Trying Out That Coballi Tennis Drill
So, I got down to the courts earlier today. Felt like doing something a bit different, you know? A friend mentioned this thing called ‘coballi tennis’. Sounded a bit odd, honestly, but I thought, what the heck, let’s give it a shot. Grabbed my gear and went to see what it was all about.
Found a free court, which was nice. Didn’t have any special ‘coballi’ balls, whatever those are supposed to be. I just dug out some older tennis balls, the ones that feel a bit heavier, maybe a bit flat. Seemed like they might work. The whole point, from what I gathered, was to just hammer the ball deep. Like, really focus on getting it past the service line, near the baseline, over and over again. Consistency was the name of the game. I sort of marked out some zones in my head back there.
Getting Into It
Okay, so I started off just hitting against the practice wall. Trying to get the feel for that deep shot. It’s weird, you gotta adjust your swing quite a bit. Need that height to clear the net, but then enough topspin or pace to bring it down inside the baseline. Took a few tries to even get close.
Then I moved on to serves. Aiming for those deep corners, trying to push an imaginary opponent back. Man, that was tough. Sprayed a few long, dumped a bunch right into the net. Definitely need more practice there. It’s easy to just blast a serve, harder to place it deep consistently.
- Spent ages just hitting forehands. Cross-court, down the line, always aiming for that deep part of the court. Really had to focus on using my legs and rotating properly. My arm started feeling it.
- Switched over to backhands after a while. Same deal. My two-hander felt a bit more solid for keeping the ball deep, gotta say. Still made plenty of mistakes though.
- Tried doing some simple drills, like forehand deep, then run over and hit a backhand deep. Just back and forth. The main thing was trying not to hit short.
What I Noticed
The biggest thing? When I started getting tired, my footwork went right out the window. That’s when I really started messing up, hitting short or wide. This kind of practice really shows you if you’re being lazy with your feet. You gotta stay active.
It also made me realize I often just focus on getting the ball back in play, not necessarily hitting with purpose deep into the court. This ‘coballi’ thing, or whatever you call it, forces that different mindset. Using those slightly heavier balls, or maybe just the effort of hitting deeper, definitely gave my arm a workout.
Wrapping Up
I probably stuck with it for a solid hour, maybe a bit more. Was definitely sweating and feeling it by the end. Packed my racket away. Didn’t exactly conquer ‘coballi tennis’ today, not by a long shot. But it felt like a really focused session. Like I actually worked on improving one specific thing, you know? That felt good. Yeah, a decent practice. I’ll probably try focusing on hitting deep like this again soon.
