Follow-up on Lobs

[kenshireen]

Should a high lob be taken in the air or allowed to bounce.

Thanks, Ken

[thehustler]

It depends on how confident you are. If you feel like you can hit the ball out of the air with good pace and placement go for it. This reduces the amount of time your opponent has to react. If you want to make them think let it bounce and take your time on where you want to put the ball. Move your feet to keep them guessing and then put it away. If I let it bounce I will move my feet and appear that I'm going to hit it one way, and then at the last moment move my feet again so I'm aiming elsewhere and that forces my opponent to run or just get caught flat footed. If I'm taking it out of the air I make sure I concentrate hard on the ball and pick my spot before I even swing so I reduce the chance of an error and rob my opponent time to get to it. HTH.

[Mahboob Khan]

Read my post in response to your original post on this subject.

[finchy]

i usually let it bounce. i barely work on smashes. if i try to take it straight out of the air, it falls too fast and i end up framing the smash.

[perfmode]

Out of the air for me.

[paulfreda]

It depends

If it is very very high and past the service line, I will
do as Henin Hardene does and let it bounce. You
get much less variation in the ball height and it
is moving much slower than first fall. All this is
percentages in your favor.

If it is inside the service line and not terribly high
I take it in the air. If it is too very very high in this
location I will bounce it if it is a critical point. But if
I have 40 love on my serve I will go for it just for
the fun and challenge.

[Hyperstate]

Same as paulfreda!

[kevhen]

I usually let very high lobs bounce. If I am still backpedaling but under the lobbed ball I might hit a defensivie lob volley to get back in the point. If the lob is high and short I will let it bounce and then smash it away usually back up the middle but over my opponents head. If it is high and midcourt I will hit an aggressive smash usually with some angle and take my chances. If it is high and deep I will let it bounce and hit sort of a slice overhead.

[Rickson]

Let it bounce.

[papa]

Kevhen wrote:

"I usually let very high lobs bounce. If I am still backpedaling but under the lobbed ball I might hit a defensivie lob volley to get back in the point. If the lob is high and short I will let it bounce and then smash it away usually back up the middle but over my opponents head. If it is high and midcourt I will hit an aggressive smash usually with some angle and take my chances. If it is high and deep I will let it bounce and hit sort of a slice overhead."

Don't understand some of this. How, for instance, can you/why would you try to "smash it away usually back up the middle but over my opponents head" - especially on short lobs. High and deep lobs are best (for me anyway) treated with return lobs rather than trying to "slice an overhead" which I would consider a rather low percetage shot considering all factors. I also like to hit angle shots off of short lobs rather than to angle mid court lobs.

Well, I guess we all play this game a little different.

[tetsuo10]

Taking it out of the air is the best. I guess it's just depends on your confidence level. If you let it bounce, be prepared for crazy bounces that can occur depending on the spin imparted on the ball.