One common myth in tennis, and, in fact, across many sports, is that you should “just practice exactly as you would play in a match.” Match practice is crucial to developing as a player, but not when working on new technique. 

During a match, the ball is constantly changing in speed, height, depth, direction and spin. At the same time, you must move, maintain your balance, choose the right shot, aim at a target, recover, and manage the pressure of the score. With so many demands competing for your attention, it can be extremely difficult to concentrate on one specific technical change. This is why many players you come across who only play matches tend to have bad technique that has developed under “pressure”. 

This is where isolating a skill is useful. Remove the pressure and you can 100% focus on your technique. It gives you the opportunity to slow the movement down, understand the correct contact, and feel how the racket should travel to the ball.

For example, when using the Tennis SpinPro, you don’t just have to practice spin, you can also focus on spacing, contact point, swing shape, kinetic chain and body rotation, isolated footwork, swing and racket angle, as well as watching the ball.

However, once you have mastered your skill with the SpinPro, it’s important to transfer that skill to the court with a moving ball, and eventually to match play. 

In this guide, we will talk you through the “best way to practice”. And that is not just using your SpinPro, this theory can be applied to all forms of practice, all the way from isolating the skill to points play.

Before You Practice

Before every session, make sure you are being intentional about your practice. Not just with the session’s focus and organization, but also with your equipment setup and technique. 

Equipment

If you are using the SpinPro, ensure the device is set up correctly. Secure the ball arm with both knobs and select and attach the correct screen, if you are using one. Attach the sandbag if practicing the serve and position the SpinPro in an area with plenty of swing space and a stable surface. 

Technique

Ensure you know the correct technique before practice. Hitting 100s of reps with the wrong technique will only create bad habits. For more guidance on your technique, make sure you have watched our Free Academy Training Videos. 

Target Practice

Throughout every stage of practice, with the exception of the 1st stage, you should always have a target area to aim for. This can be either a conscious hit in a certain direction or marked-out areas of the court to aim for. At each stage, you can also increase the difficulty by changing the direction of your target hitting and adding in varied hitting.

The 6 Stages Of Practice

Stage 1 – Building Muscle Memory With The SpinPro

This is the foundation stage for building a new technique. It is where you want to spend a good amount of time ingraining the correct muscle memory before progressing to the next stage. If you move on too soon, you will struggle to retain the technique under pressure. It wants to reach a point where it becomes natural, and you don’t have to think about it anymore.

Progressing Through Stage 1

It is important to start from the point of contact when learning a new technique. This is the most important part of any tennis shot, as it determines where the ball goes and how much spin it has. To find individual progressions to copy for each shot, you can head to our Academy. Here is an example for the forehand:

Hand – To make it easier for yourself to begin, you can use the palm of your hand to roll across the ball. That way, you can really visualize how the ball should spin and the movement needed to create that action.

Racket – Once you add the racket, you can make it easier by holding further up the handle towards the racket head. This makes the racket feel lighter to begin with. As you progress, gradually move your hand down towards the base of the grip. Again, begin each shot from the contact point and really build up that feel for rolling the ball. 

Screens On vs Screens Off

Having the screen on enables you to practice the correct swing shape required to produce spin with a good contact point. By tracing the screen, you will build the correct muscle memory to embed that technique. Once you have moved through the progressions and you feel comfortable with the swing, you can make your practice more varied by removing the screen and screen holder. But if working on technique, keep the screen on.

Stage 2: Static Hits

The next step is to transition the movement to hitting a ball over the net and to get a feel for applying the correct technique. The easiest way is to use a drop feed. You can use no bounce or a bounce depending on the shot. 

Drop Feeds

1 – Alternate Between SpinPro and Drop Feed – At this point, you want to stay alternating between hitting on the SpinPro and hitting the ball. Any number is fine, e.g., one on, one off, or 5 hits on and 5 hits off. Whichever works for you. The most important thing is that you keep going back to SpinPro to reinforce the correct swing shape. 

2 – All Drop Feeds – Once you start to feel confident with your technique, you can switch to all hits with the ball. Don’t forget to add in some target hitting!

Easy Feeds

Next, have a partner toss you some easy feeds. They should be easy enough that you still stay in a static position and don’t need to move your feet. This is more challenging than a drop feed because the ball is now traveling towards you. Then gradually increase the difficulty by moving them further away from you and throwing the ball slightly faster. 

Stage 3: Adding Movement

Don’t move on to stage 3 until you are consistent with the static feeds.

Easy Feeds with Movement

This is a progression from the easy static feeds. You now want to incorporate some movement to the ball. Begin with easier feeds that only require you to move a couple of steps, then add more difficulty. This would be increased distance, faster feeds, and some forward and back movement. This adds an element of difficulty and pressure, simulating more realistic match conditions. Focus on maintaining your technique while aiming to get a high percentage of your shots over the net and in the court. Increase the difficulty only once you are consistent. 

Ball Machine Drills

A ball machine can be particularly useful at this stage, as it provides consistent and adjustable feeds at higher speeds. This allows you to practice maintaining spin at a faster pace, helping you prepare for the speed and intensity of match play.

Stage 4: Controlled Rallying

This is where the biggest challenge lies in terms of progression of difficulty. Rallying introduces a much greater variety of incoming balls, requiring quick footwork and adaptability to handle changes in height, depth, and pace. 

You’ll need to adjust your own shot placement, speed, and spin with every hit, making this the most dynamic stage of practice. This is basically continuous target practice because you need to keep the ball under control at all times. Choose a manageable tempo to begin with, and you may even want to use some compression balls to help.

This is where you should dedicate the most time before moving on a stage. Try to stay patient and expect some initial struggles as you adjust to the unpredictable nature of rallying.

To keep progressing the difficulty, set up targets on the court or aim to control the ball into specific areas.

Stage 5: Practice Points

Taking it on a stage from rally practice, practice points are going to bridge the gap before real match play. Once you reach this stage, your technique should be fully ingrained and natural. You shouldn’t have to think about what you are doing technique-wise, only where you are aiming the ball. 

Start with structured points that give you repeated opportunities to use the new technique. Some examples are half-court points, either straight or cross-court. This sharpens your accuracy but also reduces the movement pressure required to begin with. Also, starting points with a feed rather than a serve reduces pressure and encourages longer rallies. 

After structured points, you can move forward to regular points play with serve. 

Stage 6: Match Play

The final stage is applying the technique during a match. At this point, your focus should shift to finding the right opportunities and trusting the movement you have practiced.

Do not expect every shot to work immediately. Match play adds pressure, decision-making, and an unpredictable incoming ball. If your technique becomes inconsistent, identify the situation that caused the problem and recreate it during your next practice session.

Summary: Don’t Rush the Process

It can be tempting to move directly from the Tennis SpinPro into fast rallies or matches. However, technique disappears when the difficulty increases too quickly.

Focus on progressing through the stages at a steady pace. Even pro players work for weeks on tiny adjustments during the off-season. They also still use slow feeds and isolated practice to refine their technique. 

Making practice easier is not taking a step backward it allows you to correct the movement before adding pressure again. So don’t be frightened of going back a stage or two if needed. 

Be patient, focus on clean repetitions, and move forward when you can maintain consistent technique. A strong foundation will help you develop reliable technique that holds up when the speed and pressure increase.