Hitting the Ball Badly

 I was playing today and an opponent remarked about how they mishit a particular shot.  I think I said that all I hit are mishits and then I lapsed into deep thought.

In a previous post I said that about 40% of sitter shots over the net get missed.  I still think that's true, and I suspect that there are more 40% that don't get hit with the sweet spot of the paddle.  Might be 60% or so.  I would not be surprised.

The one complaint I have about paddles is that the sweet spot is fairly small and any shot that is off towards an edge looses a lot of power.  I think that most dinks and touch type shots are short due to mishits.

So what's the best way to avoid this problem?  Well, adding some lead to the edges of your paddle will help a bit, but fundamentally we are just missing the ball.  There are few common reasons for that...

• Hitting a ball while running
• Stretching for a shot
• Bad bounces or shots with a lot of spin

And that is probably about it.  Let's chat about how to limit errors.

Hitting a ball on the run is often due to not stopping early enough.  If you have split stepped and are ready to go sideways or forward, you are well placed to get to the next shot and hit it.  Often not stopping early will cause to try to reverse direction and deal with your momentum.  It's much easier to move sideways from a stopped ready position than when running in the wrong direction.  I think the fear to doing this is that you won't get to a ball if you stop.  I don't think that is a valid fear.  I think you'll be much less rushed after stopping.  So we want to stop, move to the shot, stop again and then hit while stationary.

Stretching for a shot is due to being at the wrong place when it's ball hitting time.  And this certainly a problem that the above point should address at least partially.  I contend that moving early and stopping early and then reacting to the shot is a very efficient way to play.  Now, on occasion you have to stretch.  Stretching to your sideline is unavoidable on occasion.  Pro tip: don't stretch on a middle shot, let your partner take it.  A good partner will also be ready to hit the middle shot, so take the ones you easily can, but let the others go to partner.  

In a perfect world you will hit all balls with your elbows fairly close to your side, also known as "your bubble."  This will give you the best chance to hit the ball in the middle of the paddle face.  Also, it's easy to think you have to hit the ball hard and/or use a long swing.  This is false and with a little swing you should be able to hit the ball beyond the baseline.  

Timing: The ball weighs less than an ounce, so it slows quickly, and what can seem like a fast shot, will be at a more modest speed when it gets to you.  Don't panic.  I see more swings that are too early in hitting the ball than too late.  When you are warming up pay attention to ball speed, hit them with short swings and practice a "late" hit.  You've got more time than you think.

The third issue is bad bounces.  Some of those are due to the court surface and that's not an easily solved problem.  Some are due to the spin that the opponent puts on the ball.  

There are three types of spin, top, cut, and side spin.  I've not written much about spin, but you have to be aware of what your opponent is doing.  A top spin shot will jump up a bit, the sidespin shot will kick sideways, and the cut spin shot will not bounce as high.  You need to compensate for all of that.  You want to anticipate the bounce off of all shots.  And even if you hit the ball properly, the required trajectory is affected by top and cut spin.  

You need to hit a cut shot higher and a top spin shot lower as the spin is going to react to the paddle face.  I'll write another post about spin returns, but you need to get under a cut shot and on top of a top spin shot.  Watching the spin is a very important part of becoming an advanced player.  Watch your opponent's paddle movement to see the spin.  If they swing low to high, then it's top spin.  High to low, aka a chop swing, then you will get cut spin.

So I think that should take care of all the mishits!  All these changes require a lot of work to incorporate them into how you play.  Knowing what you want to do is the easy part.  Drilling, practicing, or playing games while concentrating on doing a single new thing are approaches that will help.