Session focus
Practice themes
Themes describe the skills or decisions a drill develops. The planner uses these labels to choose drills that match what you want to practise.
- Serve
- Starting the rally with a legal diagonal serve, with emphasis on reliable depth, placement, and pace.
- Return
- Receiving the serve with enough control and depth to keep the server back while the returning side moves forward.
- Third-shot drop
- Playing a soft third shot from deeper in the court that lands in the kitchen and helps the serving side move forward.
- Third-shot drive
- Hitting the third shot with pace to draw a weaker reply and make the following fifth-shot drop easier to execute.
- Footwork
- Moving, stopping, and recovering with balance so the ball can be contacted from a strong position.
- Dink
- Playing a soft shot from your kitchen area into the opponent’s kitchen, either after a bounce or out of the air.
- Reset
- Absorbing pace with a soft defensive shot that lands in the kitchen and turns an attack back into a neutral ball.
- Fast hands
- Handling quick volley exchanges with compact swings, a ready paddle, and controlled reactions.
- Transition
- Moving from the baseline toward the kitchen while staying balanced and choosing when to advance, reset, or attack.
- Anticipation
- Reading an opponent’s position, preparation, and contact cues early enough to prepare instead of only reacting to their shot.
- Lob
- Sending a high, deep ball over an opponent, either to relieve pressure or move a player away from the kitchen.
- Overhead
- Attacking a high ball above the head with controlled placement, then recovering for the next shot.
- Speed-up
- Deliberately accelerating a dink exchange to start an attack or force a difficult response.
- Counter
- Responding immediately to an opponent’s attack with a controlled block, redirection, or attack of your own.
- Defense
- Staying in the rally against pressure by blocking, absorbing, retrieving, and working back toward a neutral position.
- Volley
- Striking the ball before it bounces, with attention to compact contact, control, and placement.
- Shape
- Using arc, direction, and spin—such as topspin or slice—to create margin and influence how the ball travels and bounces.
- Out balls
- Recognizing attacks that are likely to land long and making the disciplined choice to let them pass.
- Consistency
- Repeating the intended shot or pattern with dependable quality while reducing avoidable errors.
- Communication
- Using clear calls and shared decisions so partners coordinate movement, coverage, and shot responsibility.
- Targeting
- Directing the ball toward a chosen court area or body position to achieve a specific tactical purpose.
On the court
Other terms
- Baseline
- The back boundary line of each side of the court.
- Core block
- A main practice block. Every session focus theme must appear in at least one core block.
- Dink
- A soft shot intended to bounce in the opponent's non-volley zone.
- Drive
- A firmer attacking groundstroke, often used as a third shot.
- Drop
- A soft shot from deeper in the court intended to land in the opponent's kitchen.
- Good miss
- A miss that preserves the drill's correct intent, rather than succeeding with the habit being corrected.
- Kitchen
- The non-volley zone extending seven feet from both sides of the net.
- Reset
- A controlled soft contact that removes pace and aims to neutralize an attack.
- Split-step
- A small balanced hop timed near an opponent's contact so movement can begin in either direction.
- Speed-up
- An intentional acceleration from a slower exchange, usually at the kitchen.
- Transition zone
- The area between the baseline and kitchen line, sometimes informally called no-man's-land.