The last post dealt with second shot kitchen line follow ups and staying behind the baseline after you or your partner has served. Let me explore a couple more items here.
The serve and the return have to bounce, but all the next shots don't and that makes court position very important. Do you seek to volley every shot? I would suggest yes. And you need to be in the proper position to do that. If you have to run something down or are out of position, then you are more likely to have to hit it on the bounce.
A volley returns the ball to the opps earlier and the less time they have, the better for you.
I suggest the following actions to get you in a good position to win the point or start the process to winning the point.
Follow
all shots by you or by partner with some thought of where the ball will
be returned. After that thought move to the expected location. Don't
admire the shot -- react before the next one is hit. The only important shot is the next one. Think about how the opps see your shot and what they are going to do. Always assume your shot will be in bounds. Nothing more silly than hitting a drop shot and not moving up because you thought it was short. If you were returning the shot you just hit, where would you return it?
If your (or partner's) shot is going to drop into the kitchen or be below the net, rush the kitchen line. Don't wait to see it bounce before acting. All short balls should trigger a full team press to the KL. (Extra points if your team shifts to the side the ball is on. More on that in a later post.)
More generally you
want to get in the way of the opponents -- don't give them easy shots
choices, cover their likely returns. It's frequently a good idea for one of the team to
stand very close to the T at the center of the KL. Hog the middle!
One of the interesting parts of this game is picking up on the habits of the players. There are few players who randomly hit the ball. Most shots are going up the middle, some down the line, a few are lobs. Keep an eye on what your opp likes to do, then exploit that tendency.
Almost all dinks will go cross court, for example. However there is one player who likes to dink up the line. I'm been asked not to reveal secrets. An Erne might be a nice surprise for that shot. Oh, and who tries Ernes a fair amount?
More on these topics another time.
Interesting thoughts on movement, position, and player habits. Ernes (sic?) and ATPs (around the post) are rare with most Bay Area clubs. My guess is that most people just don’t practice it and so don’t know to hit it or how to hit it. Any thoughts on how we integrate this into our repertoire?
ReplyDeleteAlso, who is the down the line dinker? I’d like to meet this person!
Down the line dinkers and hitters are fairly rare, but three people come to mind who like to it. I'd tell you, but I've been warned about passing on secrets. :-)
ReplyDeleteHow to do something new? An excellent question and no easy answer. I've looked into this topic as I'd love to fix my golf swing. A couple of thoughts come to mind: 1) just looking for opportunities for the various shots will be useful. 2) maybe trying it with a practice partner. 3) expect to be bad at it before you get good at it. You'll lose points for awhile, then get them all back as you get better.
Youtube has a lot of instructional PB videos. I like the ones from Sarah Ansbury (sp?), she makes short ones with just one topic, makes it simple. Good stuff.