As you play the game of tennis, especially for points, you quickly realize that hitting the ball deep is very important.
A short ball and a fairly good opponent mean that you’ll be instantly on the run and scrambling in defense while your opponent dictates the play.
But, as it turns out, hitting deep is often more challenging than it seems. In my experience, that’s because of the depth perception problem and not really trusting gravity.
The Problem Of Depth Perception
As you’ve seen in the video, when you look at the other side of the court from your usual perspective—which is just behind the baseline—the space you see between your ball when it touches the ground just over the service line and the baseline is very small.
There seems to very little space left to hit into looking from this perspective...
If you measure the distance between the ball and the baseline with your fingers when holding your hand in front you, that distance is just a few millimeters.
But if you actually place the ball on the ground and walk to the other side to see how close it is to the baseline, you’ll notice that it can be 4 to 5 meters from the baseline.
... but from this perspective you realize that the extra space is still very big.
That gives you a lot of space to try to hit in to and eventually hit a deeper ball, but your depth perception from the usual position behind the baseline on the other side may hold you back.
So, it’s really important that you’re aware of this visual illusion and that you can judge well the actual depth of your shots based on what you see from your perspective.
Trusting Gravity
“Trusting gravity” is a phrase I like to use because it seems to me that players don’t trust it.
They are afraid to go high above the net except when they hit with lots of topspin which does make the ball bounce high but it still lands short.
This shot is not good enough for a better skilled player because it doesn’t have enough speed to bother them and because it of course lands short.
The shot that is going to keep you in the rally against a better opponent is the one where the ball still has good speed and lands in the last quarter of the court.
And, in order to hit that ball, you need to trust gravity.
That’s because as you’re making the shot it seems like it’s going to go out.
I’ve asked my students a few times to stand behind me exactly like you see in this shot.
Most rec players and juniors would not play this high with good speed of the ball.
As I hit a few shots fairly fast and high above the net, I asked them if they would attempt such a shot. They said that they wouldn’t.
That’s really sad in my view.
The solution is there. It is possible to hit a very deep neutralizing shot, but because the player doesn’t believe the ball hit well above the net with a certain speed will go in, they don’t even attempt it.
The 3 Ball Controls For Controlling Depth
The only way you’re going to find such a shot is to experiment with the 3 ball controls, which are:
- height,
- speed, and
- spin.
These determine the depth of your strokes.
I am really asking you to experiment with them to see what combination of these 3 ball controls leads to a ball that lands in the last quarter of the court and still has good pace.
Experiment with height, speed and spin in order to find that deep ball in the last quarter
Of course, you need to just rally and not play for points because that gives you the freedom to experiment and miss here and there.
Note that if you do hit the ball with some topspin, it’s very difficult to make it land out.
Really.
It may seem that the ball often flies out, but because it’s losing speed very fast and the spin effect pushes the ball down—and because, of course, gravity works in your favor—the ball does “like” to go down toward the end of its flight.
The ball loses almost half of its speed by the time it lands, so that’s another important factor to keep in mind.
Rally with your partner and be at least 3 to 5 feet behind the baseline.
Play a little game: the goal is to hit the opposite baseline.
Play that for 5-10 minutes.
While it’s very difficult to do that, you will notice that probably over 90% of the shots land inside the baseline.
If you wanted the highest chance of eventually hitting the baseline, the percentages should be 50% inside the court and 50% over the baseline—but you’ll see that you’ll never reach that.
VERY IMPORTANT: There is a key difference when you’re practicing versus when you’re playing for points.
Hitting in the court but close to the service line is a much bigger miss as it’s much further from your desired target than is hitting a foot over the baseline!
Your goal in practice is to find the 3 ball controls that give you that depth. You need to keep experimenting and of course miss long many times before you calibrate your shots and find that proper feel for the shot.
When you play for points, you can only extend toward the last quarter while keeping the ball in the court.
Yes, when you play for points, a shot that is a foot too long costs you a point, but even then it gives you very good feedback on how to adjust for your subsequent strokes.
So, do not judge your stroke’s quality in practice based on whether it lands in or out but simply on how close it lands to the target area regardless from which side!
Early Decision
Another critical point when working on the depth or anything else related to targets is the early decision.
You need to read the opponent’s ball very early and decide how you want to respond.
You need to know the trajectory of your shot BEFORE the opponent’s ball bounces on your side.
Why?
Because based on your desired trajectory—which includes speed, height, spin, and consequently depth—your brain needs to calculate all these variables and send appropriate signals to your body.
This is an extremely difficult calculation, which you can clearly see when you watch beginners play.
It remains difficult for the rest of your tennis journey even though you’ll get better at it.
Know your desired trajectory before the ball bounces
In order to help your brain calculate better, you need to give it enough time.
On a typical rally shot, you have only 0.5 seconds from the bounce of the ball until you hit it, so imagine the speed your brain needs to work at to produce your desired shot.
Observe how early you know how you want to respond to the incoming ball and try to decide as early as possible.
Tactical Benefits Of Deep Balls
When you do eventually play points, you will see that hitting very deep forces a lot of mistakes and short replies from your opponent, especially if they like to play close to the baseline and don’t like to move back.
Base on my experience, this describes most of players who learned to play on hard courts and play most of the time on hard courts.
Clay court players are much better at moving backward when they recognize a deeper shot from their opponent and take fewer risks playing it back.
Why you should generally play further behind the baseline is a topic for another article, so for now just pay attention to how effective deep balls are.
You need to be ready to pounce on a short ball when you see your opponent hitting the ball on the rise or almost as a half volley because there’s a good chance they’ll slightly mishit it, which will make the ball land short.
Be ready to pounce on a short ball as a result of you hitting very deep and forcing opponent to hit on the rise
That allows you to start dictating the point and change your general strategy to hitting more left-right as opposed to keeping the ball deep, which is what you generally do at the start of the point.
Tennis, in my view, is one very challenging ongoing calculation where you’re trying to calculate the force of your stroke and the height you’re going to play at in order to hit that very deep ball.
Playing deep and neutralizing your opponent is at least 50% of your game if you’re playing someone at your level, so shift some attention from thinking all the time how to attack better to thinking more how to neutralize better and how to keep the opponent well behind the baseline or even force mistakes and short balls simply by playing very deep shots.
So, my questions to you are:
Were you ever surprised at what height Marc and I played the shots in the above video and still made the balls land in?
Would you have aimed them lower?
Do you attempt to play at such height above the net yet hit with good pace, or are you more conservative with speed when you do decide to play higher above the net?
And, finally, are you aware of the height of your shots and do you consistently know at what height you want to play?
Good information! You’ve said it before, aim higher over the net and the ball will still come down in the court! Trust the shot!
Thanks
Q
Yet another video that’s brilliant in its simplicity, Tomaz. Great work!
I find that I’m often surprised my deep balls (and also lobs) land in. Sometimes I’m almost suspicious that my partner is being too forgiving with his line calls. I think it’s clearly a case of what you’re talking about here.
I really wish the court level perspective was more common when we see tennis on TV. Seeing professional matches from basically a bird’s eye view doesn’t help us with our depth perception at all.
I liked seeing you attack those short balls at the end of the video. Please make a video about how to do that (and how not to do it)! That’s one of the biggest challenges for me, and I think for most other intermediate players, too.
Also, I would love to see more from you on decision making, which you mentioned briefly here. This seems to be a real key in tennis: when and how it happens, how committed or indecisive we are with our shots, and how the mind cycles between perceiving, reacting, deciding, and executing as the ball moves back and forth across the court.
Thanks again! Zac
I agree, Zac, court level perspective is really good when watching the pros. Here’s one I really like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6p5ZdGR4hU
As for attacking short balls, yes, I am keeping that in mind for future articles.
For simplicity, just copy what you see and play at low speed first.
In my experience hitting too hard is the main cause for mistakes from that situation.
Another great video. Always enjoy your instructions. Thanks.
Great video for me Tomaz,,
I am a hard hitter & frequently my ball lands hard & low so that a hard hitting opponent( (esp..a man) can also pass me with a thundering return!
My biggest challenge is returning a deep lob to my backhand,,
I cannot seem to make a deep topspin or a “bring down” ball return.
I love the birds singing in the background on you video.
Thanks so much.
Aine
Use the ground, Aine. Push off the ground to generate more force for your backhand and find that deep ball.
If you can hit over the baseline, you can also hit deep, just have to practice it.
I learned to play higher shots with spin as a tactical adjustment when the new group of players I joined showed that they could just blister the drive into their strike zone at the base line, and loved it low and fast. And while I did hit some out — usually the result of a technique fail — I was happily surprised at how many went in and how effective that was in gaining an advantage in the rally. And as I watch your video I realize that needs to become not just an adjustment but a more prominent part of my game.
You would be surprised how effective and frustrating this deep ball can be, Robert. Try and find it…
another quality tip and video Tomaz. A couple of quick comments:
1. very interesting comment as to the impact of ‘depth perception’ … I’ve not heard anyone really talk about this point. You comment made me think about the impact of one’s height on depth perception. I’m a 6 foot tall adult male – but I’m guessing that I perceive depth (and angles) differently now than I did as much shorter junior player and differently than most women that might average say 5’4″.
2. your comment on depth perception also makes me think more about the impact/importance of court positioning on one’s ability to accurately see/ perceive angles and openings on both sides of the court – which likely influences how we perceive offensive opportunities and openings on our side of the net for our opponents.
3. your article also reminded me that high, deep shots are not only often difficult for our opponents to time and hit cleanly – they can also buy us time to recover and get back into better court position. High, deep balls – especially ones that bounce high – can cause our opponents to back up – which means that they end up being in a defensive or at least a less offensive position. And – as you show in your video – if our opponents do persist in hugging the baseline when we hit our high, deep balls – they risk more mis-hits and short returns. We see this EVERY TIME we see Nadal play Federer.
4. As an American – I always marvel at how well you and other Europeans speak English – and likely 2 or 3 other languages other than your native tongue. A real benefit/advantage of the European education system – and it allows us Americans the ability to benefit from your great instruction on the internet.
Thanks much Tomaz
Thanks for this extensive reply, John.
You’re right of course, the smaller the person, at lower angle they look at the court and the more difficult it is for them to judge depth.
And yes, deep shots buy us time or in other words, with low and fast shots we hurt ourselves.
Appreciate your comments about English although I am still not fully happy with it after I listen to myself when the video is done. 😉
You speak English with much better precision & diction than most North Americans..
Aine
I’d like to second that thought! Your English is excellent, and also has the advantage of being easy for non-native speakers to understand. My Spanish friends understand them much better than most videos by American tennis pros.
I’ve only noticed one little mistake you consistently make: you say “how it’s like” instead of “what it’s like”. If you fix that, your English will be virtually flawless! : )
Hey Tomaz
Hope you are well! – Really excellent video, I’ve been taught the height control before but never had it explained so well.
I think high balls usually stick in peoples minds as a defensive shot or lacking in control, so everyone wants to hit hard and low and fast (from the baseline) but anytime i watch this it’s full of mistakes!
I hit quite spinny and high as you may remember but now I’m hitting with much more pace so my balls are much deeper 🙂 My question relates to the next step upward from this skill, to make a heavier ball you add more spin, so do you need to increase pace or height or both? or have i got those factors reversed ? 😀
Cheers
Garreth
Hey Gareth, good question.
“Heavy ball” would be adding speed and spin to the normal ball you see in these rallies.
Or perhaps even simpler, just faster racquet head speed while playing at roughly the same height above the net.
But make sure you are looking for that extra energy in your whole body starting from the ground rather than focusing too much on just your arm. That usually results in a slower fast spinning ball…
Hi Tomaz,
Sometimes it seems that the single-handed backhand in matches are hit short, making me wonder if it is done deliberately as a tactic or is it just the result of slight mispositioning of the body, ie: hitting too close to the body etc. In this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCxYQBEHjZc at around 1.40, 2 backhands were hit shorter than the service line. What do you think Roger was intending to do? Thanks.
Hi Alan,
I don’t think Federer or anyone would purposefully hit the ball short unless they want to create an angle. Roger simply played it safe and didn’t manage to get more depth on the ball.
Tennis is more difficult than you may think and even the best pros cannot get the ball exactly where they want. Just one degree change of the racquet angle makes a big difference on the other side…
Great insights Tomaz and brand new for me,
I just destroyed a guy 6-1,6-0 using this advice – I kind of felt like a pusher but so what. My unforced errors were way lower than usual and my slow deep balls gave the guy a lot of trouble. It caused him to make a ton of errors or allowed me to come to the net or take an easy short ball for a winner.
My usual game is to hit hard, constantly worrying about hitting long, and losing most points by either hitting long or into the net. Most of my in-play balls are hard but short. When I purposefully tried to hit deep and high, the balls stayed in – weird. It also gave me more time and I was playing more relaxed. My 1hbh was transformed because I wasn’t trying to hit it so hard and I was lifting it up and not going for as much topsin (most of my errors on that side are usually in the net).
This video gives you a new way to think about playing.
Jon
Good to hear, Jon.
If you say “weird” when you played higher and realized that the ball still landed in the court, then this article achieved its goal – and so did you.
Also good words to keep in mind from your answer are: more time, more relaxed, lifting the ball.
Hi Tomaz, thanks for another great lesson and merging of theory and practice. I myself have often been surprised about balls landing in: if I hit too long, it’s most often a matter of bad timing or balance and rarely of overhitting. Gravity, such a basic concept but we’re hardly aware of it while playing. I like what you say about the ball “liking” to go down towards the end of the court, nice to think of the ball as an animated object.
A comment to your analysis of depth perception: I remember reading somewhere that when you cover the net with a blanket, players hit the net less often. That’s another trick our vision plays with us: because we can see through the net, our mind tells us we might also be able to hit through it. So we do it all wrong: hitting too low where we shouldn’t because we think we can, refraining from hitting higher where we should because we think we can’t.
Nice clip of Wawrinka and Dimitrov hitting. Don’t know if you’ve seen this one, probably my favorite online tennis video, esp from 3.30 on with the side view. These two guys play the ball with considerable height over the net and clearly don’t have an issue with gravity…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdVNGFtXCcA
Hi Greg,
Yes, the blanket trick does help with more awareness of the height / trajectory.
In the video you posted you can also notice that most errors the players make are too long.
It’s been often said that the pros mostly hit long when they miss whereas rec players mostly hit in the net when they miss.
So that would be a good thing to copy instead of the advanced technique they use to accelerate their forearms. 😉
Right Tomaz, if I had to choose between an ATP or WTF forehand I’d probably pick the latter for health reasons… 🙂
Hey Tomaz, great video as always, I wanted to ask what about using shots like slice where the point at least in my understanding is to keep the ball low to make it tougher for the opponent to attack it.
Ryan
Good question, Ryan. I’d say the slice can have 3 different goals:
– to keep the ball low
– to keep the ball very deep
– to give yourself time to recover by playing the ball slower (more floating it)
In rec tennis keeping the ball deep with the slice is a very tough tactic to counter for most players because they are neutralized and unable to attack.
It’s also much safer than trying to keep the ball low with slice because then you have to go much lower over the net and have more chances of missing the shot.
Do you find that the type of racquet makes a difference? When I got my Wilson it came with a chart that had 3 diagrams and each one had a category.
The first one had the ball traveling low over the net, the other a medium height, and the other high. It was specifying that some racquets were designed to hit balls more flat, others with more topspin etc.
Do you find that the type of racquet matters at all with respect to what you shared in the video?
I definitely want to put what you shared into practice. Most 3.0 recreational players can handle low flat balls, after all it lands in their strike zone and they just redirect the pace, but when I hit higher balls that land deep and bounce higher, even by accident, they can barely return them well, especially off of the backhand side.
Yes, thanks for pointing that out. One of the factors the racquets differ is the stifness – or how bouncy the racquet is.
The stiffer the racquet is, the less it will bounce off the ball.
Same goes for string tension.
With stiffer racquets and strings you need more force / speed to keep the ball deep so it’s generally harder to do that.
They also have smaller sweet spot – just ask Federer why he moved up now to a bigger racquet. 😉
Thanks!
Tomaz,
You do a great job with these video lessons. They are clear, concise, insightful and even funny at times. I appreciate them very much.
Thank you!
Joel
This is genius. Just really calling attention to something that should be fairly obvious but clearly is not a real big talking point. I think some of it has to do with when you first start playing tennis matches as a recreational player or maybe even a kid, those “moonballers” are often talked about in disdain. Moonballing is the first step in recognizing spin and height and using consistency when you first play singles yet it is discouraged as “not real tennis.” Heck even “pushers” get a bad rep!
Good point, Christina. Moonballers are an extreme example of what I wanted to show here and they shouldn’t get a bad rep because they can repeatedly hit the last quarter of the court from many different position and from different types of incoming balls (fast, slow, low, high…) which tells us that they have extremely good feel.
I always challenge a student who complains about “crappy” moonballers to try and play like that and see if she can keep the ball that consistently deep. They never can replicate that.
So some moonballing here and there actually gives you a better understanding of the trajectory of the ball and how height and speed determine certain depth of balls.
Excellent video. Your lessons are wonderful. I always look forward
to your new videos and watch them several times.
Thanks very much, Tomaz.
Steve
Tomaz. I hope you never get sick of hearing about what a great video presentation once again! You are really one of the best communicators of tennis instruction that I have ever seen. I think other coaches would agree with me that a great coach is more than someone who knows how to play the game, but more importantly, knows how to teach the game. Your methodology of communication is extremely effective. Great job.
Thank you, Coach Sol. I try to go deeper than “usual” sometimes because in my experience you need ask yourself “why” a few times before you actually uncover the real cause of a certain challenge in tennis. Or life for that matter…
Your videos are always high quality, but I actually think this is the best one I’ve seen. It’s such a simple concept, but seems to be such an easy trap to fall into. I never thought of the part that distance perception plays in it like this. Great stuff and many thanks.
Zivjo Tomaz,
kako prav mi je prišel tale tvoj prispevek ne boš verjel.
Treniram fanta , ki ima hude težave z dolžino žoge predvsem ko je pod pritiskom (ko dobi močno žogo ali takrat ko ni sproščen)
Že dva meseca mu govorim naj takrat vedno odigra daljšo žogo (rečem mu : odigraj višje z več spina nad mrežo). Celo na silo sem od njega zahteval da začne igrati višjo žogo vendar se nikakor ni počutil OK. Zdaj razumem zakaj je tako razmišljal. Ker ga je bilo strah da mu bo šla visoka žoga v out.
THX
Lp Marko
Živjo Marko, hvala za komentar!
Problem pri zelo dolgih zogah je tudi sprejemanje statistike. 🙂
Namrec ce hoces igrati dolge zoge, gre kaksna tudi v out. Tiste ki pa ne grejo, so pa zelo ucinkovite. Vazno da na dolgi rok zmagujes…
Ce pa te statistike ne razumes, potem noces nobene zgresiti ker gledas kratkorocno, namrec samo trenutno tocko. Tu se po mojih izkusnjah zacenjajo taki problemi. Lp, T.
Hi, great lesson. Last year I bought a secondary net which attaches easily to the posts. You can adjust the height and hence create a “window” to hit through. So your concept of height over the net is perfect with this, as I simply have a visual reference point with a secondary net. It’s also great for short balls as again you have a window target to hit through lower with more quick spin. I highly recommend your members to buy one, search on internet. Cheers, Charlie
HI Charlie,
The extra net or line above the original net is very helpful because it determines the height over which you have to play and by doing that you realize and learn that you can play fairly high above the net and yet still make the ball land in the court.
Thanks for the infotmation, I tried to aim higher and deep, an it worked. I actually was higher an deeper.
Even sometimes my partner stays watching the ball dropped inside the court, thinking the ball was long.
Great, Gerardo! The court always seems shorter than it is.
We need to really figure out through experimentation how long it actually is…
Do any of the videos show your backhand grip in detail.
I don’t have it in detail, but little Google searching will show you the most common eastern backhand grip…
Tomaz,
you always succeed in showing something I haven’t thought of before.
So you nearly always know in your mind the depth, location, and spin of your reply before your opponent’s shot has hit on your side?
It seems ambitious and perhaps not even advised if the bounce is tricky or your opponents position changes, etc.
Or is another advantage of such early prep the ability to change if necessary? I admit I only do this on short balls.
Most of the time I’m deciding after the bounce, which is okay most of the time unless he’s hit a rocket, in which case it’s spinal chord tennis. Thanks–TMc
Hi Tom,
Yes, I know what kind of shot I want to play before the ball bounces on my side.
In fact I often know it before my opponent hits the ball. That’s because I know with high probability what ball they will play so I have my answer ready already.
Once I see their shot match my expectation I just execute what I planned.
The funny bounce of a ball doesn’t change my intention, it has been programmed long ago. I might only hit the ball a bit more poorly.
As for your opponent changing location, it’s a completely pointless approach.
Your opponent doesn’t know what you’re up to so they are always going to the middle of the angles of your possible shots and there they split step.
You can look at them one million times and one million times they will be in the middle of your angles and split stepping.
What is there to see?
And if you’re thinking about those few situations where you have a short ball and your opponent decides to guess where to go in advanced, let me tell you that even on a pro level the players don’t look at the player but they look at the ball and they decide based on their instinct or where it’s easier for them to play.
That’s why every pro gets passed here and there on a short ball.
We all know that it’s much better probability to watch the ball in hit a really good shot (even if your opponent gets it) rather than not watching the ball and hitting a poor shot and possibly miss it.
Check more also the intention article which relates to this:
https://www.feeltennis.net/intention/