Hand-Eye Coordination

Before anyone attempts to learn a sport that involves hitting a ball with a racket or bat, it is necessary to do some preliminary hand-eye coordination drills. These drills must be mastered before any progress can be made. For a beginner these drills must be practiced until perfected before hitting a moving ball. For someone who already plays, take a few minutes to be sure you can do these drills. An experienced player can do these drills in a minute or two.

Lesson 2: Developing Basic Hand- Eye Coordination

Drill One: Using the shakehands grip, bounce the ball repeatedly on the forehand side of the racket (the side your thumb is on) fifty times without missing or moving the feet. The bounce should be about 8–12 inches above the racket. See Photo 5 below.

Drill Two: Same as Drill One, but bounce the ball on the backhand side of the racket (the side with your forefinger). See Photo 6 below.

Drill Three: Bounce the ball repeatedly on the racket, first with the forehand side, then with the backhand side, alternating sides until 25 hits have been counted for each side without missing or moving your feet.


Once you find these drills easy to do, you should be ready to learn the basic strokes. However, if you have trouble contacting the ball as it is moving, more hand-eye coordination drills are called for. Several examples follow:

•Do any of the above listed drills but move your feet by walking forward or backward, or sideways, either to the left or right.

•Bounce the ball on the floor using your racket to dribble the ball.

•Hit the ball against a wall, let the ball rebound off the floor, then strike it again. (Just like practicing against a wall in tennis).

•Have a partner stand about 10 feet away and hit the ball with your racket so the ball strikes the floor midway
between you and your partner. Your partner will do the same. See if you can keep a rally going.

•Have a partner stand about 5 feet away and volley the ball back and forth without letting the ball touch
the ground.