Hitting a ball against a wall: pros and cons
There is an interesting question from a TennisConsult user
Hi, I would like to hear your take on the hitting wall, good and bad inputs. Would you recommend a hitting wall at home or not, if any – which one would you recommend. Hope to hear from you. Regards, Peter
Our tennis expert David Mullins answers the question
David Mullins
Before iPads, Netflix, Instagram and 789 TV channels there were bats, balls and walls. Hitting a ball against a wall could keep children like myself entertained for hours. Unfortunately there is so much in our world now skillfully designed to consume our attention. Hitting a ball against the wall is no match for the engineers at Facebook!
I believe the number one benefit to having a wall is getting kids in the habit of doing somewhat monotonous exercises and learning to be present and creative in those moments.
Reaching your potential as a tennis player cannot just be about fun and good times, in order to get good you have to be willing to do some of the “boring” things well, and do them consistently. I think the discipline that can be learned playing against the wall is priceless. If your child enjoys that then you probably have a life long tennis player on your hands.
There are secondary benefits in terms of increasing stroke production repetitions, and it can also maybe help improve set-up and spacing with the ball. The obvious downsides are the predictability of how the wall will react to your shot, and lack of tangible feedback in terms of ball placement.
I can’t recommend any particular brands but garage doors and side of houses worked great for my generation and many generations before me.
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There is noting better for a tennis player then hitting against the wall.
I use to do it over the winter months at the gym every day for 6 months. When the summer came along all I needed to do is get use to the length of the crt, and move to the ball my strokes were well grooved. I also realized is to let the ball biunce 2X for a better rythme. Try it.