If you’re going to be successful in this game, understanding the difference between offensive and defensive shots is an absolute MUST. The problem is players don’t know what separates the two and often lose very winnable points simply from choosing the wrong kind of shot for a specific on-court situation. By reviewing the information below, you should have a much greater understanding of both and come out ahead on many more points.
Offensive Shots: These shots are the ones you want to use when you clearly have the upper-hand during the course of the point, when you have your opponent on the ropes. When you’re in a situation like this, it’s important that you’re in an offensive mind set. Why? Because, it’s your ultimate chance to take matters into your own hands. It’s you that should be dictating the tempo of the point here.
The way you do that is by being assertive and aggressive. And let me tell you something, you can’t afford to be cute when you have the offensive advantage. Once you lose it, it may not come around again. So, you need to really seize that opportunity when it presents itself. This is where you want to really increase the pace, execute a full follow-through, and unload on the ball.
Many times though, players don’t take advantage of these types of shots. It’s not because they don’t want to. That’s absurd. The reason is simply because they’re not aware of the opportunity. In other words, they don’t recognize when they’re in an offensive position or not. And for that reason, I’ve given an example of a popular situation where you will almost ALWAYS need to be on the offensive. This way, when you see something similar during real match play, you’ll know exactly what to do so that you can take advantage.
Common Offensive Shot Situation:
1. The opponent has hit a short ball that gives you an opening to advance.
The short ball situation is the one that us players literally salivate over. It’s one of those shots you hope your opponent hits as many times as possible. When does it generally occur? Your opponent can often times hit a short ball if the shot you just hit was one of impact. This means, the better you execute your own shots, the slower and weaker his (…or her) return will be.
The speed of the ball will decrease once the ball bounces. And since the ball didn’t land deep enough in the court, by the time it gets to you, it’ll be sitting in the center of your sweet-spot range (SSR). So given the ideal circumstances, you want to attack, attack, attack! Don’t just sit back and take it easy, because your opponent will sure make you regret it.
Is there a way that you can anticipate a short ball before it lands? Of course, the two most common things in recognizing that a short ball may be headed your way are (a) the trajectory of the ball and (b) the impact of the shot you just hit.
A. Trajectory: This is the path that the ball takes when it’s on it’s way to you once it’s left your opponent’s racket. If the ball has reached it’s peak long before it crosses the net, then it’s highly likely that it’s going to be short. So, once you see the ball peaking early, put the pedal to the medal and get up there as fast as possible. Don’t sit there and wait, because, against skilled players, short balls don’t come around that often.
B. The Impact: You know when you’ve hit a good solid shot, right? You can feel it deep down in your bones by your good positioning and the way it left your racket. If you hit one of those kinds of shots, and force your opponent to greatly alter his positioning by having to turn his back to you for instance, that’s a clue that he may be getting ready to hit a weak return back.
NOTE: Keeping your balls low, makes it harder for your opponent to reach, and commonly results in pop-flys or floaters that you can come in on, attack, and ultimately win the point.
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Defensive Shots: These are the shots you want to use when you feel that you DON’T have the upper hand during the course of the point. Oh yes, believe it or not, it’s very likely that you won’t be fortunate enough to be on the attack on every point. For example, your opponent may have you on the run or has made you hit one of your balls short. Those are the times when you’ve got to make an adjustment and shift gears so to speak. If you don’t, you can end up in big trouble.
I know that disappoints some of you 
, but you know what, sometimes (… I know it sounds like a broken record), but the best defensive shot can actually be the best offense. So, instead of going for too much at the wrong time and ending your chances of the winning the point, you’ll end up putting yourself in a much better position later on and be able to shift back into attack mode when the time is right. Check out a common defensive situation I’ve listed below.
Common Defensive Shot Situation:
1. You’ve been placed in inferior or awkward court position.
A good example of where you would use a defensive shot is when you’re on the run or being driven off the court.
In this situation, you’re totally out of position and definitely not in a place to take back the momentum (…not yet anyway). To get the best result, you wouldn’t attempt a hard driving ground stroke across the body, that’s for sure. You’re not in an offensive or “winning” position to execute a shot of that nature. So, don’t try to hit one ::wink::.
Instead, you’d want to hit a lob or a high looping shot with tons of topspin. Giving the ball some extra air time will buy you valuable seconds to get yourself back in good GSP (good shot positioning) to continue on with, and hopefully win the point a couple of shots down the road. (see the video below to see how Federer does it)
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Pretty impressive point by Federer, wouldn’t you say? Well, if you want to get Federer like results, you have to be able to recognize and adapt to both offensive strategy and defensive strategy, in the moment, without hesitation.
But if you end up not knowing how to recognize the difference between the two, you could be in real trouble and wind up losing a load of otherwise easy points.
Have a great week, and an even BETTER GAME!
All the best,
Brian Hall, Head Coach
TennisMindCamp.com
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the tip. This Federer shot makes lots of sense for several reasons. First, he was following the path of the incoming ball – you know never chance directions unless the ball is slow and/or quite short. Secondly, he was not in a position to hit a hard sharply angled forehand which is the shot that could possibly earn him the point. Thirdly, a slow or heavy topspin shot would only delay the inevitable – he was already off the court and unless he went for that down the line, he would eventually lose the point. So, yes he went for the high percentage shot up the line under the circumstances. He went from defense to offense to survive.
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