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Play Mini Tennis To Improve Your Game!
9 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
Mini tennis in two or four service boxes is one of the best ways to improve your game.
Two box mini tennis forces you to hit accurately and consistently and to mix up spins and locations to win the point, movement is not so vital.
Four box mini tennis is a big challenge to a player’s footwork, hands, touch, ability to change ball direction and his own body direction. It’s very intense and fast paced, every centimeter of positioning matters. This game also challenges the players variety, for example, if a player can only hit topspin forehands and slice backhands, those limitations are exposed in mini tennis and limits your shots. Imagine a boxer who can only throw a jab and straight right hand. It’s hard to win a boxing match with just two “shots”, and it’s a lot easier to bother and worry your opponent if you have many shots to pose to him. Variety and being able to use all different kinds of shots when needed are extremely valuable skills for tennis.
After you play a lot of mini tennis games, when you go to full court tennis, you will notice it becomes somewhat easier because the court is so much bigger to hit into. You have bigger margins to work with and you will have more confidence in your accuracy of shot.
I highly recommend all players to challenge themselves and play a lot of mini tennis!
Since first learning about mini tennis from a friend of Gilad Bloom I have become quite adept at it. I have two wins (2-0) against a 5.5 player who once coached Elena Dementieva, and those wins are special because I have never beaten this great player at regular tennis but he’s never beaten me at mini tennis. I’ve also beaten other stronger players at mini tennis.
I’m so confident in my mini tennis ability that I’m going to challenge Michelle Larcher De Brito to a game for $50 next time she practices next to me 🙂
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Dan Markowitz · April 30, 2014 at 4:15 pm
Scoop,
I love the bravado. I remember when I used to beat you handily in mini-tennis, but I know you have improved immensely since then. It does take a lot of variety of shot-making and quickness of foot. Your form has to be good, too, as you have less time to prepare for the shots.
I like mini tennis a lot because the shots you develop playing this game, the dink touch shots, are so important in winning points. I was watching my son play yesterday, and he’s only 7, but playing against kids twice his age, and they would drop shot him to get him up to net and he’s clueless about drop shotting them back or hitting an acute angle spin or cut shot. So many of these junior players today are lost when they have to play a ball inside the service boxes.
If they played more mini-tennis, these shots would be second nature to them. Looking forward to playing some mini-tennis with you in Newport in July, Scoop.
Abe Froman · May 1, 2014 at 9:35 am
@ scoop….them is fighting words !…dont take that from dan – showdown in july to the death !….only kidding LOL….mini is great – as i usually warm up with it as well for around 5-10 minutes..
looked like the site was down yesterday but good to see it business as usual today…..i’d offer you to take this site public – if it had some real revenues / profits….LOL
Scoop Malinowski · May 2, 2014 at 11:57 am
Dan, where exactly did you handily beat me in mini tennis? It may be a figment of your imagination!
Abe Froman · May 2, 2014 at 12:05 pm
fight fight fight fight fight fight fight !! hahaha
Tennisbobko · May 2, 2014 at 12:14 pm
I never try to win warm up . I’m winning the real games. See you soon.
Dan Markowitz · May 2, 2014 at 3:37 pm
Scoop,
I believe I beat you in DC on our trip to the tournament there. But there’s no way I couldn’t clean your clock in mini-tennis when we both started playing tennis against one another. Back then, you didn’t know a Continental grip from a Western and you were more adept at throwing your racquet over the net than you were hitting a slice forehand or drop shot.
When we first met, your doubles game was baroque at best. Even after a couple of years, I still cleaned your chops when you paired up with Rich Pagliaro and I teamed with Kent Oswald, and Rich is the better player of those two.
Now things have changed. You’ve definitely developed into a fine player, a much better player than when you were 30, and I have lost a lot of speed and agility from 2 hip surgeries, but I’m on the mend and I’m just saying, I want to match up in some mini at Newport.
Scoop Malinowski · May 3, 2014 at 11:35 am
Dan that was lefty tennis and I won that ) Thanks for the comps, yes you and Kent crushed me and RP who I just don’t gel with at all in dubs. My serve was weak and even if I served like Raonic, RP could still miss volleys off nothing returns ) He’s a baseline warrior though. Yes can’t wait for Newport tennis, even two box mini so you don’t have to move as much. And yes tell Cal he can have a rematch )
Dan Markowitz · May 3, 2014 at 12:43 pm
No man, by Newport, I should be able to cover the whole court with pretty good speed. I take comfort from Bob Litwin, one of the best senior players in the country, who had to have one of his hips resurfaced and then replaced, but is now playing very top ball again.
I guess my memories–and maybe even yours-exceed our results. Who said, the older I get, the better I was?
Abe Froman · May 5, 2014 at 12:55 pm
sounds like you need to cut back on the juicing there dan – effecting your memory as well LOL
and let the truth be known in july at newport ! scoop vs dan……(i should be in town as well and love to see this mini tennis showdown unfold) place your bets – place your bets ! LOL