A Curiously Good Drill

 On Tuesdays there is a small group that gets together and drills.  The current focus is on dinking and a soft game -- which is developing the skills that are required above the 3.5 DUPR level.

We were working on dinking and foot work.  The consensus in re dinking is that you want to move your feet a lot more than your paddle or paddle hand.  There is nothing strange about that.  Moving towards the ball is pretty much the entire game.  But, the usual question comes up and that is, "How do we do that."

I'm glad you asked...  We had a drill where the paddle remained in the ready position until you were ready to hit the shot.  So, paddle ready, move your feet to get to the ball, and then, finally, lower your paddle, twist your torso and hit the shot.

What that drill did was force the players to move first, stop and then hit the ball.  This worked out incredibly well and the players looked like pros doing some dinking.  They were mobile and relaxed and the actual hitting of the ball was the least important part of hitting the ball.

They looked like they had more time to play and were relaxed and the rallies were long and complex.  All wonderful!

So give this a try: keep your paddle in the ready position, move to the ball, and then hit it.  

There is a Shot that You Don't Want

And the reason you don't want it is an act of generosity to me, as I hate to see it.  We now will talk about the hated shot and I will propose a better way to do it.

This shot is done with the forehand with hands too close to your chest and it's usually done while standing upright and in the transition area.  You get a high shot and end up shoveling it back, too high, and with no power.  It looks horrible and awkward.  

There are a couple of reasons this shots occurs.  One is that most of us are looking to hit a forehand since we are deep in the court, but the shot is too high and too centered so we push/shovel it back.  The wrist joint does not bend enough to allow us to point the paddle face downwards in this awkward geometry.  If this shot is hit hard, it will go long.  So you end up hitting some soft, lob like, ugly thing that never wins a point.

The better shot is to take this shot with a backhand.  The wrist moves much more freely in the backhand direction.  That will allow you to aim the paddle face flat or downwards.  With the paddle face oriented properly you can hit the ball much harder.

This is a very common occurrence, so keep an eye out for it and try to use your backhand.