When attempting to return any ball out there on the court, your first step is going to be the most critical, both on deep as well as short balls.

…And most balls will tend to fall into to one of those two categories, so once you get that going, you’ll find yourself in great shape in the majority of points that you face.

You’ve probably heard that your first step needs to be explosive, right? Well, that’s very true, but it must also be propelling your body in the proper direction for that specific situation. Oh yea, it’s NOT the same for every predicament. NO WAY ha-ha!

Shall I explain? Ok.

Most people, when initiating their first step, choose to move laterally (…left to right) with the outside foot. And that is definitely the right move on most mid-range shots, meaning they’re not too deep in the court but by no means what we’d consider a short ball either.

But if your opponent hits you a deep ball, you want to react a little differently. You want to retreat a step behind you. So, you’re going to be angling your body more backwards instead of side to side.

For example, if you’re right-handed, and your opponent hit you a deep ball to your forehand side, then you’d want to take your right-foot backwards to cut off the the angle that way.

It’s sort of the same thing on the short ball as well except the opposite . Make sense? Let me be more precise, it’s the opposite direction in which you want to move your foot and shift your body.

I’ve seen a lot of misinformed players suffer on these balls which should really be “gimmies.” I mean, short balls are what you lick your chops over the entire match so you can come in and cream one.

But sadly, those players that I mentioned above, move laterally and then find themselves late when they attempt to execute their shot and end up having to lunge for the ball.  This usually results in an unforced error. Ughhhh…

Instead, you want to make sure that your first step is in front of you on the short ball. That’s right. As soon as you see it, BOOM, you’re in there. Cutting off the angle by coming into the court towards the ball will put you in a much smoother position to
execute a more offensively sound attack and save you valuable recovery time in the process.

———

In many instances, the reason why we miss-hit or even “shank” a shot is because we’re out of position by only a foot or so which isn’t much. So saving that lateral step in between going for the long and short ball will do tremendous things for your success and generate some really awesome results.

All the best,

Brian Hall, Your Tennis Mind Coach
TennisMindCamp
webmaster@tennismindcamp.com

P.S. Are you guys excited that the US Open is coming up? I’ll be there this year and try to get some awesome pictures and maybe even some video footage so I can share it with you on the blog.

Let me know if any one is going, maybe we could grab lunch or something.