Coach Kwong Young

Before a tennis match, players should do some light warm-ups, such as jumping jacks, shadow stroking, butt kicks, knee lifts, etc. It is also wise to train the feet by doing W or M formation footwork drills. Run the lines always facing the net, practicing your up-and-down and side-to-side movement.

Warm up slowly with “Mini Tennis.” The proper way is to stand behind the service line, not near the net, to do volleys. Both players should be working on cooperative hitting, not strong hands. This is when the ball should be landing somewhere in the service box to practice easy groundstroke hitting.

Before a match, tennis pros have a five-minute warm-up of cooperative hitting. Not ripping balls from the start, which shows lack of control and has little benefit, since you just hit the ball, but neither you nor the other player benefit because of the lack of a volley.

Here are some general routine warm-ups the pros use:

• Baseline Rally

• Groundstroke to Volleyer

• Overheads

• Serves