When playing from the baseline, should you return to the middle after every shot? And if you're up at the net, hit a short one but the opponent is coming up to hit a hard to get passing shot, should you back up to the baseline really quick?
Didn't quite understand the last question. Are you saying that you've just hit a drop volley (or a drop shot) while at the net? Are are you saying that you've hit a weak volley to the mid-court? In either of these cases, there is really no way that you'd have time to back up all the way to the baseline.
No, you do
not always recover to the middle after hitting your shot. For the sake of simplicity, I'll be talking about positioning in singles. (I'll leave it it you to figure out how to apply it to doubles).
Generally speaking, when playing shots at the baseline (or most any place on the court), you want to recover to position that will
bisect the angle of possible returns. If you hit your shot up the middle of your opponent's court, then the bisecting that angle of possible returns from your opponent
would put you in the middle of your own court as the optimal position, more or less -- for this particular situation.
However, if you hit a x-court shot, then you should not recover all the way to the middle of of your own baseline. Say your x-court shot went deep toward the opposite (diagonal) corner of your opponent's court. This would make your optimal recovery position a yard (meter) or so shy of the middle.
On the other hand, if you hit your shot DTL to the other corner, then your optimal position would be somewhat
past the middle of your own baseline - perhaps a meter or so. Realistically, you would often not have enough time to get all the way to the optimal recovery position in this case. In this situation,
try to get past the middle, if possible, but be sure to
split step as your opponent is making contact with the ball -- even if you've not reached your optimal recovery position.
It might help to view your opponent's no-man's-land area divided into thirds (left, middle & right). If you hit your shot toward the middle third, then you would recover close to the middle of your own baseline. If your shot goes toward the
left third of your opponent's court, then you would recover to a position that is somewhat to the
right of your center hash mark. If your shot is hit to the
right third, then your optimal recovery position would be somewhere to the left of your center mark.
If you wish, I can try to explain the optimal positions in the mid-court and at the net as well -- but it is important to first understand what I am saying about your baseline recovery positions.
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