Machine Drive Depth
Why this drill
Grooving a drive takes the same ball a hundred times — the machine supplies it, and a depth target with a height ceiling keeps the reps honest. Power that lands short or floats high isn't power; it's a donation.
Setup
Machine at the opposite baseline feeding medium-pace balls that bounce around your mid-court to baseline — drive-height sitters and honest deep balls mixed if your machine allows. A towel across the far court three feet inside the baseline. You at your baseline.
The drill
Drive each feed at the towel, holding the flight to no more than a paddle's length over the net. Sets of twelve: forehand set, backhand set, then one set where you shuffle two steps to reach each ball if the machine oscillates. Count drives that land on or past the towel under the height ceiling: six of twelve is solid, nine is strong. High-and-deep gets counted as a miss out loud — say "float" when you hit one, because naming the error is faster than repeating it. Finish with a mixed set alternating drive, drop, drive, drop off identical feeds, keeping one setup for both.
One thought to take on court
Brush low-to-high through a long contact — depth comes from the shape of the swing, not the size of it.