This is yet another variation of the boast and drive routine. This one does not involve any choices for the players and is entirely predictable but is designed to promote movement along the longest dimension of the court, the diagonals from front corners to the opposite rear corner. The routine does exploit cross court drop shots and my only reservation about this is that the cross court drop shot is not normally a good shot to play and can get you into a lot of trouble. On the other hand there are situations when the surprise element can wrong foot your opponent and give you a winner.

Player 1 starts the drill by doing a boast serve to the front, let’s say from the right hand rear quarter, from just behind the service box, to the left hand front corner. Player 2, from a starting position at the T will move forward to the boast and play a cross court drop short to the right hand front corner.

Player 1 will move up the court after playing the boast serve to drive the cross court drop to a straight length to the right hand rear corner. Player 2, having played the cross court drop, moves back through the T and on to the right hand rear corner to play a boast back to the front left hand corner.

It is player 1 now who moves from the T to the front left hand corner to play a cross court drop shot to the right hand front corner. Player 2 moves up and plays a straight drive to the right hand rear corner. Player 1 meantime has moved back through the T and on to the rear right hand corner to play a boast back to the front left hand corner.

This pattern is repeated until it breaks down. In turn each player retrieves a boast to the front with a cross court drop shot and then, via the T, moves along the diagonal to the opposite rear corner to play a boast before moving up the court to play a straight drive.

It is a good idea to start this routine with friendly boasts, cross court drop shots and lengths until the pattern of movement is established. Then, in a more competitive phase, the players can try to play faster lower boasts into or near the side wall nick, more demanding cross court drops, lower and into the nick, and deeper, tighter length. If this routine is scored when one player gets to an agreed score, say 7, the routine switches to the other side of the court so, in the example above, boasts are played from the left hand rear court to the right hand front corner; cross court drops are played to the left hand front corner and straight length drives are played to the left hand rear corner from where the next boast is played.

I can’t find a video for this routine but hopefully we will be able to produce one and upload it here in due course.