Five Down the Line

The average tennis point lasts for three shots. Think of what that means. If I serve to you, you return it, and I hit one more shot, that is the length of the average point. This means that if you can consistently hit four shots, you will win most of the points you play.

A lot times you will hear tennis pros focus on increasing their consistency. Because of the length of the average point, you may now understand why. I want to share with you today a drill that is great for increasing consistency and placement simultaneously. It is a drill I call 5 down the line.

Players begin the drill by standing cross court from each other. See the picture below if you are unsure about what this means. One player stands where the letter "A" is, and the other where the letter "B" is.



They begin the drill by hitting back and forth to each other crosscourt. In other words, the ball would follow the path of the arrows. They hit four shots this way. On the fifth shot, instead of hitting the ball crosscourt, the player hits the ball down the line. See the picture below.

Player B must then run to the opposite side of the court, hit the ball cross court, and they begin hitting to each other cross court until the fifth shot again. I will explain this a bit further.

Look at the first picture again, and let's say that player A begins by hitting the first shot, player B hits the second, player A the third, player B the fourth. Player A then hits a shot down the line as demonstrated in the second picture. Player B runs to the opposite side of the court, hits it back cross court, and they begin again.

Don't be frustrated if you can't complete this drill the first few times. If it weren't challenging, it wouldn't be worth doing. Stick with it, and your consistency will improve, and you will win more tennis points.

This drill also teaches players to hit high percentage tennis shots. Most tennis shots a player should make on a court are either crosscourt or down the line.

This tennis drill is great for all tennis levels but is the best for intermediate players. I've included the link to the website where I found these pictures. It has many other drills that are worth looking at.