mini Court Tennis
- 2 Sets - Forehand and Backhand
- 30 Reps
- 2 Days / Week
- Abi's Pro Tip - "Work on compacting your stroke and your racket swing."
The purpose of this warm-up drill is to just to work on your footwork a little bit and get in the habit of taking your racket back early and turning while hitting. Also working on top spin.
This drill is all about timing because you’re standing closer to the wall which is like standing on the service line on the tennis court.
This is drill gets you used to taking the ball on the rise so it’s forcing you to time the ball, to be a little bit more accurate in your movement and creating top spin in a short space.
- Drill 2 - Ground Strokes Rally Ball
- 1 Set - Forehand and Backhand
- 25 Reps
- 2 Days / Week
- Abi's Pro Tip - "Visualize net clearance on the wall to ensure good habits of the ball clearing the net."
For this wall drill we are just grooving your ground strokes with a normal rally ball pace. As you take your racket back early and time the ball you will have to adjust since the wall you are hitting against could bounce in different directions coming off the wall.
Rally ball is all about getting your timing down, shifting your weight from the back to the front foot, making sure you get your racket back early from low to high and adding some spin on the ball. Your speed that you generate is about 75 percent of what you can generate fully. Giving you a higher percentage during a rally.
Work hard to time the ball and move from your back foot to your front foot and if you have a one handed backhand take your non-dominant hand and hold the racket while taking it back. You’re working on consistency and form and footwork.
One-handers need to make sure they take the racket back with their non dominant hand which forces a great habit of turning with great racket head preparation. Two handed backhand players have this habit naturally because both hands are on the racket which make you turn more because you’re forced to do so with the two hands.
- Drill 3 - Heavy Top Spin Lob
- 1 Set - Forehand and Backhand
- 20 Reps
- 2 Days / Week
- Abi's Pro Tip - "Work on stepping forward as you practice your lob, this disguises the shot and is an advanced shot."
This drill is a heavy top spin lob you need a higher wall and the focus should be on the correct footwork. Also working on disguising makes the heavy topspin lob an advanced drill and the higher wall for this drill is a requirement.
While doing this drill visualize the person being at the net and generating that spin and racket head speed and height over your visualized opponent.
This is a great drill for practicing your lob and hitting it on your front foot which hides your intent of lobbing. Disguising (weight on front foot while hitting it not leaning backwards) and visualizing where on the wall, (over the heads of your opponent or opponents) stepping into the ball and disguising your preparation before hitting it over them is very difficult but this is great practice.
- Drill 4 - Volleys
- 1 Set - Forehand and Backhand
- 30 Reps
- 2 Days / Week
- Abi's Pro Tip - "Focus on a strong wrist and your racket head above your wrist."
Move back up closer to the wall will help improve your strength in your forearm and help you work on turning sideways to work on the correct form. Try keeping your racket out front as much as possible keeping your racket head above your wrist.
I dropped my wrist a little bit in this video. However practice your timing and moving your back foot forward into your front foot. This also works on accuracy.
Keep the non-dominant arm out front if possible and remember to turn your shoulders if you can on both your forehand and your backhand volleys. This drill is great for timing and getting some strength into your wrist and forearms.
- Drill 5 - First Volleys
- 1 Set - Forehand and Backhand
- 25 Reps
- 2 Days / Week
- Abi's Pro Tip - "Wider base stepping into hit the first volley automatically puts you into a lower position without too much strain on your knees."
The first volley drill has two ways to work on your first volley. One way is taking it out of the air the other is letting it bounce. Both will improve your timing and your coordination on hitting the first volley and your power.
Hit 25 forehand volleys out of the air and 25 backhand volleys out of the air then take a break and hit 25 forehand volleys letting it bounce and repeat on the backhand side.
The first volley drill is for strength and timing you’re going to practice turning and you’re going to hit 25 solid hits on your forehand and backhand, timing the back foot pressing forward into the front foot. Keep your racket head above your wrist as much as possible, working on that timing and strength.
To challenge your strength and the drill move further back then move forwards to make it easier. For the bounce added into the first volley or what’s called a half volley you want to back up so that you can time the ball kind of coming down at your feet kind of creating a half volley.
It is a difficult drill, it’s great for timing of pressing back into the front foot as much as possible and its strength and accuracy. Hit 25 solid hits on the forehand and 25 solid hits on the backhand.
Make sure to use your non dominant arm and on the first volley and half volley its almost a small Nike swoosh shaped swing because of the distance from the net.
Keep pressing and stepping forward into the ball trying to keep it in front of you as much as possible and staying turned. Its a great strength exercise as well as great for your timing.
- Drill 6 - Backhand Slice
- 1 Set - Forehand and Backhand
- 30 Reps
- 2 Days / Week
- Abi's Pro Tip - "Put your non dominant arm behind your back to force more of a turn."
Move back ( the distance of the baseline on a tennis court to net) hit 30 solid backhand slices working on turning and stepping into the ball. This will improve your strength and your coordination for your backhand slice.
Use your non-dominant arm to bring the racket back so you’re staying turned and you’re trying to stay parallel to that fence that’s behind me.
Work on transferring your weight from back foot to front foot as much as possible and try to keep your racket from scooping too much. You’re naturally going to scoop a little bit but you want to try to keep it as straight as possible and extend your arm and lock out your arm at the end of the stroke.
Its a strength drill again for the wall and your arms will be tired after this drill.
- Drill 7 - Reflex Volley Drill
- 1 Set - Forehand and Backhand
- 35 Reps
- 2 Days / Week
- Abi's Pro Tip - "Keeping a short swing and racket out front makes your reflexes that much faster."
Move back closer to the wall and work on our volley reflexes.
Hit 35 forehand volleys and 35 backhand volleys this is definitely going to improve your eye hand coordination and your strength. The volley reflex drill is so great for your strength in your wrist.
You’ve got to keep your racket above your wrist for the entire drill you’re going to hit 35 solid forehands 35 solid backhands and you’re not moving much if you’re hitting it accurately it is an advanced drill.
If you stand closer you have less time to react so that’s why it’s so great trying to keep that racket in front of you the whole time with the ball in front of you the whole time, trying to keep that non-dominant arm out front to help you track it and staying turned.
- Drill 8 - Racket Head Speed
- 3 Sets - Forehand and Backhand
- 10 Reps
- 2 Days / Week
- Abi's Pro Tip - "Don't force or muscle your arm but keep it as loose as possible."
This is racket head speed for your groundstrokes we’re going to work on coiling and uncoiling making this a power drill and the last link in the kinetic chain really whipping through with your arm and wrist. For a beginner and intermediate player do 3 sets of 10 forehands and 3 sets of 10 backhands.
For advanced players do 20 forehands and 20 backhands three sets, resting in between because this is a powerful drill and this hopefully will help you get that last link going and getting more spin and power on the ball.
For this powerful drill you need to stand back further because the ball will come off faster and deeper.
- Drill 9 - The Serve
- 1 Sets - Forehand and Backhand
- 25 Reps
- 2 Days / Week
- Abi's Pro Tip - "Make sure you are nice and warm before this drill doing shoulder warm ups because this is a lot of balls. Keep your arm loose for this drill as well."
With this wall drill for your serve you can’t tell if the ball is going in or out. Which is great because then you can really focus on your form, coiling, and uncoiling using legs and also perfecting your toss. Exaggerate taking your time as if you’re playing a match. Even slower than what I show on the video.
Work on pushing off more with your legs up and out even more so then why I show as well. Start with 25 second serves to ease into it warming up your serve. Then hit 25 first serves making sure you take time.
And lastly if you can slice try and add that in as well. Pretend you’re serving on the deuce side and then on the add.
- Drill 10 - Serve And Second Ball
- 1 Sets - Forehand and Backhand
- 25 Reps
- 2 Days / Week
- Abi's Pro Tip - "Make sure you finish your serve before focusing on the second ball. You need to shorten that back swing with how fast the ball will come off the wall."
This drill allows you to work on your second hit after the first serve it’s going to come off very fast after you hit that first serve. The speed it will come off is as if your opponent is punishing your second serve.
You can focus on your different serves as well with this drill. Working on your form and working on getting that racket back very quickly to hit the second ball is important. This will exaggerate early racket preparation which is necessary and help develop a great habit for preparation.
Stepping into the ball and hitting it out in front makes this drill advanced and challenging with that super fast ball bouncing off the wall this will only help improve your explosive stroke and your reflexes.
Be sure to get the latest tennis tips, tricks and resources from Abi Spears so you never miss an opportunity to level up your game!
Get expert tips to improve your game today!
- Send me your recent footage
- Get a personalized video assessment with my top tips
- Learn how to improve your game today
