How to Create Custom Tennis Drills in the Tenniix App

John White

Creating custom tennis drills in the Tenniix app means choosing the feed variables yourself — speed, spin, placement, and rhythm — instead of picking a preset. The workflow is simple: start with the training goal, set the parameters that serve it, save the result, and reuse it until it no longer challenges you. This guide walks through what custom mode lets you control and gives three drill templates to build from.

What Custom Mode Lets You Control

Custom mode puts the machine's feeding parameters in your hands. Based on the official product information, the variables you can adjust include ball speed, spin, launch angle or height, feed interval, and placement patterns — the same controls that make up the preset drills, without the preset's fixed logic.

Variable What you control Why it matters
Ball speed How fast each feed arrives Sets the physical challenge of the drill
Spin Topspin or slice on the feed Changes bounce behavior and net-clearance work
Launch angle / height Arc and depth of the feed Controls margin and recovery time
Feed interval Time between balls Sets the pace for recovery and footwork
Placement Where the ball lands Creates targets and movement patterns

The practical point is that these variables combine into a training signature. A consistency drill uses gentle speed, moderate spin, a high arc, and a slow interval; a pressure drill uses higher speed, heavier spin, a flatter angle, and a short interval. Preset programs give you ready-made combinations; custom mode lets you build the exact one your game needs.

Exact menu labels and slider ranges depend on the app version, so treat this guide as the logic of custom mode rather than a screenshot walkthrough — the current app and Users Guide are the reference for where each control lives.

Custom mode is best understood as the layer on top of the preset library. The app ships with 1,000+ preset drills, and those presets are excellent starting points: pick one that is close to your goal, open it in custom mode, and adjust the variables it got wrong for your level. That workflow — preset first, then customize — is faster than building from scratch, and it teaches you the relationship between a parameter and its effect faster than trial and error.

Designing a Drill Backward From Your Goal

The reliable way to build a custom drill is to start with the outcome and work backward. Name the weakness first — "my forehand dies when I'm on the move" — then choose the feed that creates that situation on demand.

A simple design sequence:

  1. Name the shot or movement you want to train. One focus per drill: forehand depth, backhand recovery, short-ball attack.
  2. Describe the feed that produces it. What speed, spin, placement, and rhythm would force that situation?
  3. Set the machine to the easiest version of that feed. Start easier than the goal; you raise difficulty as the drill becomes clean.
  4. Define the success count. Ten feeds, eight clean, before the difficulty increases.
  5. Save the drill under a name you recognize. "Forehand-depth-slow" beats "Drill 7" when you want to find it next week.

The backward design protects you from the most common custom-mode mistake: building a drill around what the app makes easy instead of what your game needs. If your backhand is the weakness, the drill feeds backhands; if recovery is the weakness, the interval and placement force you to move between feeds.

A worked example: suppose your problem is finishing short balls. The goal is not "practice forehands" — it is "convert a short ball into a winner." So the drill feeds one deep ball, then one short ball, and your target is a controlled finish into an open corner. The design step is where that distinction happens; the parameter step just implements it. Most custom drills that feel pointless were designed without naming the outcome first.

Speed, Spin, and Placement: Setting the Mix

Once the goal is named, the parameter mix follows. Three starting-point recipes cover most situations:

Goal Speed Spin Placement Interval
Clean repetition 30–40 MPH Low–moderate topspin One target 4–6 sec
Direction control 35–45 MPH Moderate topspin Two targets 4–5 sec
Movement and recovery 40–50 MPH Moderate topspin Alternating corners 3–4 sec

These are starting points, not calibration standards — the machine's official limits are 75 MPH and ±5,000 RPM, and most custom drills work far below them. Change one variable at a time: if a drill feels too hard, lower speed first, then widen the interval, then reduce spin. If it feels too easy, raise speed one step and retest before touching anything else.

Placement deserves special attention because it is the variable most tied to your weakness. A drill that feeds every ball to your forehand trains your forehand and nothing else; alternating corners trains direction and movement. Build placement into the drill intentionally, and you will never finish a session wondering whether you practiced what you planned.

Target zones make placement measurable. A cone, a towel, or a marked square turns "hit it crosscourt" into "land it past this line and inside this corner," and the count becomes the drill's score. When you design a drill, add one measurable target per skill: depth for groundstrokes, a corner for direction, a recovery line for movement. The target does not need to be fancy — it needs to be specific enough that you can count a clean rep.

Saving and Reusing Your Drills

A custom drill only earns its place if you can find it next session. Save each drill with a descriptive name and reuse it until it stops challenging you — that repeatability is what turns one good session into a training program.

The reuse loop has three steps. First, run the saved drill and note the success count. Second, when the count stays high across two sessions, raise one variable: speed by 2–4 MPH, a shorter interval, or a tighter target. Third, save the updated version as a new drill so you keep a history of what worked.

Keeping three or four saved drills per skill is enough for most players — a warm-up version, a working version, and a pressure version. A large library of similar drills creates decision fatigue at the court, not progress. The site's article on custom-mode combinations for 3.0-level players shows how a few well-chosen drills map onto common training goals.

Log the result of each saved drill the same way you would log any training: date, drill name, and the success count. After a few weeks, the log answers the question that matters — whether the drill is still challenging or has become a comfortable routine. That is the signal to raise a variable or replace the drill, and it keeps the custom library from going stale.

Three Custom Drill Templates

These templates show the backward-design method applied to common goals. Adjust every number to your level; the structure is the point.

Template 1: Forehand depth anchor. Goal: consistent deep forehands from a stationary start. Feed gentle forehands to one spot at 30–40 MPH with moderate topspin and a 5-second interval. Success count: eight of ten land past the service line. When clean, tighten the target, then raise speed.

Template 2: Backhand recovery. Goal: hit a backhand, recover to center, and be ready for the next feed. Alternate feeds to the backhand corner and the center, 40–45 MPH, 4-second interval. The score is not clean backhands alone — it is whether you are in position for the second ball. This template fixes the movement gap that repetition drills miss.

Template 3: Short-ball attack. Goal: convert a short feed into a controlled finish. Feed two deep balls, then one short ball; step in and attack the short one to an open target. Use 35–45 MPH with a higher arc on the short feed so you have time to move forward. This is the closest a custom drill gets to a real point without an opponent.

All three templates work on the Tenniix Basic, which supports custom feeding through the app. For a complete menu of ready-made routines, the skill-level drills article organizes ten routines by level and is a useful companion to your custom library.

Scale the templates to your level before using them. A beginner should cut the speeds and widen the intervals; an advanced player should raise the pace and tighten the targets. The structure — goal, feed, target, progression — stays the same; only the numbers move. That is the whole point of custom mode: the machine adapts to the player, not the other way around.

Common Questions About Custom Drills

Can I build a custom drill for any shot?

Yes. Any feed variable you can set — speed, spin, angle, interval, and placement — can be combined into a drill for a specific shot or movement. Start with one goal and one variable change at a time.

Do custom drills require the Pro?

No. Custom feeding works on the Basic through the app. The Pro's smart modes add vision-driven adaptation, but the custom drill logic itself is available on both models.

How many custom drills should I save?

Three or four per skill area is a practical library: a warm-up version, a working version, and a pressure version. Save more only when a drill clearly serves a goal you repeat.

What if my app version looks different from this guide?

Follow the current app. This guide describes the logic of custom mode; the exact menus and slider labels change with app versions, and the official Users Guide documents the current layout.

How do I know when a custom drill is working?

When the success count rises across two consecutive sessions with the same settings, the drill is working — that is the moment to raise one variable. If the count stays flat, keep the drill and check the feed difficulty before changing anything else.

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