"Skills" v. "Strategies"

[tennis tom]

Originally Posted by Alchemy-Z

only thing I do different with a weak partner is warm up weak...make them look stronger.

Can you please explain how you "warm up weak"? I'm not familiar with this strategy (or is it a tactic?) and may want to learn to employ it in a future league match.

Thanks

[leroy_sunset]

Originally Posted by tennis tom

Can you please explain how you "warm up weak"?

Shank balls, miss practice serves, dump volleys into the net. Make yourself look like a bad player in the warm-up. Then bring the heat in the first few games, get a break or two, and cruise in the first set. You've a much better chance of taking the match or at least forcing a 3rd set tie breaker that way.

To be honest, I don't single out the weaker player, per se. I try to recognize patterns where my side dictates and dominates. If that means hitting to one player a lot (his net game is weak, he stays back, etc.) then so be it. But regardless of the weaker player, I am going to hit the best ball possible. On top of which, hitting at the weaker player often stops working when they recognize your patterns and compensate.

[skiracer55]

Originally Posted by Say Chi Sin Lo

You need the skills to execute a particular strategy.

You can fantastize about particular strategies, but it won't do you any good if you don't have the skills to materialize the strategy.

...but let's note a couple of things additionally:

- If you're talking doubles, then it's one of two things. Either try to pair yourself with a partner whose skills complement yours, or, if you're given a partner, have a conversation with him/her along the lines of "Gee...I'm really good at the net and you're really good in the back court, so let's try to figure out a way to make those skills work together."

- The enemy has a vote. You can have the best skills and fashion them into a terrific strategy, on the surface, but if the opposition has a counter, then you've got a problem. Another way of saying this is that you normally go with your A game...unless the other side eats up your A game, in which case you better have a B and C game...

[beernutz]

I see what you're saying Cindy. I'm on both a 6.5 and a 7.5 combo team (as a 3.5) and my role on each is very different. I absolutely know that when playing 6.5 my partner is going to get the majority of balls hit to him while at 7.5 sometimes I become the target. At 6.5 I have to be very aggressive about putting balls away if we want to win because eventually the 3.0 is going to commit a UE. We all make them but they are generally made more frequently by lower NTRP players.

I'm still 3.5 in USTA but in our all doubles local league I'm a 4.0 so that hitting every ball to me usually isn't a sure-fire winning strategy. I lost a 7.5 match yesterday in part because I couldn't convince my partner to hit to the weaker of the two players. Their 3.5 was pretty good but his partner was a very strong 4.0 with great net skills who'd been previously bumped up to 4.5 for a year. So I think you clearly have to have the skills to be able to execute a strategy but ultimately having and following a strategy until it has been proven not to work is the way to win.

[tennis tom]

Originally Posted by skiracer55

- If you're talking doubles, then it's one of two things. Either try to pair yourself with a partner whose skills complement yours...

I tried--but Fed said he was too busy changing diapers these days to play dubs.

[skiracer55]

Originally Posted by tennis tom

I tried--but Fed said he was too busy changing diapers these days to play dubs.

...you're not gonna like it, but my answer to that is just play singles....

[tennis tom]

Originally Posted by skiracer55

...you're not gonna like it, but my answer to that is just play singles....

I would need a wheelchair or a skateboard to play singles. I'm coming up with an entirely new format for the non-ambulatory who still like playing tennis--it's gonna' be called : TRIPLES.

[sureshs]

I don't think about these things but just go out on the court and give it my 45%.

[skiracer55]

Originally Posted by tennis tom

I would need a wheelchair or a skateboard to play singles. I'm coming up with an entirely new format for the non-ambulatory who still like playing tennis--it's gonna' be called : TRIPLES.

...we're all likely to be there sooner than later. As long as we're still hitting tennis balls, it's all good...