Weapons

[Trainer]

I've been playing, and getting whipped by a new opponent quite badly lately. She's a former college player about 12 years my younger. She doesn't seem to have any weaknesses as far as I can tell. And she has weapons all over the court.

I find that the points aren't ending in errors. She's very consistent, and we'll have a long rally so long as I can keep her deep enough to fend off her winner. But the first short ball or high sitter she gets...she puts away with amazing consistency. Her ability to change the direction with a dtl shot is amazing.

What this has exposed in my game is that I'm too dependent on my opponent making an error. I'm not a pusher by any means, but I'm not using tactics enough, and I haven't developed shots enough to hurt her.

Even when I hit shots that should put me in control, she throws a defensive lob up that just nullifies it...

I couldn't care less about getting beaten, I'm thankful of her willingness to play me, and I see it as an opportunity to work on my game.

Besides "go for it more", any advice from the peanut gallery?

 

[Kenny022593]

this is me being sarcastic use the zero shiki xD

 

[mordecai]

It sounds like you're just getting rocked by a stronger opponent. Nothing to be done in that situation except either a.) magically raise your level and start forcing errors with your huge power and spin or b.) just go for it more.

Although I will say that if you can predict a defensive lob from her off of your sharp angled balls or drives to the corners, then you should be able to step into the court off your aggressive shots to cut off her time.

 

[Solat]

a few suggestions

1. Pin her in one corner : usually the BH side, you hit all your BH c/c and hit off FH and dtl FH, very rare for someone to attack you when they are stuck in the corner

2. Serve at her : sounds like she is a good clean hitter so you need to get her blocking and bunting serves back to give you control

3. adjust your court position depth wise, move a long way back then stand inside the baseline, a lot of players actually judge the court thru their opponent's position so if you can throw her off then she may make more errors

 

[LuckyR]

You don't mention her age exactly but your description seems to imply 1)- she is way better than your level, & 2)- she has a modern baseline basher game.

Given your eras of play, you may have a better net game than she does. I am not advising rushing the net yourself since she is likely to have great passing shots, but she may less comfortable herself at the net.

 

[Nellie]

I would suggest a couple of things:

1) after you reach a certain level, you can no longer rely on your opponents weaknesses. Instead, you need to find where you have a relative advantage, such as a forehard to backhand exchange, and try to make the match about this advantageous exchange, for exmaple through the positioning of your serves/returns, and your court positionings.

2) I would suggest working on your overheads/footwork, because a defensive lob should not be a nullifying shot. Instead, you should be able to hit an aggresive shot to continue to keep your advantage.

 

[krprunitennis2]

What kinds of shots do you have that put you in control? Maybe a little more background may help.

Solat's first suggestion also works very well for me (and against me too). xD

 

[Infl8edEg0]

What kinds of shots do you have that put you in control? Maybe a little more background may help.

Solat's first suggestion also works very well for me (and against me too). xD

Ditto. Try hitting a topspin with plenty of kick to her backhand and sneak in when she's focused on the ball. Not too much, just on crucial points. From what you described, there's no way u can beat her at the baseline, unless you miraculously become better somehow in a short span of time. Are her volleys good? You can try hitting a drop shot that won't allow her to hit a winner, then hit a passing shot.

Also, a defensive lob should actually be a put-away shot. Try drilling on hitting winners off of those, because if you can take control at time, you need to capitalize on them.

 

[35ft6]

Start hitting drop shots and short angled slice backhands. Girls are remarkably slower than guys (generally speaking, exceptions that prove the rule exist) especially moving laterally. Sounds like she's a lot better than you so your only chance it to exploit her, hopefully, slower movement and, also, to mix it up the height of the ball as much as possible.

 

[2nd_Serve]

Trying using lots of topspin deep. That should keep her from hitting winners. And imagine your playing on a clay court. So move her around, and work into the points. Don't expect to win, but you should expect to see results.

 

[krprunitennis2]

Another tactic against consistent players is to attack them vertically. Idk if this would work, but among the many consistent people in my school, hitting a deep topspin ball then a low + short-ish ball seems to work.

Maybe, if she's not used to moving forward and backward, she'd lose her rhythm and her consistency.

 

[Trainer]

I would suggest a couple of things:

1) after you reach a certain level, you can no longer rely on your opponents weaknesses.

I think this is the heart of what I'm facing. What has worked at my level in the past were consistent deep penetrating shots side to side to produce errors. It didn't require me to construct the point and go for the winner outright.

There are opportunities that I see in my matches that I'm not capitalizing on.

1. Return of serve- Her serve is steady, stays low, but is weak enough so that I should be able to attack it. Especially her second serve( which I rarely see )

2. Her defensive lobs. I'm definitely not attacking those as I should. I get the sense that I should be coming in and taking them out of the air. But my overhead and my footwork are wanting.

3. When I get an outside to inside shot( wardlaw's ), I'm not stepping into the shot and taking advantage of it as I should. I'm just not generating enough angle or pace on that shot as I feel I should.

Instead, you need to find where you have a relative advantage, such as a forehard to backhand exchange, and try to make the match about this advantageous exchange, for exmaple through the positioning of your serves/returns, and your court positionings.

That's just it, I may just be outclassed enough so that this doesn't exist.

I will say that I'm a lefty, and my best shot is by far my fh. My cross court forehand would give my typical opponents a lot of problems, but this girl's strongest shot is her 2hBH that she can drill DTL or xcourt. Unfortunately for me, her FH isn't that much weaker.

2) I would suggest working on your overheads/footwork, because a defensive lob should not be a nullifying shot. Instead, you should be able to hit an aggresive shot to continue to keep your advantage.

I think your suggestions are good ones. As I said earlier, I sense that those are opportunities that I'm just not capitalizing on.

Despite getting my butt whipped, I enjoy playing her far more than other opponents. I get the feeling that this is how the game should be played and won. When I get beaten by opponents with a less orthodox game, I don't feel anything is learned or gained. But playing her seems to be exposing weaknesses in my game that needed to be exposed.

 

[burosky]

Without seeing both of you live it will be difficult to make definite suggestions. The most I can suggest is take note of how she wins her points then take note about how you win your points. Once you figure this out you will know what to do.

 

[Trainer]

Without seeing both of you live it will be difficult to make definite suggestions. The most I can suggest is take note of how she wins her points then take note about how you win your points. Once you figure this out you will know what to do.

Well, that's just it, pretty much, I have to hit a winner to win the point. As such, I'm hitting a lot more unforced errors than usual. Her errors are so few and far between that my usual consistency off the ground is useless.

Even if I begin to close out the points where I force her to hit a defensive lob, it probably won't be enough to change the outcome.

I think I need shot placement strategies that will open the court. I also need to work on hitting sharper angles off the baseline.

 

[Tim Tennis]

Hello Trainer,

Maybe you are playing Nellie and you don't even know it. I think what she said is right on, "after you reach a certain level, you can no longer rely on your opponents weaknesses." When you get the opportunity you have to be able to take control of the point.

You are so lucky to find someone like this to play against. Playing her can help you take your game to the next level. Because she is so consistent, maybe she has not even "turned the dogs loose." Even high level players as they start to fight over who is going "to control the points," the unforced errors start to creep in. That's a scary thought isn't it.

Anyhow, I hope you buy her lunch.

Best regards,

Ed
Tennis Geometrics

http://www.tennisgeometrics.com

 

[Nellie]

Don't get discouraged. If your opponent never missed, she would be a professional! Sadly, chances are, you are not doing anything to make her miss. Perhaps you could try changing up your shot selection - hit a little harder on one shot, a little softer/shorter on another, vary your spin, etc. I think of baseball pitchers - everyone wants to have the big fastball to blow by people, but the most effective pitchers use changes in speed/position. Likewise, I used to try to hit hard, but I found that after certain level, I could not hit through people. Obviously, hitting hard and wide angled shots is wonderful, but again, that is a pretty high level of play. I have found a lot more success by adding variety to my shots. For example, if I hit several looping 40 mph forehands, the 55 mph flat shot is often a winner.

What really makes me curse, however, is mishitting the return of a short sliced shot.

 

[Rickson]

I've been playing, and getting whipped by a new opponent quite badly lately. She's a former college player about 12 years my younger. She doesn't seem to have any weaknesses as far as I can tell. And she has weapons all over the court.

I find that the points aren't ending in errors. She's very consistent, and we'll have a long rally so long as I can keep her deep enough to fend off her winner. But the first short ball or high sitter she gets...she puts away with amazing consistency. Her ability to change the direction with a dtl shot is amazing.

What this has exposed in my game is that I'm too dependent on my opponent making an error. I'm not a pusher by any means, but I'm not using tactics enough, and I haven't developed shots enough to hurt her.

Even when I hit shots that should put me in control, she throws a defensive lob up that just nullifies it...

I couldn't care less about getting beaten, I'm thankful of her willingness to play me, and I see it as an opportunity to work on my game.

Besides "go for it more", any advice from the peanut gallery?

You should accept that you're not a good player.

 

[Trainer]

You should accept that you're not a good player.

OK, now, run along little boy...

 

[burosky]

Maybe you are playing someone who is just at a much higher level than you. If that is the case, no offense but it is possible you just may not have the shots that can hurt your opponent with any regularity.

I had a situation similar to this. I played a double match where my partner and I were both 4.5s and our opponents was a 3.5 and a 5.5. This was a 9.0 mixed doubles match. The 5.5 guy almost took over every point. Seeing that we were going to focus on his partner, he tried to play us single handedly. During the point his partner was just in one corner of the base line. It was ridiculous. By the way, the guy had experience playing in satellite tourneys.

I came to a realization that there isn't a shot in my normal arsenal that is good enough to earn me points from this guy. Neither did my partner. The only time we got a point was when we managed to hit an ESPN worthy shot or somehow keep it away from him and forcing his partner to give us a weak shot. We lost 1 and 2. My partner just chalked it up to experience and agreed that there are just players who are way better than us.