T005, Thanks for your efforts of the picture. Perhaps you can clarify for me on the image on the left, why the dot(player) has assumed the position that you illustrated after the crosscourt approach was made. Maybe I'm reading the image wrong but it looks like you have the player moving as if the approach was DTL and covering for that shot instead of following his crosscourt approach.
A question for everyone else: are we all saying that now because it's a passing shot, that changing the angle on the ball to hit a DTL passing shot off of an appropriate crooscourt approach is suddenly the high percentage shot?
It would be interesting to see a drawing, I vote T005, of the geometry in a high percentage passing shot.
Just to be clear I'm not say that I'm right and everyone else is wrong, far from it, as I have been taught and subscribe to the party line as well. I just want to challenge this assumption to get more info.
BB what do you think?
EDIT: W Cats, I am speaking in general here. I know you know this stuff already. So the following isn't directed to you.
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To be honest, I am not sure I am following the drawings. I am searching for some illustrations on court coverage.
The other thing is we need to keep things equal and simple. We all could provide many different scenarios and alter our answers to every scenario. So all of our common sense needs to be considered in this.
We are speaking about a player's
first choice when he hits his approach shot. We all could add Wardlaw Directionals, etc.. but that would muddy up what we are trying to accomplish here. I think once we all see the high percentage shot, then we can dive into other scenarios and make some adjustments.
A high percentage shot does not only consider the shot itself. It also can consider what gives you the best chance to win the point on the next ball.
The main point of hitting your approach shot straight ahead or DTL, is to benefit
you the player. It is not about your opponent, or what they can do with the ball. We aren't covering our conditioning, volleying skills, or our opponent's ability to chase down a ball and hit wicked angles.
We are simply looking at it from the approach shot point of view.
We also need to consider the word "approach". It implies that a player is in
transition to a certain
destination point. This destination is what you are playing for and the approach shot is about controlling your ability to get to that destination point and reducing the amount of real estate your opponent can hit to for a winner. The destination point is what is the high-percentage aspect you are playing for with your approach shot. It isn't about your shot or your opponents shot, it is about your side of the court. It is about
positioning. If you are approaching the net, you have to think like a net player. Positioning and closing off angles is a huge activity for players that like to play net. You are in essence daring the player to hit through you because everything else spells loss of point.
So, we hit an approach shot. Now what? Where do you position yourself for your volley? How can you close off your court best? What will it take for us to close off the majority of our court, give our opponent a lower percentage shot(s), and give ourselves a greater chance to put the next ball away or get our opponent on the run?
When you are playing net, one of the more hidden goals is you want to be able to field the ball from your opponents reply. In doubles, we hit down the T even if we know our opponent knows you are hitting there. Why do we do that if our opponent knows this? Haven't we given it away? No, we haven't. One of the main goals in doubles is not aceing someone on your serve. It is ensuring that the ball is always between myself and my partner's positioning so you give your team the best chance to keep your court closed, stay in position, and answer your opponents reply.
Think of our approach shot in the same way. It is about the next ball and not the approach shot itself.
So, the answer to this is clearly going to be to hit it DTL or straight ahead. Second choice would be to hit to the center of the court.
So, if you guys don't mind, let's keep it simple for now. Without a drawing, if a player hits it DTL or straight ahead, he only needs to move toward the center line of the service box a few steps. His opponent is forced to decide to do several things.
1. Try to get it through a smaller space (usually your opponent is going for the line here) DTL. Which would not require a lot of movement on our part to close off their DTL shot and put it away.
2. Try to angle it in a small space over the net in the crosscourt direction. Which they very well can especially if they catch us moving too soon DTL or guessing wrong. In that case we clap for them.
3. Hit over us.
By placing the ball nearly in front of us, we close off the big angles from our opponent. He then has a smaller court to hit in and has to be more precise. I am not saying they can't, I am only saying we are giving them a lower percentage shot and a lower chance to beat us.
My position is this, if a player continues to hone their technique and learns to play tennis by using higher percentage shots, they not only make the game easier to manage, but they improve their chances to win.