Choose intermediate tennis drills by the points you lose

An intermediate player usually has several strokes to practise and limited time to practise them. Start with a match situation you can describe, then choose a drill that lets you repeat the relevant decision. A useful drill has a target, a way to score the task and a clear step back into live points.

This Stakhovsky Tennis guide connects five common match problems with practical tasks. Leonard Stakhovsky works with players in Prague and remotely to help turn match observations into training priorities. Use the tasks as a starting point to discuss with your coach, not as a promise that one session will fix the problem.

Pick one problem for the session

The table can be scrolled horizontally on a narrow screen.

Do not measure every technical detail at once. Choose one observation that you and your partner can recognize consistently.

1. Cross-court target rally

Set up: Rally cross-court with a partner at a pace you can both sustain. Agree a generous target area and what counts as reaching it. Use flat markers outside the main movement path if markers are needed.

Task: Build a rally while keeping the ball in the agreed area. Record the rally length and the number of balls that meet the target. A long rally made entirely of short central balls is different from a rally that achieves your intended depth and direction.

Make it easier: Increase the target or use a controlled feed to start each attempt.

Make it harder: Add a second acceptable target or begin from a less comfortable incoming ball. Do not change pace, target and feed at the same time when comparing results.

2. Build the point, then change direction

Set up: Start cross-court. Agree on a ball that gives you permission to change direction, such as a shorter ball that you can reach with balance. The precise condition should fit your level and the court situation.

Task: Rally until that situation appears. The player receiving it can change direction, and the point becomes open. Track whether the change was attempted from the agreed situation, as well as who won the point.

Make it easier: Let the feeder deliberately provide the shorter ball.

Make it harder: Let the opportunity emerge in a live rally. Review occasions when you forced a change from a difficult position. The purpose is a better decision, not simply hitting down the line more often.

3. Serve plus the first rally ball

Set up: Serve to a chosen area. Ask the returner to begin with a controlled return, then increase the freedom of the return as the task becomes manageable.

Task: Serve, recover and play the next ball toward an agreed large target. Count the legal serve and the quality of the following response separately. A successful serve does not complete the task if you are unprepared for the return.

Make it easier: Use a predictable return direction and a large target.

Make it harder: Play a live return and continue the point. If second-serve reliability is the main problem, begin with the second-serve practice guide.

4. Return and play the next ball

Set up: Agree whether you are practising against first or second serves. Use a serve pace and placement the server can repeat. Decide what a useful return means for the task, such as a playable ball into a broad area that lets you join the rally.

Task: Return, recover and play one more ball. Record legal serves faced, returns made and complete return-plus-next-ball sequences. Keep those denominators separate. A return count that includes serves you never had to play is misleading.

Make it easier: Use a predictable serve location.

Make it harder: Vary location or play the full point. See the return-of-serve drills for more ways to separate the return decision from the point outcome.

5. Approach and first volley

Set up: Begin with a short ball and agree an approach target. The partner then plays a manageable passing-shot response.

Task: Choose the approach, move forward and play the first volley with control. Count completed sequences and note where they break down: the approach decision, the approach itself, movement forward or the volley.

Make it easier: Use a known response so you can learn the sequence.

Make it harder: Give the partner two response options, then play an open point. Do not make the task so difficult that every attempt ends before the decision you want to practise.

Turn one drill into a useful session

Start with a short recorded sample of the chosen task. Practise the same task with one priority, then repeat the sample under comparable conditions. Finish by playing points and reviewing whether the intended action appears when the opponent has choices.

Write down what you did, how many attempts you made and what you will repeat. Keep the schedule within your normal training arrangements rather than treating this guide as a fixed workload prescription. The goal is a clear test and a useful next decision.

If your drill score improves but the match problem remains, inspect the difference: incoming ball, uncertainty, movement, score or opponent response. The existing guide to practice and match performance explains that transfer problem in more detail.

Choose your next step with a coach

Leonard Stakhovsky can help identify which match problem should guide your practice. At Stakhovsky Tennis in Prague, a 90-minute assessment costs 3,800 CZK (≈ €155) plus court hire and provides written priorities. The full assessment fee is credited toward the first program period if you continue.

Request an assessment in Prague, or ask about a remote match diagnosis if you want to work from match footage.