Tennis Tips

Let’s Go – Round the World!

As part of the Coach In Training programme we run in Brighton – we include a session which is aimed at helping our trainee coaches learning new tricks. The aim is to help the trainees to better understand the learning process (putting them back to being a beginner again!). Andrea Fierro (Head Coach – Brighton) shares with us one of his favourite tricks. 

To do the around the world trick first you need to master the 2 main movements:

The toss

The most important thing about the toss is that it has to be high enough to have time to go around the ball, but not too much. You will start the racket movement around the ball as it is rising, so it can't be too high either. The more balls you use, the more of is important to toss the balls so that they stick together. As you can imagine, the more balls the more difficult it is to keep them all together.

You have to hold the racket with 2 hands and you quickly have to move the racket over-in front and underneath the ball. As you catch the ball you have to follow the balls path so they don't bounce on the racket. You can apply the basic "progression" learning process by starting with 1 ball.

Hold the racket with 2 hands as in the video, toss the ball, let it bounce on the floor and then catch it on the racket (no around the ball movement).

The racket movement around the ball

Next step is learning the movement: Toss the ball and as it bounces place the racket away from your chest and have the ball bounce back up between your chest and the racket. Then place the racket underneath the ball and gently catch it. Once you have mastered the movement, try it without bouncing the ball .

With 2 or more balls, I don't recommend letting them bounce on the floor ;)

If you are interested in learning this trick or joining the Coach In Training programme then check out our Brighton Camp.