Part 3: Fit with Tennis-Point – warming up like the pros

In our first coordination exercise, you will take two tennis balls in one hand and the reaction ball in the other hand. Start relaxed with the two tennis balls, alternately throw them upwards and catch them again with the same hand. As soon as one ball has reached its apex, throw the next one upwards. You can also start with one ball first and then add the second.

Now the reaction ball, which you hold in your other hand, also comes into play. You try to juggle with both hands and three balls. In between, switch back to one-handed juggling with two balls, now with the other hand as before, and then switch back to all three balls.

If you are particularly skilled, you can even keep four balls in the air, but this takes some practice. During the juggling exercises, you keep the balls fully in focus, which will certainly also help you when playing tennis.

We come to another very popular exercise for eye-hand coordination that you often see tennis pros doing on tour. All you need is two tennis balls and an exercise partner. The partner stretches out both arms and holds a tennis ball in each hand so that they can simply drop them. You now place the palms of your hands on the backs of your partner's hands. He suddenly drops one ball in each hand. However, you don't know which of the two balls your partner will choose or when it will drop. You must therefore react with lightning speed and try to catch the falling ball before it hits the ground.

You can vary the difficulty level of the reaction exercise by having your partner raise or lower their arms a little. The higher your arms are, the more reaction time you have and the easier it is for you to catch the ball in time.

For the next coordination exercise, you don't need any tennis balls, just the small reaction ballwhich is also known as a “reflex ball” or “speed reaction ball”. It is a clever tool for training eye-hand coordination. With the reaction ball, six small balls are welded together to form a single ball. As a result, it always bounces somewhere else after the ball is thrown, which makes catching it very difficult. This unpredictability is ideal for practicing your reaction skills.

For the exercise with the reaction ball, you need a training partner to stand opposite you. A wall can also be used as an alternative, but coordination training is of course much more fun with a partner. Your partner throws the reaction ball into the air and you try to catch it after it has bounced once on the ground. This is not so easy as the ball can bounce in all directions. Your footwork is very important here, just like in tennis. It is best to always take small steps.

You can also compete with your partner in this exercise: for example, if you fail to catch the ball three times, you have lost the little reaction ball match. The exercise proves to be an excellent warm-up tennis workout for your reaction skills and coordination between your eyes and hands.

Next up is another exercise with tennis balls. You stand with your back to your exercise partner, turn around on command and catch the ball that your exercise partner throws to you. Please keep moving at all times. Your partner should vary when throwing, i.e. sometimes throw with one hand and sometimes with the other and sometimes take more and sometimes less time when throwing to reduce or increase the difficulty.

There are also variations for you when catching the ball, depending on which direction you turn and which hand you use to catch the ball.