I had a conversation with a player on the rise and he was thinking about the topics in this post. I'd written this awhile back and hadn't finished it. So think of this a bit of a request, a bit of a revisit. :-)
The question before all beginning players are which skills do they need? I think there is a timing aspect in play, as you would like to have all these skills, but some are more important than others based on what level you are at.
An interesting part about PB is that once you've acquired all the skills, you will be making the same mistakes you made in the beginning. OK, not as often, but you and the pros make the same mistakes.
Let me lay out a plan of skill acquisition that will let you play with better players as soon as possible. I'm also going assume that you have some prior skills from some racket sport. This will be more of a list and if I add why and how, it's going to be a book. So this will be terse.
In my humble opinion, a basic skill set to play pretty well are the skills from 1 to 5. Once those are integrated into your game, you're on the way to becoming a player, feared by opponents and welcomed as a partner!
1) Grip, start with a handshake with the paddle, so that your forehand and backhand both have the paddle facing a bit skyward at all times.
2) Learn to hit a simple serve that you get in all of the time. Deep is great, but wide and short are no good.
3) Ground strokes. Hit a forehand and a backhand moderately well. I have data that show that about 25 to 30% of all points are ended with a ground stroke error. So work on hitting shots from the baseline and middle of the court, have a good setup, stop before you hit them, etc. See prior posts for more details. I'll include volleys here too, since the technique is not much different.
3a) Block shots, you are at the KL and a hard ball is right at you, you want to be able to hit this back with minimal paddle action and control the ball, not speed it up.
3b) Second shot play when at the kitchen line. If you are the up person, then you are responsible for the balls that come down the middle when the opponents hit their third shot. So be careful where you are setup for the second shot, you should be biased towards the middle of the court. Now, if the ball is down one of the sidelines, then one partner needs to cover down the line, and one must sag in towards the middle. In almost all points, there is implied middle coverage. Good players hit the ball down the middle, someone needs to be there to defend.
3c) Poaching - this is a volley when you've moved into partner's side of the court. I have much to say on this, so we'll put this off for another post, but since you were watching the middle, a ball that comes close to the middle deserves your attention. Try to hit it down if you are in a good position to do so, if it's marginal let it go to your partner. If you don't do this, that is fine. It's a skill that is not needed immediately.
4) Movement - learn when to move from the baseline to the kitchen line. a) After you return a serve, get up there, no excuses. b) in all other cases go up when you have an opportunity to do so. Don't just rush up there, basically move with your partner, create a "wall." Don't move into the court after serving unless it's appropriate!
The movement skill is very important. Know where you should be at all times, that will make all of the other shots easier.
5) Now that we've gotten to the kitchen line, we need to learn how to dink. There are two dinking shots, a lift and a push. No strength involved, but some touch. There are YouTube videos about this and there are prior posts about dinking.
------ On to the next level! ---------------
6) Third and other odd numbered shots, or shots that help you get to the kitchen. This is the first skill that is difficult as you are hitting a soft shot to folks who want to pound it away. There is a fine line between greatness and disaster. So as you acquire this skill, you are going to get beaten up for a time. But hang in there and keep trying, this does not come easy.
7) If you've "mastered" all of the above, you will be playing a bunch at the kitchen. A couple of shots besides dinks are hit from there. Play at the kitchen is a waiting game looking for errors from the opponents. An error is a shot that you don't have to dink back. Let's simplify this, if the ball is a few inches above the net or more, you want to whack it. And you want to whack in a downward direction. If the ball is a bit low and/or the opponents are good, then just dink back. If you are not going to dink, then we would like to hit the ball down, at someone's body, or through the middle. Think fly swatter action, not tennis stroke.
8) You've attacked a dink and hit it with pace. Whoops, back it comes. Now you'd like to be able to return the point to dink battle, so we'd like to hit a reset. Hard to do as the adrenaline is flowing. This skill is also part of "always expect the ball to be returned - be ready even if you don't think you'll have to."
9) Lobs... I'm not a big fan of them, but they usually produce moments of anguish and humor, so we'll not be rid of them. Hitting them from the kitchen line is a useful shot. Chasing them down and lobbing back is a useful shot. But it is not a pressing skill.
10) if there are lobs, then there will be lobs that are too short, so being able to hit an overhead is useful. Tennis and badminton players know how to do this. Worse case you can let them bounce and then apply a variation of a ground stroke.
OK, you've moved across all 10+ skills! Congrats! Now, start over at the beginning and refine your skills. Get more consistent! Move better! Stop before you hit the ball! Don't admire the hit, just move for the next one.
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