Court position. Stepping back?

[Um...?]

As it stands I'm very comfortable with my usual court position, playing right up on the baseline. But the other night I played a player that kept forcing me to step back and give up my position. I found that I was underestimating his angles and wasn't taking the best route to cover his heavy spinning balls, both on the backhand and forehand side.

When I stepped back I found I could definitely give myself the time to get some deep, heavy balls back, and cover the angles a little better but didn't feel comfortable AT ALL relinquishing my usual court position, especially on his short, angled, topspin groundies.

Funny thing about the position change though... I exposed a weakness of his, just by it being a weakness of mine having to move back, but I discovered he couldn't handle some of the short balls I was hitting when I wasn't moving the best. To take advantage of this, I would hit short intentionally at times, mix in quite a few drop shots and come into net a bit more, but everything seemed labored because of my positioning. Of course I'd love to take advantage of that strategy in a comfortable position rather than being defensive and getting lucky to have exposed a weakness.

What things does one need to consider (especially movement wise) when stepping their court position back from the baseline?

[miniRafa386]

swing harder, better, faster, stronger :) haha, we all love kanye

seriously, swing harder and faster with a little higher trajectory. it will make up from the space lost from the baseline.

[5263]

get better at taking the ball on the rise and you can hold that ground better, but don't be afraid to move to a more productive area of the court. Making good adjustments, like you did, is a Big part of being a better player.

[Bungalo Bill]

get better at taking the ball on the rise and you can hold that ground better, but don't be afraid to move to a more productive area of the court. Making good adjustments, like you did, is a Big part of being a better player.

Now this is very good advice. Very nice.

[LuckyR]

As it stands I'm very comfortable with my usual court position, playing right up on the baseline. But the other night I played a player that kept forcing me to step back and give up my position. I found that I was underestimating his angles and wasn't taking the best route to cover his heavy spinning balls, both on the backhand and forehand side.

When I stepped back I found I could definitely give myself the time to get some deep, heavy balls back, and cover the angles a little better but didn't feel comfortable AT ALL relinquishing my usual court position, especially on his short, angled, topspin groundies.
Funny thing about the position change though... I exposed a weakness of his, just by it being a weakness of mine having to move back, but I discovered he couldn't handle some of the short balls I was hitting when I wasn't moving the best. To take advantage of this, I would hit short intentionally at times, mix in quite a few drop shots and come into net a bit more, but everything seemed labored because of my positioning. Of course I'd love to take advantage of that strategy in a comfortable position rather than being defensive and getting lucky to have exposed a weakness.

What things does one need to consider (especially movement wise) when stepping their court position back from the baseline?


Perhaps I don't understand your point. You needed to step back in the court because of short, angled, topspin groundies?

[Um...?]

Perhaps I don't understand your point. You needed to step back in the court because of short, angled, topspin groundies?

Funny you mention this, as later in the evening I was re-reading my post and realized that this statement didn't make much sense in the contex of what I was asking. Please allow me to clarify...

In general I tend to stand up on the baseline because I do like to hit the ball on the rise and find it easier to do so with a majority of my opponents in that court position. This particular player had quite a bit of variation with his game. A LOT of the topspin shots he was hitting were landing either very deep against the baseline, or he would hit shorter, sharply angled shots that were even heavier than the penetrating baseline balls. So overall, to compensate for the spin, and allow myself some time to move, I felt like I needed to step back (stepping forward would put me in no man's land and I'm absolutely not comfortable playing a baselining, topspinner from there).

In my statement, I was insinuating that the biggest lack of comfort I was experiencing was because I was already feeling out of position on the court, and while I could compensate for his deeper shots by moving back, the short angled balls that I was moving for were giving me the most problems. Either because they would pull me in toward the net and that no-man's land area, or pushing me way back just so I could have enough time to make a somewhat comfortable shot.

Sheesh. You guys can't read minds?? :confused:

:-P

[LuckyR]

OK, that is what I was assuming but you didn't state before. A couple of not-so-random thoughts:

1- Sharply angled short balls are best taken from the baseline. The more you step back the farther you will need to travel to reach the ball.

2- Sounds like this one guy hit the ball a lot deeper than others you have played successfully from the baseline. My guess is he is hitting the ball loopier, with more topspin than others you have played. This is a common modern stroke, although this guy seems to be unusual from your experience. If this is the case, since you like to taker the ball on the rise and you didn't like backing up. I would recommend swing volleying them from no-man's land on occasion. This should interupt his timing and will net you an aggreessive shot that he may have trouble with. The other thing is after a few times of doing this, he may decide to flatten out his stroke to take this shot away from you. This idea will: give you a stroke style you are more familiar with and will move him into a style he is less proficient at executing.

[Um...?]

Awesome. Thanks for the advice LuckyR. Good food for thought...

As for the angled balls being best handled from the baseline, yes, I agree completely. Problem is he would back me up enough that I was compromising my approach to cutting the angles off, which is something I'm usually good at since I have some length and reach, but the heavyness of the balls, combined with where I was on the court when making contact with the ball, was just throwing me off completely.

I really like the idea of keeping him in check with some swinging volleys. That, as well as continuing to expose his short ball weaknesses sounds like it could transition the court positioning advantage back to me.