Mini Tennis Warm Up - How To Do It Properly

Playing at such short distance helps you develop feel for the ball, being able to hit it very accurately and generally just prepare your eyes and your mind to deal with a bouncing ball which is not an easy task.

But if you play mini tennis with your usual technique which means doing full backswings and body rotation, you’ll find it difficult to play the ball slow because your swing will generate too much power.

What I recommend you do and what I personally do when I play mini tennis is to actually move your hitting arm forward from your body rather than doing a backswing.

And going even further, instead of having an abbreviated backswing, you’re actually sticking your hitting arm forward. The reason why the arm and the racquet will move backward is because you’ll turn your body slightly.

I distinctly feel that I extend the arms forward from by ready position but at the same time I also turn sideways somewhat.

So that’s how my racquet is basically at the ideal contact point in relation to my body and I only need to turn towards the ball to hit it and it’s therefore almost impossible for me to be late on the ball.

I use mini tennis to establish my ideal contact point for both forehand and backhand groundstrokes which means I feel and see exactly how much in front of my body I am hitting the ball.

I then bring this feeling and awareness back to the baseline and now I know exactly where I want to meet the ball as it’s coming towards me.

Remember, ideal contact point is going to make your technique work the best it can.

In summary, starting your session with mini tennis helps you:

Warm up your body, specifically your wrists and ankles (providing you are moving around)

“Warm up” your eyes – since most of the day they are not tracking small fast moving objects and they need some time to get used to that. Therefore it’s better to give them some “warm up” with mini tennis when the ball is moving slow before going back to the baseline where the ball will be faster and therefore more challenging to track well.

“Warm up” your mind – in a similar manner, your brain has not been tasked to process ball flight and coordinate all your body parts with accurate timing for the whole day so it’s better to start in easier conditions first for a few minutes and then progress to the baseline.

And in order not to feel rushed and not feeling tight when playing mini tennis, I recommend that you experiment with sticking your racquet forward in relation to your body, turning your body to the side as much as it’s needed and then using body rotation and your hands to play the ball rather than swinging with your arms.

This technique adjustment of your forehand and backhand stroke might very likely help you develop more efficient strokes when playing from the baseline when you will add some backswing and more body rotation, but you’ll at the same time swing less than you used to.