Podcast #141: Learn how to stop missing so many easy volleys! (Part 3)
Before I get to the next question in today's episode of the podcast, I want to remind you guys quickly about the official sponsor of today's show. That is TennisExpress.com, your online gear emporium. Go check them out! They've got rackets, strings, clothing, shoes, bags–whatever you guys need. Tennis balls, tennis ball machines, string machines. Whatever you guys want, they've got it. They have free shipping for orders of $75 or more. And when you check out, please use the promotional code “essential.” It will show them that you're a listener and you appreciate their support of the show. So go check them not! Not EssentialTennis.com. It is TennisExpress.com, and promotional code “essential.” I thank them very much for their support of the podcast.
Alright, one more question to get to on today's show. It also comes to us from Jacob in England. He wrote and said that:
“A second question is that due to net rushing, I am often back to get the shots that are over my head. I often end up taking the ball over my head while I am still moving backwards and not particularly well-balanced. Is it still advisable to try to take the ball in the air even while moving backwards? Or should I do everything to get into a better position to hit the ball after it has bounced”
Jacob, good question. Let's talk about that. First of all, let's talk about going back for overheads in general. You use the term that makes me wince when I hear it. [laughter]
And it makes me cringe, and that is “back pedaling.” Back pedaling means that you're moving backwards with your chest facing towards the net, and your heels facing back towards the base line. Your toes are pointing forwards towards the net. That's a terrible way to move back! I want to describe real quickly how you should be moving back. What footwork patterns you should be using to be in the best balance, and to move back in the quickest way possible.
The way that you should be doing this–and by the way, this is a huge recreational player mistake on overheads. Definitely the #1 mistake rec players make on overheads is not moving their feet correctly. It's slow and it's dangerous to back pedal. Seriously.
To remedy that, you must get your stance sideways for balance and for quickness of moment. If you're a right-y, that means that your first move when you see that the lob goes up into the air is to drop your right foot back behind your left. So if you're in a ready position and you're right-handed; you're facing forwards; you want to take your right foot, pivot it around back behind your left so that you're now in a closed stance basically and you are perpendicular to the net. Then from that position, you should either shuffle, which is both feet pointing to the right. Facing towards to the net is forwards. To the right obviously would be to the right of that. So after pivoting that right foot back and getting yourself turned to the side, the toes of both feet will be pointing to the right.
Shuffling would be keeping both feet staying pointed to the right and using a shuffle step without crossing your feet over. That's option #1 is using the shuffle step. Or you can use a crossover step. After getting your right foot back behind your left, you can then cross over your right foot with your left, and continue to take a step out with your right, crossover with your left. Take a step out with your right, cross over with your left.
So you can use a crossover step as well to move back. Crossing over is a little bit more athletic. It will get you back a little faster than using a shuffle step. Using a shuffle step is easier and it takes a little bit less coordination and a little bit less skill. But both types of footwork are much better than back pedaling. Much better!
I use a combination of both. When you watch players on TV go back for an overhead, you'll very often see them use a combination. What I typically do is when a lob goes up in the air, I'll use several quick crossover steps to get myself moving as quickly as possible so that I'm sure I can get underneath the ball. That will be my first price. 3 or maybe 4 steps, depending on how far back the overhead is. Then I'll use a couple of shuffle steps to balance myself, and kind of fine tune my position underneath the ball as it's coming down towards me. So use a combination of those steps, or just 1 or the other is fine as well.
Usually I start players off just using a shuffle step. If they're more athletic than average, or if they pick up the shuffle step real quickly, I'll show them a crossover step as well. But you should be using at least 1 or the other, if not a combination. Stop back pedaling now! [laughter] Don't do it anymore, please! It's slow and believe it or not, it is. It's dangerous. I know that sounds silly, but I've seen many people fall backwards because your body is just not made to move in that direction with the heels leading. So don't do it. Just don't do it! [laughter] Now your second question having to do with taking the ball out of the air, take the ball out of the air at all costs, Jacob. In doubles you don't want to let the ball bounce if you have the choice to take it out of the air. There's nothing wrong with hitting an overhead while still moving backwards. That doesn't mean that you did anything wrong. I would prefer that you were in balance, of course. I would rather that you wree able to move back quickly enough that you got yourself set and you're good to go. And you can go ahead and make your overhead swing in perfect balance and maybe even transfer your body weight forwards into the shot and go right into the net again.
But that's not always reality. If your opponent's hit a good lob, then you might have to move back quite a ways, and you might not even get completely underneath the ball. You might have to reach up and take it with your balance leaning backwards a little bit. That's OK. As long as you realize that you're in a tougher spot and you don't go for a winner, play it smart, then I'm perfectly fine with that. But when you realize it's going to be a tough shot and you can reach it but it's not going to be easy, just don't go for a winner off that overhead. Put it in a safe spot. Give yourself plenty of margin for error. Then continue playing the point.
The reason for this is Jacob, when you let it bounce 2 bad things happen. 1.) When you let it bounce, it gives your opponent much more time to improve their position. When you let it bounce and the ball comes back up again, then it comes back down again, and then you hit your shot, you effectively double the amount of time that your opponents have to do whatever they want. They can move in whatever position they want!
Once they realize that you're going to let the ball drop and bounce, they have a lot of time to either move into the net or maybe the close player will have time to poach and pressure you. To cross over to try to cut off your next shot that you're going to take off the bounce. Whatever. Bottom line is we don't want to give them that time unless it's a total emergency and you just can't reach it, and you have no other choice. When you have the choice, I want you to take it out of the air, and reason #1 is we want to take that time away from our opponent.
Reason #2 why I want you to take it out of the air as much as possible is that when you do let it bounce, it puts you into a significantly more defensive position than taking it out of the air. When you let it bounce and it continues to travel farther away from the net, so do you. [laughter] In order to catch up with it. So it's a bad idea to let it bounce on purpose, because it will end up making you much farther away from where the action is, much farther away from the net. It puts you in a much more defensive position, and the combination of that along with giving your opponent more time means if they're smart at all, they're using that time to get into the net and now you're far away from the net, and the tables have completely turned. So I don't want you to do that unless it's a total emergency. If you can tell that you'll be lucky to just scrape it off the tip of your frame and you're just not going to get there, fine. Turn around. Get back there as fast as you can. Let it bounce. Do the best you can with that next shot. But if there's any way at all that you can get the ball on your strings and you can do it before it bounces, that's what you should be trying to do. Plus, when you do let it bounce, chances are it's going to get behind you and you're going to have to hit some crazy over the shoulder miracle lob shot. If you're super fast, maybe you can get back around it. And some of you guys are, and that's great. But it's a much more difficult shot. Again, it puts you in a much weaker position.
So Jacob, thank you very much for your questions. I enjoyed answering them today. Hopefully they're helpful to you. Best of luck to you as you continue working on developing your doubles game.
Alright, that does it for Episode #141 of the Essential Tennis podcast. Thank you very much for joining me today. If you're listening to this show before the 31st of October, go to EssentialTennis.com/ Platinum A.S.A.P. and check it out. You'll get the free instructional video about creating power, using the kinetic chain on your forehand or backhand, and you'll have the opportunity to sign up totally risk free. I know that's kind of a cliche, but it's totally true here. You can ask for your money back after signing up if you're not completely satisfied with Platinum in that first month, and you can keep Doubles Domination, which is again a $47 value. That's going to help your game a ton! If you're a doubles player, that is going to help you a great deal win more matches. Because it's a great tactical overview of the game of doubles and how to play. There's interviews with professional players. There's an e-book and audio book. It's just a great package. So check that out: EssentialTennis.com/ Platinum.
Alright. That does it for this week. Until next week, take care everybody and good luck with your tennis!
