Create good habits in your time on court. Practice creates permanent habits that are not always truly perfect. The drills suggested below are a guide for perfect practice of your ground strokes using a hitting partner or ball machine feed.

Any of your ground stokes can be practised systematically by following the suggested directions in the order of consistency, control, spin and speed.

Tennis is a game of error management, winners simply make less errors than losers. Treat your errors as critical feed back rather than condemnation and your systematic practice with these drills will reduce them dramatically.

Have your machine, or practice partner feed from the baseline corner of the court, as though a cross court rally is in progress. Make sure the speed of their feed is like you experience during match play at your level.

1.Consistency - Goal is a count of 20 consecutive stokes over the net in court.

2.Control - set 2m by 2m target with some cones deep in the opposite corner from your ball machine/ball feeder, then attempt to hit the target with 20 consecutive shots.

3.Spin - Pick a particular stroke and hit it every ball as you count to 20 for both consistency and control by hitting to or near a target at the opposite corner to the feed.

4.Power - Ramp it up a little, put some sting in your shots, but look to temper your power by hitting your target for 20 shots in a row.

You will quickly recognise your strengths and weaknesses with this routine, and know what you need to work on to perfect your game. Act on the feed back from your errors as to consistency, control, spin and power.

Spin,control and consistency are the keys to better tennis and must be mastered before attempting to play a power game. Follow the order and you will develop a consistent, controlled power game.

The results of this kind of practice can be seen on any tennis video of a top 10 ATP or WTA player.

Learn more about Tennis Lessons. Stop by Jeremy’s site where you can find out all about the Opencourt Tennis Resource and what it can do for you.