Dealing with Higher Ball
Strokes
Vijay Madge Asked 13 years ago
I am 65 and these days I find that while I can lift up heavy spin chops with my forehand and backhand top spin drives, somehow I cannot finish the rally with a flat smash even if and especially if I receive a high return both at the net and near me at the border of my side which used to be my favourite shot in youth. Can you tell me what is going wrong? Should I step back and finish or should I always topspin even when the ball is fairly high? Or is it I am misreading the ball altogether? If I hit the top spin drive generally I am successful but I fail to understand what goes wrong when I use a flat racket.
Alois Rosario Answered 13 years ago
Hi Vijay,
I would recommend you to use the topspin in these sorts of strokes. Perhaps you are not quite getting the timing right on the flat ball. You could try hitting the flat shot a little slower till you get the feel and the confidence with the shot.
Recommended Video
Anticipation
How is it that a player can always seem to get back those extremely fast topspins? Is it their incredible anticipation? The key to good anticipation actually lies in tracking the ball well. When you watch the ball closely your peripheral vision will pick up your opponents movements and with lots of practice those signs will help you anticipate what your opponent is going to do. This happens naturally with lots of experience. So it it your job to ensure that you are tracking the ball really carefully.
Watch NowThoughts on this question
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Thanks Alois. After asking the question I happened to see your video relating to this topic and by following your suggestion there I find I can hit the 'kill' as we say. As I had suspected, I was not getting into the right position for the smash because a high return always lit up my eyes and I would get excited to execute the smash half volley as I used to do in youth successfully. Now I must learn to wait I suppose. And the top spin of course always works even on a floating ball. Thanks for the answer.
No problems Vijay.