Names for Wheelchair Tennis Drills 101

Backhand, forehand, lob, slice, hit – as a tennis player, you may be able to perform all of these moves. But can you spin like a butterfly or crawl like a spider?

These are the movements that players practice in wheelchair tennis as they scurry forward, backward and sideways across the court.

“We have the ‘butterfly’, we have the ‘fan’ drill, we have “dead beetles”a core exercise. You lie on your back and move your arms and legs at the same time so that you look like a dead beetle on its back,” Gordon ReidThe Rio2016 the British men’s singles champion, told Olympics.com.

“The ‘Butterfly’this is a movement exercise only on the court. So it’s about simulating the movements of the forehand and then the backhand, because we move in figure eights on the court. It’s kind of like the shape of a butterfly that you move in.”

A “Spider” is an exercise in which wheelchair tennis players form small figure eights around cones that are placed in the corners of the court. “Fan” In this exercise, the athlete starts on the line in the middle of the court, goes to the right corner, back to the middle, then to the far left corner and back to the middle.

There are also some exercises that have a bit more impact.

“You start on the double line, then you go to the single line and back to the center line and back to the other single line and back, and to the double line and back,” Vink said. “And then you start again and do it twice. You have to do the bigger circle each time. We call it the ‘Suicide’.”

Whatever you call them, they are exercises that Reid says are essential to staying at the top of wheelchair tennis.

“As far as mobility to be quick on the chair, obviously we do a lot of strength training to be as powerful as possible, but also mobility and reaction to try to be sharp and move well,” Reid said. “And as far as ball speed, we try to be as free as possible in the shoulder and the rest. And that obviously includes a lot of stretching, physical therapy and exercises.”