Tennis Tactics Board

Why Coaches Need a Tennis Tactics Board

Modern tennis is won by recognising patterns and executing the right response under pressure. A player who understands serve-plus-one combinations — hitting a wide serve in the deuce court and following it up with an inside-out forehand to the open court — will consistently wrong-foot opponents who are trained only to react. Diagramming that pattern on an accurate court helps the player visualise both the geometry and the footwork required.

CourtDraw's tennis board covers everything a coach needs:

• Serve patterns — map T, body, and wide options from both sides; show how the placement dictates the next ball.
• Return positioning — illustrate the chip-and-charge, the drive return, and block returns for big servers.
• Net approach sequences — draw the approach shot, the split-step position, and the volley target in one animated phase.
• Baseline rally structures — demonstrate the cross-court to down-the-line switch, and when to move inside the baseline to attack.

Singles Tactics

In singles, court geometry is everything. The geometric centre of the baseline sits roughly a foot to the right of the court's physical centre, because most cross-court balls pull the opponent wider. Teaching players to recover to this position rather than the exact middle saves crucial recovery time. Diagram this recovery angle on CourtDraw and your players will internalise it far faster than from verbal instruction alone.

Key singles patterns to diagram:

• The inside-out forehand — running around a backhand to hit a forehand cross-court, then closing to the net or staying back depending on the reply.
• Serve wide + crosscourt forehand — the deuce-side combination that opens the court.
• Short-ball approach — when to attack a short ball, which direction to drive it, and how to split-step before the opponent's pass.
• Defensive lob — height and depth requirements to give yourself time to recover when pulled wide.

Doubles Tactics

Doubles introduces three-dimensional positioning that many players never fully grasp. The net player's role — when to poach, when to hold position, and when to fake a poach and reset — can be complex to explain verbally. On CourtDraw's doubles court you can show all four players simultaneously, draw the net player's poach path, and illustrate the server's recovery angle after the serve.

Essential doubles patterns to cover:

• I-Formation — both players start on the same side of the centre mark, with the net player crouching; the server signals which direction the net player will poach.
• Australian Formation — server and net player on the same side to neutralise a strong cross-court return.
• Poach triggers — which return patterns make a poach high-percentage, and how the serving partner covers the open court.
• Lob over the net player — positioning and recovery when the opponents attack with a lob.

Animating Phases

CourtDraw's phase system lets you build a play step by step — serve landing, ball path, player movement, volley target — and then present each step sequentially on the board. This is especially effective for teaching net approaches, where the timing of the split-step relative to the opponent's contact point is the hardest concept to convey in static diagrams.

Plays from the tactics library can be loaded directly into the board, modified, and saved under your own club library. Every saved tactic is available offline, so you can coach courtside without a wifi connection.