Player: Raph Lacasse (WTA #729 CH)

Main Objective: Movement + Consistency (Shot Tolerance)

Background Info

When I first started coaching Raph (September 2020), there were a few key areas of her game that I thought needed to improve for her to have success on tour. One of the areas we identified - like many tennis players at her level - was her movement. Another key was to improve her shot tolerance (this is what I call a combination of ball quality + consistency). 

On top of that, Raph is quite aggressive in her play. But oftentimes, she makes poor decisions - because the message she had always heard was “be aggressive”. But in order to play an aggressive gamestyle, a player must be able to use their physicality to get into better positions on court. Remember from previous lessons, if we’re not set well, how can we effectively hit good quality shots over and over. So there’s obviously a relationship between tactics and physical abilities (you can’t play aggressive tactics with poor movement).

Before we get into some more detailed objectives - along with the lesson plan - you should know a couple things about how I coach. First, I am very demanding. If I do not see the quality I’m looking for - whether that’s a footwork pattern, a stance when hitting a wide ball or the right focus/intensity required, I intervene immediately. I want to get as close to doing things the right way, from the very beginning, as possible. And then that becomes our benchmark. 

Second, while demanding, I tend to keep things very simple. I set up the drill or let the player know what the focus of their hitting session or sequence is, and I let them “show me what they got” prior to intervening with feedback. Our drills, as you’ve seen in the course, are very straightforward but require a lot of discipline, focus and intent. 

All that being said, if they are doing things ‘the right way’ and they make errors or aren’t having high success rates, I am quite ok with that. In fact, if they are able to do what’s asked at a really high success rate, the task is likely not challenging enough. 

How We Tackle the Objectives

1 - Movement

For Raph to move better, she had to improve physically. So early on, we placed more emphasis on ‘off-court work’. Take note though, she came from a tennis environment where the thinking was “I have to play 20+ hours a week to get better”. That was a mindset that took a couple months to shift, but once we did, she started making major progress. 

Now, I won’t get into the details of her off-court work here, but there were (and still are) gaps in her physical development. Her strength/power indices were low….she was not able to do 15 minutes of intense rallying (with proper work:rest ratios) without being completely winded, legs burning etc. And any ball that took her outside the singles line (into the doubles alley or beyond), put her on defense. 

But beyond the off-court physical aspects, she was not split-stepping on time (or sometimes, not at all). She was not perceiving the ball very well (often letting it drop or taking it on the rise when it wasn’t the right time). And in general, the intent of her movements (especially recoveries) was not high enough. 

So this is what we had to tackle - getting her to move better (through physical training, improved perception abilities and decision making skills. 

2a - Consistency/Shot Tolerance

While Raph hit with good pace, she hit the ball very low over the net - which caused her to make a fair number of errors into the net OR play balls that were fast, but short. So we needed to improve the quality of her shots - and get her to be able to sustain this quality over several shots AND repeated over many sequences (I don’t care what anyone says, at a high level, you need to be able to hit many quality balls in succession). But to be able to hit better quality shots - more depth and spin (remember, she already had good pace on her shots), she would need to track the oncoming ball well (perception) AND get into the correct position to have the best chance to hit with quality (the movement/physical side of the equation). 

2b - Tactical Intention 

This is a sub-point to the one above. To have better consistency/shot tolerance from the baseline, a player must have good decision making (tactical) skills. This also means that they need to have proper racquet prep + the right swing path (technical), for the shot they are intending to hit, given the situation they ‘perceive’ to be in (refer back to module 2 for more on this). This means knowing when to attack (level out the ball), knowing when to rally (add shape to the ball), and when to counter + play balls that are compromising a player’s timing (having a compact prep and/or adapting the finish). For the most part, Raph already had the ability to do these things, but she wasn’t good at deciding when to level out a ball vs when to hit with more shape etc.

Given these factors, here is what a typical session might look like for Raph.

Lesson Plan

Below is a bit of a longer practice. Including the physical warm-up, this type of practice would take us around 2.5 to 3 hours. While I tend to prefer shorter sessions (this one could actually be split up into 2 sessions of 1-1.5 hours each; performed on 1 day), from a logistical standpoint (indoor tennis), we can generally only get one 2 or 3 hour time slot for practice. Taking breaks between drills to rest, rehydrate + review what we just did (oftentimes with video feedback) is a big part of our process. 

Drill 1: Warm-up mini
Details + Focus Points:
Slow rhythm and find the correct impact in front.
Time or Challenge: 2-3min

Drill 2: Baseline warm-up
Details + Focus Points:
Emphasis on smooth hitting. Try to ‘feel’ or ‘hear’ the correct timing AND control the tempo (she has a hard time here as she wants to start blasting the ball off the bat).
Time or Challenge: 5-7min

Drill 3: Up/Back
Details + Focus Points:
Improve her ability to perceive the ball by calling the correct decision (forward or back; even if it’s just a half step forward or backward, she must make a decision and do it, ON EVERY BALL). We did this up the middle but it can also be done during crosscourt exchanges, cross/line drills and so on.
Time or Challenge: 8-10min

Drill 4: Split-Timing + Movement Drill
Details + Focus Points:
Her hitting partner stands in one corner and is allowed (at random) to hit anywhere in the court. Raph must hit back to the same corner, no matter where she is in the court. Focus here is to improve the split-step timing first. Once that has improved, we often emphasize the set-up (aim to beat the bounce). Lastly, we usually ask her to hit a certain number of shots in a row into the intended target area.
Time or Challenge: 15-25s ON + 20-30s OFF and/or 3 sets of 6-10 in a row

Drill 5: Level it Out
Details + Focus Points:
Here, Raph is refining her ability to level out the ball (so she can do it during attacking/building scenarios). Again, her partner can hit anywhere but does so at a slower pace. We pick a corner and she only hits into that corner. We can then mix it up by asking her partner to hit a variety of shots (including the slower ball). 
Time or Challenge: 3 sets of 5-8 balls in a row

Drill 6: Building Ball into a Corner + Play
Details + Focus Points:
Here, we are testing Raph’s movement on the first ball (her partner can hit to either corner). She has to be really reactive with her split-step and really aggressive with her first step. We are then just playing out the point and testing whether she can sustain her movement + ball quality throughout. 
Time or Challenge: First to 10; play 2-3 times

Drill 7: 2nd Serves - Kicking Action
Details + Focus Points:
To finish off, while not the main focus of the practice, I still like Raph to hit some serves. Because she has trouble hitting a kick serve, we normally spend some time working on the correct action (at a LOWER than matchplay intensity). If she can do it well, we might challenge her accuracy. 
Time or Challenge: 25-40 total or 2-4 sets of at least 9 out of 10.