As the school year approaches, many high schools in the Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) are preparing for the girls tennis season, as it is a fall sport. The preparation includes tennis camps and tryouts, where girls of all levels play each other to be placed on the team of their caliber. If you are looking to join your high school’s tennis team, listed below are what you should expect:

1. Conditioning: During tennis camps the girls are expected to do a multitude of running drills to get their speed, endurance, and agility improved for the season. One drill is commonly known aspect “Suicides” where players line up on the baseline and then sprint to the lines below, making sure to touch the baseline again after each one. Another conditioning drill is relay races, where players divide up into teams and do one “Suicide.” Whichever team finishes first wins, and the losing team has to do whatever “punishment” the winners pick, like 10 squats or 10 jumping jacks.
2. Hitting Drills: In both the tennis camps and tryouts, the girls play hitting drills with the coach on their court. This entails games where coaches feed players the ball, such as overhead and volley drills. There are other drills that include hitting forehand and backhand shots and then coming up to the net with an approach shot, followed by a volley and/or overhead.
3. Practicing Serves: Players practice their serves simultaneously at the baseline during the camps. Usually while practicing their serves, there will be cones in the service box to target. This is advantageous since it teaches the players how to serve in match play by focusing on the corners. If you hit a cone, you typically will not have to participate in whatever conditioning the other girls on your court have to do.
4. Live Ball: During live ball, the girls play games against each other, such as Queen(s) of the Court. In Queen(s) of the Court, there is either a single girl or two girls that are the queens on one side of the court. All the other girls have to challenge the queen(s) and if they win, they replace the queen(s) on the other side of the court. There are many other live ball games like Queen(s) of the Court that test how a player responds in match play.

I hope my explanation clarifies any questions you may have about how high schools in the Capistrano Unified School District operate their girls tennis camps and tryouts.

– Sophia B.