How to beat a moonballer, dink and lobber

[vizsla]

One of my singles players played his first league match last night and lost 0 and 2 to a guy who moonballed him and hit some soft shots to him. My teammate is pretty beefy, 6'5" pnds the ball.

Question:

How do you play these type players and how do you win against a dink/lobber?

[arnz]

On top go to the links section, you will see many threads on how to play pushers, dinkers, lobbers, hackers, moonballers...haha whatever you want to call them. Here is a link to one of them


http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=22802


I played another one of those guys yesterday, I lost 7-5 but now I know what I'm doing and what i'm working at to make sure I beat him next time :)

[Rickson]

One of my singles players played his first league match last night and lost 0 and 2 to a guy who moonballed him and hit some soft shots to him. My teammate is pretty beefy, 6'5" pnds the ball.

Question:

How do you play these type players and how do you win against a dink/lobber?
You'd better practice your long volleys. Moonballs can be extremely difficult to hit if they reach the baseline because the balls will bounce very high unless you can get them on the rise and even then they're difficult to time. Moonballs are relatively easy to volley, but the volley point is much deeper than with a traditional groundstroke coming at you. Practice overheads, long volleys, and chasing down balls that go over your head.

[mdhubert]

I played another one of those guys yesterday, I lost 7-5 but now I know what I'm doing and what i'm working at to make sure I beat him next time :)
This is always what we think after being beaten by those guys !
After having read many threads on that it seems that everyone has his (or her) own recipe...
However, very often we go on losing to these guys because we are not prepared to suffer and to forget fun play with tons of winners and flashy combos. The guy is always on the ball !
Some efficient advices in my opinion are :
-Take the ball early to kill the various spins they like to put, including on returns
-Delay slightly the swing in order to accelerate the ball on the dinks
-Take him out of his comfort zone: go to the net to mix up the paces of exchanges, without rushing to avoid the lob; make him move on diagonals because he prefers lateral movements
-Take him to the net, usually they hate that (one pusher I know doesn't even bother to warm-up volleys !)
-Be PATIENT and don't rush on your strokes, play at 75% of your pace but take care of the form because the UE's and slow pace will kill you mentally, so try to keep maximum control on your game
-Don't play like a pusher yourself, he's more patient than you
Good luck !

[Freedom]

Play consistenly, and make sure you capitalize on your opportunities.

[ask1ed]

Play diagonals: deep into one corner, and short to the diagonal. Bring the pusher in. Develop a chip charge game to the back hand deep corner off returns. Practice plenty of overheads as they will lob you anytime you close too close or anytime they are out of position on a deep approach. Bring them in short to their back hand side, and be ready for an answering drop shot or a chip to your forehand corner. Make all your returns and all your first serves. Don't play like the pusher does, or pretty soon, sure as crap, they will be the ones hitting winners off your weak short pushed shots. Freeze their timing with flat shots deep, and weak low bouncing slices short to their back hands. Most can't volley, but they sure can pass off a weak approach. Don't rush your approaches off their puny short shots. Attack their pathetic serves.

[nViATi]

One of my singles players played his first league match last night and lost 0 and 2 to a guy who moonballed him and hit some soft shots to him. My teammate is pretty beefy, 6'5" pnds the ball.

Question:

How do you play these type players and how do you win against a dink/lobber?
Practice and become a better tennis player. These "tips" by themselves will not make you any better. You need to get out on the court and learn consistency and patience. The point of tennis is not to hit 50 winners. Know your limits, don't go for broke on every shot.

[Tennis_Monk]

This is always what we think after being beaten by those guys !
After having read many threads on that it seems that everyone has his (or her) own recipe...
However, very often we go on losing to these guys because we are not prepared to suffer and to forget fun play with tons of winners and flashy combos. The guy is always on the ball !
Some efficient advices in my opinion are :
-Take the ball early to kill the various spins they like to put, including on returns
-Delay slightly the swing in order to accelerate the ball on the dinks
-Take him out of his comfort zone: go to the net to mix up the paces of exchanges, without rushing to avoid the lob; make him move on diagonals because he prefers lateral movements
-Take him to the net, usually they hate that (one pusher I know doesn't even bother to warm-up volleys !)
-Be PATIENT and don't rush on your strokes, play at 75% of your pace but take care of the form because the UE's and slow pace will kill you mentally, so try to keep maximum control on your game
-Don't play like a pusher yourself, he's more patient than you
Good luck !


I am not a pusher but i dont warmup volleys either. I am not a net player. Whenever i come to the net , i can hold myself up decently.

I never practice anything but Serves. My warmup is a mere formality really. I usually run on tread mill for 5 minutes before heading into a match so i am already pumped up.

One rule in playing against pushers....prepare for looooooooooong rallies. Wait for the oppurtunity to unleash the power stroke. ............Be FIT!!

[Bungalo Bill]

double post

[Bungalo Bill]

One of my singles players played his first league match last night and lost 0 and 2 to a guy who moonballed him and hit some soft shots to him. My teammate is pretty beefy, 6'5" pnds the ball.

Question:

How do you play these type players and how do you win against a dink/lobber?

Not every player will keep the ball deep. Not every player will hit the ball in such a way as to never allow you to control the point.

The questions!!!!

1. What percentage of points did you feel you were the one controlling the outcome? What happened? Did you get impatient? Did you go for winners too soon?

2. During the points, was there times you wished you posessed a certain shot? Like a drop shot? A better overhead? Or a volley?

3. What about consistency? Were you satisfied with your consistency? Did you keep the ball in play? Could you move him around?

4. What about your serve? Was it placed well? How about the pace? Did you serve a variety to keep him guessing?

5. What about your returns? Did you take control of the points on the 2nd serve? How many breaks did you get? How many did he break back on?

Instead of asking us how to beat him, why not ask yourself. You know more about what happened out there than we do.

[joe1987]

Mix up the pace, vary the depth and be consistent.

[mdhubert]

I am not a pusher but i dont warmup volleys either. I am not a net player. Whenever i come to the net , i can hold myself up decently.

One rule in playing against pushers....prepare for looooooooooong rallies. Wait for the oppurtunity to unleash the power stroke. ............Be FIT!!
I agree, you have to be fery fit and to recover between long rallies otherwise you'll die on the court, with him smiling...

On the volley warmup I think it's useful, first to wake up your reflexes, second, to get the touch feeling and timing back. I think you should do most of the strokes during warmup, just for the muscle memory and confidence in pressure situations.
If the guy doesn't do a specific "basic" stroke during warmup I suspect him to be fragile in this area under pressure.

[North]

Well, this is just what I have found when playing these sorts of players.
These players usually, like most everyone else, have shots they hate to have to return (moonballs, high backhands, low midcourt slices, whatever - it will vary). I find they don't usually do any better handling, say, moonballs hit back to them than anyone else on average. I try to find those hated shots and keep hitting them to the opponent. The difference seems to be that they don't mind (boredom-wise) simply hitting one defensive shot (like another moonball, dink, or lob) back after another all day.

The only thing I find I can do is wait (and wait and wait....) for a chance to take the offensive, knowing I will have to wait for a great, not just good, opportunity. I can take moonballs out of the air and hit them for winners or approach shots but only if I am not angry at the moonballer for playing a boring game and only if I am relaxed and focused enough to keep moving my feet to be in the right place at the right time. Same with coming in on high floaters and putting the volley away - only works if I stay calm enough to use enough finesse to get the volley deep and away from an opponent who is already out of position. These players win by disrupting that kind of calm focus, even in people who clearly have the technical skills to hit the winning shots at the right opportunity.

If you realistically have the skills to win with better shots (I get feedback from the pro I work with about this) then it is a question of being willing to get several more balls back in the rally than usual, waiting for better than usual "opportunity balls" and then staying calm enough to capitalise on the situation. It all gets down to that stuff about letting go of the need to win and then you do start winning. I was extremely skeptical of that til I tried it and it worked. But this is just my experience.

I will add that it is incredibly fun to beat players like this. I have found they can get very grumpy and unsportsmanlike, barely shaking hands at the net with a murmered, "Thanks for playing". After you beat them once or twice, they usually never want to play you again. Good luck!

[mdhubert]

If you realistically have the skills to win with better shots (I get feedback from the pro I work with about this) then it is a question of being willing to get several more balls back in the rally than usual, waiting for better than usual "opportunity balls" and then staying calm enough to capitalise on the situation. It all gets down to that stuff about letting go of the need to win and then you do start winning. I was extremely skeptical of that til I tried it and it worked. But this is just my experience.

Your analysis is right, I think you have to condition yourself like that entering in the match "I'll have a good workout, hit many balls, and go for the opportunities, that is great". If you go like "I'm gonna destroy this ****ing pusher" you are dead before the first serve.
Saying it's incredibly fun is a bit rich because waiting for this damn dink to bounce is not really "fun", but if you're on the right mindset, and you have a solid game plan, it can be OK.

[North]

Saying it's incredibly fun is a bit rich because waiting for this damn dink to bounce is not really "fun", but if you're on the right mindset, and you have a solid game plan, it can be OK.

Well, it's not fun during the match - lol! It's more the satisfaction afterwards. While I'm playing, I just try to focus on one shot at a time without any emotion at all, good or bad.

[The Extremist]

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[Tennis_Monk]

Onething to keep in mind is not all pushers are equal. I played with a few pushers who had great forehand and one of them even has a better back hand. These guys would push to setup the rally and suddenly unleash a deadly stroke.
The first time i played, this is surprise elemnt completely and took me by storm. then on......its no longer a surprise...i wouldnt be careful not to give them that chance.