Tennis practice?

Question

My friends are not often available to play with me (because they live far away) and thus I'm forced to practice by myself fairly often. (I can play family, but they're not at all good.) Anyway, to the point, I've been using one of those balls on an elastic string to practice (mainly because I'm lazy to chase after the ball on ordinary forehands and such) and it seems harder to hit than a normal ball. When I made a brief switch to a normal ball I noticed many ended up long. It seems like they aren't as good as before in quality as well. Perhaps I hadn't gotten used to the ordinary, stringless-ball, but would one of tennis experience recommend I quit doing this? I somewhat think so, but still the alternative seems very unenjoyable (id est collecting all of the balls)...

Answer 1

Get one of those rebound nets and but it in your backyard and hit against that. I have one and it works fine and I can get my strokes up to date if I don't get enough practice. =)

Answer 2

Find a court that has a backboard and hit off the board with regular ball, or find a wall to hit off of and put some tape on the wall at net height.  Use real balls as often as possible.  Hit both backhands and forehands repetitively.

Answer 3

Go to a wall and hit.  You won't have to pick up all those balls, you'll get a good workout, gain good muscle memory....it's all so much better than a ball on an elastic string.  That's harmful to your muscle memory.