Poaching The Third Shot Part II

 Let me finish up with describing a common scenario of the passing shot on your alley.

Let's assume that you took the last post to heart and you are now spending more time in the center of the court.  You are also providing a passing lane for your opponents.  

My solution to this is to play/hog/prioritize the center of the court until my opponent starts to hit passing shots.  When this starts to happen, the important question is how well can they do it?  It is not a large angle and they have to hit it with some pace or you can move back to the outside and defend it.

If they hit one in four attempts, I'm not going to move off the center.  I'm happy to take three points for every one I lose.  

But if the opponent is a tennis player and can hit that shot better than 50% of the time, then it's a bit more complex.

You can still move to the center and then move back when Op's head goes down - or at least be very expectant of the alley shot.

Most Ops will wind up when they are going to hit a hard third.  When you see this and you should be looking for it, you get into the ready position and get ready to... Duck!  Look for shots that will not stay in.  Unless the shot has top spin or hit close to the net, it's quite likely to go long.

The alley shot also requires some pace, so the wind up is your signal to cover the line a bit more.  About one less step the center is all that is required.  What is going to make you react quickly is that you are expecting a hard ball and it's likely it's coming down your alley.

The alley shots and the middle coverage thing can evolve into a cat and mouse type of battle.  You know, the Op knows, and the Op knows that you know, so there are some guesses and feinting going on as to who will do what.  These are fun points I think, and with the added middle coverage, make the game more interesting.