Our favourite drills

Our favourite method of training is what we call the challenger series. This is a game played by four teams. Two teams at for each side of the court. When play starts two of the four teams play out a point. At the end of the point the losing side leaves the court and the team waiting at the losing teams end run on to court and serve at the winners (serving whenever they are ready). And so play continues, with the winning team always staying on court and the losing team coming off court - even for missed serves. The aim is for one of the teams to achieve 5 wins on the trot: in which case the teams change around.

This challenger series works because it focuses on serve and serve-receive and makes sure teams play to win, because if they win they stay on court. If the teams are evenly balanced play can continue for a long time until someone gets to five and the closer to five, the greater the pressure.