A Tasty Tidbit

 I played this morning and I beat an opponent up the sideline about three times in row.  This was the third shot for my side, we were serving.  Normally I will drop this shot, but this opponent was hitting the ball directly at me and not cross court and she was not moving properly after hitting the shot.

She would advance, as is correct, and then I hit the ball down the line and it was out of her reach.  This happened enough to really bother her and she and I talked about it after the game.

This is the second/third shot situation.  She hits a ball and I have to let it bounce, and she must take advantage of the two bounce rule to move up.  

The harder she hits the serve, the less time she will have to move up.  So she needs to move faster with that pace of service return.  

Her other problem was that when she moved up, she veered just little bit towards the center of the court, which exposed the small path on the sideline.  When it came time to hit the ball she could only do it at full stretch and it just didn't work.

What's the solution?  In perfect play she should have been at the NVZL and stopped and split stepped before I returned her shot,  So she needs more time or speed to do that.  I caught her still moving probably every time.  If she can't get to the NVZ, then she needs to stop earlier and get ready to return.

The next problem is that she is not protecting that sideline enough.  A reasonable rule of thumb when moving to the NVZ is to run towards the ball, not just forward and not just to the middle.  

Her main responsibility is to block the down the side line shot and anything hit directly back at her.  Her partner should have shifted and angled to cover all of the middle shots, all of them.

That is the answer to that scenario, run early, fast, and protect the sideline.

Let's talk about the two other cases.  Assume that she had hit cross court.  I think this is a good play, as it puts the ball in front of her partner, so it's the full team against the opponents for the next shot.  In this case, she has duties too...  She still needs to get up to the NVZL and she needs to cover all middle shots.  Her partner has shifted to cover the sideline, the rest is hers.  Note that the ball is going to travel further cross court, so there is more time to do all this.  But she must move to the middle of the court, probably moving over the center line a bit.  

Third case is a service return that goes up the middle of the court.  This is the traditional target for a service return.  If you look up, "Where do I return a serve?"  The answer is up the middle.  

What must happen now is that both players will cover the middle, their paddles at stretch should overlap.  They should not worry too much about the sidelines.  A shot from center baseline towards a sideline is difficult as the outer boundary comes into play.  So if the opponent can hit that shot, good for them.  You should be happy to trade those shots for good center coverage.

In all cases as you move up with a service return, always move toward the origin of the next shot.  Think of it as cutting down the angle and the closer you get to the NVZ, the bigger/better your coverage of the shot.  

Note that the middle is covered in all cases.  You can't leave the center open ever.  If I am the guy hitting the third shot, I love to hit into the middle.  If I do that, I can't go wide of the court, my opponents frequently will both expect the other to hit it, and a ball in the middle does not present an angle shot to the opponents for the next ball.  I will follow my shot in, if possible, and be in a good position for the rest of the rally.  

The second shot is the most important shot for the receivers, the third shot is the most important for the servers.  Moving correctly in these scenarios is the essence of pickleball.