Most of my adult students play once or twice a week. Work, family, life — court time is precious. And most of them spend it the same way: rallying aimlessly until their time is up.
That's not practice. That's hitting. Hitting is fine. But it's not the same thing.
The structure I recommend
For a 45-minute solo or paired session, I use a simple framework:
10 minutes — warm-up with intention. Not mindless rallying. Pick one technical focus — contact point, footwork, follow-through — and observe it during every warm-up ball. You're not fixing anything yet. Just noticing.
20 minutes — drilling. One drill, repeated. Not five drills. One. Cross-court forehands. Short balls into the net. Approach shots followed by a volley. The repetition is the point. Blocked practice (the same thing over and over) is better for skill acquisition than random practice, despite what feels more engaging.
10 minutes — point play. Mini tennis, mini games, first to 10 points. Competitive pressure. The drill has to survive contact with actual game situations or it doesn't transfer.
5 minutes — cool down with one takeaway. What did you work on? What improved? What are you returning to next session? Write it down. Seriously. Players who keep notes improve faster than players who don't. The act of writing consolidates learning.
The hardest part
Most players find structured drilling boring. That's real. Rallying feels like tennis. Drilling 100 cross-court forehands in a row does not feel like tennis.
But boring is where the gains live. Match play reveals skill. Practice builds it.
The players who get better fastest are almost never the ones who practice the most. They're the ones who practice the most deliberately.
Forty-five intentional minutes beats three unfocused hours, every time.