Rainy Days And Mondays Never Get Me Down

Another rained out night of tennis in Tallahassee.  All is lost.  My game will suffer immeasurable harm from the lack of play.  Nonsense!  Here is very short list of things you can do at home indoors on nights like tonight to help your game get to the next level. 

1. Stand in front of a mirror and do 100 reps of the stroke correction(s) your pro is working with you on. 5 minutes, with or without a racquet depending on vertical and/or horizontal space

2. Stand in front of a mirror and go through every stroke in slow motion 50 times. Do this for serve, volleys, groundstrokes, overheads, and dropshots, slice, topspin.  10 minutes, with or without racquet depending on vertical and/or horizontal space 

3. If you have vaulted ceilings, practice your serve toss, by tossing the ball an arm's distance in front of you at 1 o'clock, ensuring that once your tossing arm is extended vertically, you do not have to move it in order to catch the ball as it descends.  5 minutes

4. Ball control exercises.  Bounce downs, Bounce ups (both sides individually), Flips, Hammer and nail (edge of racquet bounce downs), edge of racquet bounce ups. Depending on home situation, do this in the garage with regular balls, or indoors with a nerf ball or 10 & under ball.  10 minutes

5. Ladder drills for footwork - lay out a sports ladder in the hallway.  Look up on YouTube various ladder drills.  10 minutes

6. Nerf Wall Ball - Using only your dominant hand (no racquets!), keep the nerf ball going against a wall for as long as you can.  5 minutes with the ball bouncing, and 5 minutes without allowing the ball to bounce. Great for reactions, speed of hands, and volleying. 10 minutes

7. Table Tennis - must use continental grip.  Great for speed of hands, touch, reactions, and volleying.  Either play a sibling, family member or friend or use the playback mode of your table for solitaire. 30 minutes

8. Juggling - First train yourself to juggle two balls in one hand (both hands), then move to 3 balls using both hands together, then four balls and two hands.  If you can get yourself to juggle without using your focal vision you are a master.  Works on hand eye coordination, peripheral vision, touch and feel.  10 minutes

If you were scheduled to play tonight or another night in which it rains, you lose 90 minutes of court time.  The above list of activities covers the same 90 minutes.  You may not have all the resources listed above, but be creative and see what other things you can do - maybe ride your exercise bike, run the treadmill, do yoga, stretch, the possibilities are almost endless.