Thank you!!

Thank you Tomaz, your explanation is very usefull.

Andrey

Hi Paul,

Good question that haunts so many of you.

I am explaining FUNDAMENTALS.

You do this in practice sessions and warm ups, NOT IN MATCHES!

In matches you need to move back and forward depending on the situation.

I still have a base quite far behind the baseline. If someone drop shots me, I have to read that, I have to anticipate when is a good situation / opportunity for my opponent for playing a drop shot.

When I assess that they have a good position for a possible drop shot, I move closer to the baseline.

And finally, I would be way more worried of hitting normal rally balls late and not cleanly than not getting to an occasional drop shot.

You will hit over a hundred balls from behind the baseline in a match and receive a handful of drop shots. Which of those are more important to be played well?

Hi Zach,

If you can convince your partner to practice like this with you for periods of time, you will both improve in tennis.

Ball judgment has to improve and the ability to hit the ball deep has to improve. You can swing more freely but at the same you have to hit the ball cleanly to get good power so you have to pay attention to the ball well and try and get as many clean hits as possible.

Hi again Tomaz,

Today I tried what you’re suggesting here and got a much better idea of what you’re talking about. Not only does it give you more time to get into position and hit with a relaxed stroke, it also makes it easier to give your hitting partner a nice ball, which makes it easier for them to give you a nice ball in return, etc, so that the length and quality of the rally go up overall.

It’s funny, I had a teacher years ago who always told me to let the ball drop in order to be able to brush up on it and impart topspin. This got me into the habit of waiting for the ball or even backing away from it, which other people later commented on, advising me to move toward the ball.

Coming back to this now, I think I’ll be more aware of it as an exercise or a phase of a hitting session and it won’t lead me back into any bad habits.

I also notice that even (especially!) the pros, who are amazing at taking balls off the rise, back up significantly behind the baseline quite often to give themselves more time. (not just in the warmup)

Wawrinka, for example, tends to start his matches returning serves way behind the baseline, and as his timing improves through the course of the match he sometimes moves in.

I saw this tip of yours a while ago and began warming up much farther back, even in the brief warmups before my matches. It actually IMPROVED my ability to take balls early once the match begins, because I was more fundamentally sound – I was hitting the ball in a more relaxed way and with better timing.

Hi Zach,

Perhaps calming down, getting into a good balanced position before the shot and of course finding the right distance to the ball so that you can hit it in your ideal strike zone.

“Many of you play with not very skilled partners / opponents who constantly play the balls short in the middle of the court.”

Every time I play or rally I notice how many of our balls land short, and, more importantly, how late we intermediate players are in reacting to the variation in depth of the incoming ball. In my opinion, this is a much bigger problem for us than stroke mechanics is.

If you’re lucky enough to be rallying with someone who is giving you nice, consistent, relatively deep balls, by all means, stand farther back and wait for the ball to be at the ideal contact point and work on your stroke mechanics.

However, the truth is that for many of us rallies are much more chaotic, both in practice and in matches, so lately I’ve been prioritizing movement toward the ball over stroke mechanics. Is there anything more fundamental than reacting quickly and efficiently to whatever is thrown at you?