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“When is the best time to come in on a ball and on what path to the net, i.e. if you hit a strong, deep cross court shot do you follow your shot in on the angle past the service line towards the side of the court you hit or do you stay near middle of the court to cut off angles?”
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Approach shot question:
OK, you’re asking a 2 part question about approaching the net.
When and where…
First of all, let’s get it laid out what the real purpose is for approaching the net, and that’s why…
Here’s my thought on why we should come up to net.
WHY: We play shots (call them anything you want, approach shots for this discussion) that allow us to move forward so we can eventually be in a position on the court up at net where we force our opponent to go for an all out passing do or die shot.
It’s that simple. You want to force your opponent to have to hit another *#&!…ing passing shot.
And my philosophy has always been this, no matter who I’m playijng, I believe they have a limited number of passing shots in their “bag” for that match. If they could hit an unlimited number of passing shots, then guess what, they’d be on the pro tour and you and I wouldn’t be playing them.
Yeah I know, and since you didn’t ask me to sugarcoat it, there it is sort of in its blunt form.
Your opponents have a finite number of passing shots they can actually make on any given day, and the sooner you force them to empty their bag, the sooner you begin to drive them nuts because they see you’re still coming into net!
WHEN: If you’re playing me, I’m trying to look at everyone of your shots as an approach shot opportunity. That’s just me.
Lots of players don’t have that comfort level to come in a ton. They try to pick and choose, and the consequence is they just don’t really come in and force their opponent to have to play a passing shot very often.
This is a numbers game. The more you approach, even when you come in on a full fledged crappy approach where it just sits there in the midlle of their court begging to be knocked off, the reality is you’re going to win more points by them actually missing their passing shot as opposed to you having to hit a winning volley or overhead.
I learned this from Tom Stow. And when I finally “got it” was when he’d be coaching us and I’d come in on that lousy approach I just described, the guy would shank it over to the next court, and as I turned around to look at Mr. Stow with this “wow, what’s going on” look, he’d just wink and give me a little sly grin that said it all.
You don’t have to hit perfect approach shots to force your opponent into what appears to be an unforced error.
And that’s the rub. Your continuous, never ending, presence up at net is the pressure that creates “forced” errors.
Don’t worry about picking just the right time to approach the net. This week get out on the practice court where the outcome doesn’t mean anything and decide that you’re coming in behind everything for the next hour.
1st and 2nd serves, short balls from your opponent, medium deep balls from your opponents, deep balls that you can play an approach volley, 2nd serve return of serves, you get the idea, anything…
See what happens with their passing shot attempts. Are there any patterns you can start to detect? Can you start to eliminate certain possible passing shot types and directions so you can begin to realize that this specific approach shot equates to only really one or two possible shots from your opponent?
In the beginning you’ll naturally think you’ve got to cover the entire court, but if you observe, you’ll learn that every approach shot you hit tends to fall into a specific passing shot category for your opponent, and you’ll eventually cover those one or two possibilities rather than thinking you’ve got to defend the whole court. Make sense?
You can only learn this stuff from on court real life experience. Some of it can be theoretical, but in the end, you’ll have to get a little dirty and bloodied before you start to sense the patterns.
WHERE: I normally approach either up the line or right down the middle and I never ever think I’m going to hit a winner. I always make sure I totally commit moving forward and eventually move through my approach shot no matter where I play it so I challenge my opponent to pass rather than putting the pressure on me to have to hit a winner.
Hey, I could hit the greatest approach shot ever hit, but if my opponent guesses and anticipates my approach shot target, if I haven’t moved through my shot to get up to net, I’ve just left a huge opening for my opponent to hit into.
That’s why I normally go up the line or back up the middle because I’ll be able to close up the passing shot lanes faster than if I approach cross court.
However, I will approach cross court from time to time IF, and absolutely only if, my footwork can naturally take me to the ideal spot on the court to force a passing shot from my opponent. If I know I can’t to that good spot on the court before my opponent gets to my approach, then I won’t risk it.
The bottom line is this. Just like we talked about in a recent post about the timing of the split step, you always try to get to the best place on the court where you are forcing your opponent to pass you while at the same time you can cover their realistic shot possibilites.
It may take you a couple of advances with split steps to get to that place on the court.
And, you’re going to get passed from time to time. That’s part of the deal. If you you get passed and feel like you’ve failed, then you’ll stop coming in, and the numbers game will never work in your favor.
If I get passed, I smile knowing that my guy now has one less passing shot in their bag for that day. I’m for sure coming in on the very next point to see if I can quickly help their bag getting emptied…!
Hope this helps. Let me know…
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Brent
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