How to Play on the Grass Court

June 16th, 2015
Camilla Chapman

Respect parents children sport encourage

The grass court season in Tennis is just starting out, with tournaments such as Queen's seen as a warm-up before the third major of the year, Wimbledon, starting at the end of the month. We'll be taking you through the best shots and tactics to use when playing on grass, with our top drills to help you out!

Grass can often be a difficult surface to play upon, which can be slippery at times and also sees the ball bouncing low and skidding. Players may have to adapt their usual style of play to improve their performance on grass, with champions such as Roger Federer often becoming very successful; out of the 17 Grand Slam titles Federer has won, seven of them have been at Wimbledon, including winning the tournament five years in a row!

The slipperiness often demands a lot of small adjustments when hitting the ball, so lower your centre of gravity by bending your knees and use the right footwork and swing pattern to match the adjustments. It will show if these areas aren't improved on!

To make sure you have the best grip on grass, make sure your tennis shoes have a flexible upper so that when you run forwards for the ball, your feet are not constricted. As grass can often be slippery, make sure you get shoes with good grip with pimples, so you can move across the court without the fear of slipping and potentially injuring yourself.

Serve and Volley:

Traditionally, the Serve and Volley works well, with a big serve and then following up by coming to the net to stick away the volley. The serve can be a big weapon when playing on grass, so use the slice or topspin serve to good effect to take the ball away from your opponent, and make it harder to make a decent return. This drill is a perfect way to practise this tactic, forcing the opposition to return defensively, so you can smash home the volley!
>> View Drill <<

The Drop Shot

You can also take advantage of slippery surfaces and catching your opponent off guard by deploying the drop shot, mixing it up mid-rally if you've been playing from the baseline. By using these shots effectively enough, they should land in areas which are soft and therefore hardly bounce, potentially putting a stop to the rally and earning you a valuable point.

Use this drill to teach your players how to use the drop shot tactically!
>> View Drill <<

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How to Play on the Grass Court