During the game, you may notice that suddenly your opponent is inside the baseline and attacks you in all shots, that you have little time to respond, and that suddenly your court is bigger than his. When you notice this, it means that you are playing very short and that you let your opponent easily gaining ground. What can you do at that moment?
The easiest way to explain it is:
- Depth in neutral-defensive game: MARGIN
- Depth in Attacking, Aggressive game: FOLLOW THROUGH
Those two things are what you have to work well and manage later in the matches.
MARGIN: In those balls where you lose ground, in defense, or when you want to gain time and regain your center, in all these cases and more you have to raise margin to send the ball to the back of the other side of the net and take the opponent far back.
FOLLOW THROUGH: When you play body to body, in live balls (going up), in rallies in which you are both waiting for a short ball to enter, then you have to pay attention to accompanying the long strokes and thus take the ball deep to the baseline.
How to technically execute each of those options?
Margin:
- In high balls, you need to generate spin. This implies that you have to get out of your legs (suspension) and accelerate the head of the racquet. The rotation of the body gives you a plus of acceleration if you have it well coordinated with the legs.
- You must aim by imagining a scale of heights above the net. Contrary to attacking shots, in which you must aim where you want the ball to bounce, here you choose targets above the net and thus bring that target closer. That makes it easier for you to hit and generates more security in the shots.
follow through:
- In body to body rally or aggressive game you must lower the suspension (bend your knees) and stay low in rallies.
- You must spread your legs to lower the center of gravity and thus expand the possibility of body weight transition.
- You must look at your axis. All work must be carried by your legs. Do not move the upper body.
Complementary details:
- The depth makes you improve the feeling of the power of the shot. Every meter of depth generates a sensation of up to 10km/h more in your strokes. That means if you play at 90km/h on the half-court line, that same shot to the baseline would generate a sensation of over 120km/h. That is a lot of difference not to take advantage of it. At the same time that increases the feeling of the power of your shots without generating more effort, expending less energy.
- In movement, there are different possibilities of stances to be able to generate aggressive defense based on accompanying putting the weight of the body in the shots. The selection of steps and working them by the unit in training is important to be able to master them.
IMPORTANT: Remember that every time you get on the court to warm up, you should start thinking about keeping the ball long, lengthening the strokes. Even if you miss out, try the first 10-15 shots that go to the baseline thus creating a good foundation for you to start with a higher quality of shots.
