3rd ball attack using fade & hook

Hello Jeff & Alois,

I am a student of this wonderful sport since my childhood. I purchased your video on "serving secrets revealed" and found it to be useful to tune up my serves. In general i have a question regarding how to set up a third ball attack.

Let me describe a situation where a RH player is playing against a RH player.

1)I have observed that if i use a pendulum back+side spin serve & if the opponent just returns it long using a defensive push then the forehand fade shot to the opponents backhand seems to be most compatible attacking shot . Because when i try the forehand hook i meet with limited success only.

2) similarly the reverse pendulum side+backspin serve and the forehand hook shot seem to be compatible.

Are these really some correct patterns or is it just my inability to play a hook/fade on any type of returns ?

Hi Harihara,

People can become used to playing in specific patterns as you suggest but I would encourage you not to think in this way. With practice you will be able to play a hook or a fade on different types of return.

You should be concentrating on what your opponent doesn't like. Are they better at blocking on the forehand or backhand. And note that this will be different for every opponent. Try to keep a record of all your opponents (either with the PingSkills Vault or even a notebook). Then you can play more third ball attacks to the weaker side. You still will need to mix up your strokes depending on the circumstances of the rally. For example if you opponent is a really good backhand blocker but you have dragged them out wide to the forehand, it could make sense to play back to their backhand.

So try during your practice to vary the direction of your third ball attacks and then implement this into your game.