Red Ball Rally is a version of mini-tennis that you can play at home! It involves cooperative groundstroke rallies in pairs and you can time the game to get faster (more hits per minute) or to see how long you can keep the ball in play (no of shots).
You’ll need 2 people, rackets, a ball and a makeshift net. If you don’t have a red ball, you can use any ball that you have. We recommend a low-pressure ball, such as a sponge, red or orange ball because they have less bounce – making them easier to control on small courts.
Learning objectives
- Develop rally skills and racket and ball control
- Build accuracy
- Learn to receive and hit the ball in different ways
Get set up for Red Ball Rally
Set up for Red Ball Rally with whatever you can find at home. We’ve used 2 garden chairs to support our broom-stick net. The wider apart that you can place the chairs, the wider your net!
Red Ball Rally Variations
- Do the rally with volleys too. Volleys will make the game will be very fast!
- Hit forehand to forehand, backhand to backhand – or alternate backhand and forehand.
Make it competitive!
- Version 1: Choose a variation above and use your mobile phone to time how many shots you can do over the net in a minute. Do the Red Ball Rally every day for a week and see how your scores improve.
- Version 2: Keep track of the length of your rally and aim to keep beating your past longest rally.
More activities to do at home
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