This is new topic for me to think about. Up till now, my at net shot selection has been very reactionary and instinctual. Let's see if we can bring some understanding as to what we do, what we like to do, and what we ought to do.
There are two cases here. First is that my team is at the net and the opponents are not. The second is that we are all up. Let's look at the first case.
So we are up and they are not. The rule of thumb is that we should hit shots that will keep the opponents at the baseline. But the goal is really to win a point, so just keeping them back is just a suggestion. What we'd like to hit is a shot that won't come back. We might drive the ball through an opponent or the middle, hit a sharp angle, or hit a drop shot. Those shots we expect to be winners. If not an outright winner then we would hope for an advantage so large that we could dominate the rest of the point or force an error by hitting a ball that won't come back.
The danger here is to hit an out ball. Too much angle or too deep and we've been very generous to our opponents whom we had at a disadvantage. So safety is maybe the first consideration.
I agree with deep shots. But I'd suggest that they don't need to be hit very hard. Topspin is your friend as are the feet of your enemy. Try to hit the balls about 3/4 of the way into the court. Vary placement and which opponent you hit to. Beware of hitting out, either too deep or wide.
What frequently happens is that there are a number of shots being hit and fielded. I like those points and I'm happy to feed balls back to the baseline and keep hitting, sometimes to the same spot. If you are impatient, changing the pace of a shot can be quite effective. So the rally is at 15 MPH and suddenly you hit a shot at 8, an opponent may have an awkward time adjusting his timing and will err. (BTW do you say "AIR" or "UR" for the word err? Correct answer at the end of the post.)
Secondly, if the opps are very deep and behind the baseline, then I like the drop shot. You can't hit this off a hard ball. But something with middle pace is a good candidate. Use a soft grip and swing a bit, but not hard. The big error is hitting it into the net. A smaller error is hitting it too deeply and letting the opps return it. If they do get to it and do a good job, then it's probably a dink and you've brought them into the net -- which was their highest priority -- and you've swapped an advantage for an equality. It's a effective shot, but does require a bit of skill. If you want to look like your winding up to hit a hard one, that's not out of line. If you look like you are dinking, the opps might be running forward earlier than you would expect.
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BTW, let's talk about reading the next shot from the opponents. A lot of players who drive the ball have to wind up. Watch for this and if you see it, prepare to duck. Lots of those shots go long. If they don't wind up, then look for a softer shot. Finally, watch their paddle face for directional information.
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We have to talk about what the shot coming from the opps. With the above shots, we are playing a ball that we can volley. If the ball is not very high, then hitting a topspin shot deep is best. If the ball is quite high, then look for an angle as you can hit the ball down into the court. If the ball is low, or you can't volley it, then 1) if the opps don't follow their shot in, then you can still hit a soft shot deep into the court, but 2) if they are heading to the kitchen line (KL), then a dink off at an angle is your best bet. You've lost an advantage and now it's time to get into a dink battle and look for an advantage later.
A usual point might be a fair number of shots. Either the opponents will hit one good enough to advance, or you'll find one you can angle off or hit through them. My only caveat would be to make sure you keep the ball in play.
Is that it? I think so... Don't be in a hurry to win the point. You are ahead and to try to keep hitting good (not great) shots will work just fine. Imagine if you were defending, you're under a lot of pressure and have a lot of court to cover. Even a routine ball may well be too difficult.
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And for the AIR, URR answer. One might think that it's air as in error, and you would be correct. However urr is also correct. The Latin root is common to this verb as well as error, erroneous, etc. It can also mean to stray out of normal bounds, for example, when he lobbed the ball he erred. :-)
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