Three Stamina Drills: Dink-and-Go, Drop-and-Crash, Butterfly

Summary

Troy Akin’s point: late in game 3 it’s often your legs, not your strokes, that fall apart. Three stealable drills for the week.

(1) Dink-and-go: dink on the sideline, then go touch the middle line — shuffle, don’t cross your feet. (2) Drop-and-crash: hit a good drop/drip and move forward aggressively; if it sits up, finish the crash to the kitchen with power — then sprint back to the baseline to reset. (3) Butterfly: one player at the kitchen, one at the baseline — drives and volleys on the move so you’re not only training perfect feeds. Stack a few rounds and you’ll feel it.

Key takeaways

• Legs fail before strokes late in matches — train stamina on purpose
• Dink-and-go: sideline dink → touch middle; shuffle, don’t cross
• Drop-and-crash: drop, surge in, then sprint back to reset
• Butterfly: on-the-move drives/volleys (one up, one back)

Action items

• Steal all three this week: 5 minutes each at the start of a session
• Track heart rate or just honesty — if you’re not breathing hard, add a round