Pointless to think about net height?

SStrikerR

Hall of Fame
So lately the coaches at the clinic I go to have been discussing strategy, and how to play high percentage tennis. Basically the first two things were: hit cross court, and most of your shots should have a large margin over the net. However, when explaining why hitting DTL is lower percentage, they mention the net being lower in the middle. So what? If you play with a large margin, those few inches make no difference whatsoever. The only way it would matter is if you were trying to skim the net each time. I'm not arguing that DTL is high percentage; I know it's not. But isn't it kind of pointless to say "don't hit there because the net is a tiny bit higher" when you just finished saying "aim 5 feet above the net?"


Any typos are the iPhones fault.
 
I just spent half an hour typing this up in another thread. Might as well just post it here too. The most pertinent part is bolded.

The key to giving yourself the best chance to win is to understand that tennis is a percentage game, and knowing what the high percentage shot is in any given situation. In practice, it's actually very simple. The winning part comes down more to making high percentage choices with discipline and then just executing your shots.

Having said that, cross court is always the primary high percentage target from the baseline. Trying to redirect a cross court shot dtl presents a few problems. (1) It goes against directionals and, therefore, has a tendency to go wide, (2) you have a shorter court with a higher net, and, perhaps most importantly, (3) unless you hit a winner (a low percentage play from behind the baseline to no matter where you hit it), you have left yourself out of position and given your opponent a wide open court cross court to your other side.

The exceptions to hitting cross court are: (1) when your opponent hits a short or weak ball, or (2) when you have an opportunity to run around your backhand and hit an inside out, or inside in forehand. Obviously, what amounts to a short weak ball, or an opportunity to run around the backhand, changes as the level of play goes up. For a low level player, a short weak ball is when he's closer to the service line than the baseline. For a pro, it's when he can take a ball inside the baseline. For Federer and Nadal, it's any ball that doesn't put them on defense. Anyway . . .

On a short/weak ball there are two scenarios: (1) If the ball is a high sitter, it is a high percentage play to go for a winner into the open court. (2) If it's low, and you have to lift it above the net, going for a winner (other than a drop shot which is a good option on a low short ball), is a low percentage play because it's too difficult to hit up over the net, and get the ball back down inside the court, with enough pace to be a winner. Rather, on low short balls you should hit an approach shot dtl and position yourself at net so that you take away a dtl pass attempt and force your opponent to go for a cross court pass or lob. He only has a small window to get the ball by you cross court and keep the ball inside the sideline. Those percentages favor you. For every successful pass, he'll hit at least one UE and one shot you can volley away. A cross court approach shot is a tactical error because you have left yourself open to be passed on either side, the open side and behind you as you scramble to cover the open side.

When you run around your backhand to hit inside out, you are in effect hitting cross court with your stronger stroke and only a little bit out of position. Hitting inside in is going with directionals, but, its the short court and the high net and will leave you out of position if it isn't a winner or at least puts your opponent on the stretch so that he can't hit big to your open cross court.

That's a major part of high percentage tennis right there. Hope that helps.

PS: According to Vic Braden, the average pro point lasts for 3 shots in play, serve, return and one more shot in play before someone hits an UE or a winner. For amateurs it's 2 shots in play, serve and return. This is why I say that the majority of your practice time should be devoted to: (1) serves, (2) returns, and (3) cross court drills. The point is, it's important that you know you can hang with anyone hitting cross court on either side for as long as it takes to get an opportunity to attack. There's no excuse to be stuck with a weak side that you can't hit cross court for as long as it takes. Trying to get out of it with a low percentage shot selection is not a winning tactic in the course of a match.
 
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So lately the coaches at the clinic I go to have been discussing strategy, and how to play high percentage tennis. Basically the first two things were: hit cross court, and most of your shots should have a large margin over the net. However, when explaining why hitting DTL is lower percentage, they mention the net being lower in the middle. So what? If you play with a large margin, those few inches make no difference whatsoever. The only way it would matter is if you were trying to skim the net each time. I'm not arguing that DTL is high percentage; I know it's not. But isn't it kind of pointless to say "don't hit there because the net is a tiny bit higher" when you just finished saying "aim 5 feet above the net?"


Any typos are the iPhones fault.

The extra net height makes a difference, especially coupled with the shorter court going DTL vs CC. You can't always hit the shot exactly the way you want, especially if you are being pressured, sometimes your shot ends up going lower than expected and hits the net tape. It also makes a difference when attacking DTL - consider that you usually flatten out your shots when attacking, factor in the height of the ball in relation to the net height, and again also the shorter court length.
 
So lately the coaches at the clinic I go to have been discussing strategy, and how to play high percentage tennis. Basically the first two things were: hit cross court, and most of your shots should have a large margin over the net. However, when explaining why hitting DTL is lower percentage, they mention the net being lower in the middle. So what? If you play with a large margin, those few inches make no difference whatsoever. The only way it would matter is if you were trying to skim the net each time. I'm not arguing that DTL is high percentage; I know it's not. But isn't it kind of pointless to say "don't hit there because the net is a tiny bit higher" when you just finished saying "aim 5 feet above the net?"
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I don't like the terminology "high percentage". I think it can be misleading. There's a difference between playing "high percentage tennis" and "highly safe tennis". Hitting over the middle of the net is "highly safe" tennis, IMHO.... but it isn't necessarily going to increase the probability of you winning the point.

I understand how net clearance is certainly a factor, but achieving higher net clearance requires a combination of more spin and/or less pace. Otherwise, you risk sending the ball long or giving your opponent a floater. Applying more spin and less pace isn't necessarily easy, either.

I don't see anything "high percentage" in settling for forehand-to-forehand baseline cross-court bashfests. I'd much rather hit a ball cross-court, then get a cross-court reply, and then hit down the line forcing my opponent to run for the ball on the backhand side.

When hitting DTL, you just need to remember that you don't need to crush the ball for a winner. Just get it over as deep as you can. It forces your opponent to hit a weaker backhand, it also makes them face away from the open court.

Can you describe one of the high-percentage "plays" that the coaches are talking about? Because high-percentage "shots" seems to be very subjective.
 
So lately the coaches at the clinic I go to have been discussing strategy, and how to play high percentage tennis. Basically the first two things were: hit cross court, and most of your shots should have a large margin over the net. However, when explaining why hitting DTL is lower percentage, they mention the net being lower in the middle. So what? If you play with a large margin, those few inches make no difference whatsoever. The only way it would matter is if you were trying to skim the net each time. I'm not arguing that DTL is high percentage; I know it's not. But isn't it kind of pointless to say "don't hit there because the net is a tiny bit higher" when you just finished saying "aim 5 feet above the net?"


Any typos are the iPhones fault.

Most anyone would have to agree. Xcourt is usually a better % play, but
if you play good height over the net, the net height is not as a big factor.
It does bear mentioning Imo.
 
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I don't like the terminology "high percentage". I think it can be misleading. There's a difference between playing "high percentage tennis" and "highly safe tennis". Hitting over the middle of the net is "highly safe" tennis, IMHO.... but it isn't necessarily going to increase the probability of you winning the point.

I understand how net clearance is certainly a factor, but achieving higher net clearance requires a combination of more spin and/or less pace. Otherwise, you risk sending the ball long or giving your opponent a floater. Applying more spin and less pace isn't necessarily easy, either.

I don't see anything "high percentage" in settling for forehand-to-forehand baseline cross-court bashfests. I'd much rather hit a ball cross-court, then get a cross-court reply, and then hit down the line forcing my opponent to run for the ball on the backhand side.

When hitting DTL, you just need to remember that you don't need to crush the ball for a winner. Just get it over as deep as you can. It forces your opponent to hit a weaker backhand, it also makes them face away from the open court.

Can you describe one of the high-percentage "plays" that the coaches are talking about? Because high-percentage "shots" seems to be very subjective.

As I explained above, if you redirect a cross court shot dtl from the baseline and you don't hit a winner (assuming you don't hit it wide for going against directionals), you have left yourself out of position and are likely to lose the point.

PS: You did get the first part right that high percentage does not equal hitting the safest shot but rather hitting the shot that gives you the best chance to win the point. I guess you remembered me writing that numerous times before you put me on ignore.
 
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Most anyone would have to agree. Xcourt is usually a better % play, but
if you play good height over the net, the net height is not as a big factor.
It does bear mentioning Imo.

Of course the higher net/shorter court inherent in a dtl groundie is less of a factor with modern shotmaking. But, in combination with directionals and court positioning, it's not the best choice to redirect a cross court groundie dtl unless there's a high percentage opportunity to do so.
 
Of course the higher net/shorter court inherent in a dtl groundie is less of a factor with modern shotmaking. But, in combination with directionals and court positioning, it's not the best choice to redirect a cross court groundie dtl unless there's a high percentage opportunity to do so.

I agree, but understood him to be isolating that one point or aspect?
Did I miss his intention?
 
Most anyone would have to agree. Xcourt is usually a better % play, but
if you play good height over the net, the net height is not as a big factor.
It does bear mentioning Imo.

Correct. Unless you are a net skimming flat shot hitter the net really should become irrelevant. The length of the court and trying to redirect the ball become more important in the equation..which also tells you to go cross court anyway against hard shots.
 
Yeah, the reason why a lot of people hit the net every damn time they try to go down the line is because they're trying to hit a winner. They're not hitting a spinny rally ball, they're going for a flat winner. They're trying to end the point there and then, whereas they should just concentrate on hitting a high, hard shot that will still cause the opponent all kinds of trouble if hit right.

Take a leaf from Agassi's book, Open - his father apparently used to bark at him: "if you're going to miss, hit it long or wide - NEVER HIT THE NET!!"

I use this approach, and - lo and behold, every time I try to go DTL I miss it wide!!
 
Yeah, the reason why a lot of people hit the net every damn time they try to go down the line is because they're trying to hit a winner. They're not hitting a spinny rally ball, they're going for a flat winner. They're trying to end the point there and then, whereas they should just concentrate on hitting a high, hard shot that will still cause the opponent all kinds of trouble if hit right.

Take a leaf from Agassi's book, Open - his father apparently used to bark at him: "if you're going to miss, hit it long or wide - NEVER HIT THE NET!!"

I use this approach, and - lo and behold, every time I try to go DTL I miss it wide!!


Actually a good piece of advice. On days when I'm more conscious of that mantra, I play better. Even the flat put away shot...if I'm conscious of hitting at least 2 feet above the net, I have much more success than if I'm aiming somewhere in inside the court instead.
 
Smart player takes in all the factors.
DTL, higher net, shorter court, AND, the sideline is right there, and if you don't hit it good, opponent goes CC on you making you RUN much farther than he has to.....
 
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