Follow The Bouncing Ball (Pound Crosscourt)

My all time favorite player is Marat Safin. I didn't like all the drama he created on the court (all the broken rackets and the long patches of playing badly). I really liked his playing style. Marat Safin (mah RAHT SA fin) in his early career had great strokes on both sides. His backhand was more reliable but he had a pretty good forehand too. He also had the ability to hit a better and better stroke as the rally went on.

His strategy was super simple. Hit your shots crosscourt. Then, when there is an opportunity, hit down the line. By opportunity, I mean that the ball is high enough over the net to hit a speedy flat ball. No one seemed to be able to stop this strategy. Because Marat hit such strong groundstrokes, people couldn't go down the line on him very easily. When they tried he would run the ball down and go crosscourt....this time to the other side of the court, insuring that his opponent would run way more than him.

Plus knowing in the back of your mind that he was setting you up to hit the winner down the line gave you no comfort. The only way you could disrupt the pattern would be to come to the net. But when would you hit a solid enough shot to do that and how many times do you think you could do it?

Quick explanation of court geometry: crosscourt means hitting the ball diagonal. If you were both right handed players, your forehand would be to his forehand. Down the line is the opposite. You hit your forehand to his backhand.

The net is lower in the middle (3 ft) and the length is longer diagonally (82.5 ft). The net is higher on the sides (3.5 ft) and the length is shorter (78 ft). I had to use that old Pythagorean Theorem (27 squared + 78 Square = 82.5 Squared).

So if you are able to hit harder and lower crosscourt knowing that you have extra room to make a mistake. Hitting close down the line would be difficult to do if you are hitting a lower ball.

So lets see this in action shall we? The examples of the pattern are at 1:04, 3:10. 4:05, 5:23

This pattern is for when you feel like your groundstrokes are strong enough to wear your opponent down. It's one of those strategies that pay more dividends as the match goes on.

Follow the Bouncing Ball (Protect Your Weaker Backhand)

OK, so in the last blog we covered how to attack the weaker side. In this one we cover how to DEFEND the weaker side. The strategy is different for both wings. So I will split it up.

Defend the Backhand

The usual defense for protecting the backhand is to run around it and hit a forehand. But every bad backhand needs to be consistent eventually.

Beginner: Cheat. Just stand way over to your backhand side. Your opponents will not be so good at aiming so the chances are that they will probably make the errors trying to find your backhand or trying to exploit all the space you left open on your forehand side. When they DO find the backhand, just float it back. Try to hit it to their weaker side.

Intermediate: Cheat less. Opponents will aim a little better so start working on improving your footwork. Once you improve that, you won't have to cheat as much. Some stuff to consider in your practice sessions:

• Learn to hit a forehand from corner to corner from anywhere on the court. There might be situations in which you run around your backhand so much you end up way on the backhand corner. So learn how to be comfortable.
• Learn a consistent slice crosscourt (from your backhand to his backhand assuming your a both right handed).
• Learn how to serve well enough so you only have to hit forehands on your serving points. Learning a slice serve out wide will help get more balls to your forehand.
  

Advanced: At the advanced level you have to do one of two things: 1. Learn how to move so well that you pretty much ONLY hit forehands OR 2. Use the slice open up opportunities for your forehand. I suggest the latter. You can really tire yourself out jumping all over the court. You will also start to prefer clay over hard simply because you have more time to run around your backhand. There is no real practice for that. You just always hit a forehand.

The slice that you learned as an intermediate is very important. It's great for defense and doesn't require great footwork to hit. If you keep the slice LOW, it is hard to attack. Your opponent will have to pick it up off the ground and hit a topspin shot to do it. He will also have to hit the ball over the low part of the net or risk hitting a topspin shot over the high part which will give you enough time to get your forehand into play. Here is how you use that to your advantage:

1. Mix it up - Roger Federer mixes up the topspin backhand with the backhand slices. Since he has a one handed backhand, it is fairly easy for him to disguise which one he is using. At Some point he will use this sharp low slice that causes the opponent to leave the baseline uncomfortably. The reply leaves the person off balance and hitting the ball either in the middle of the court cross court again. Either way Federer has just opened up the court for an easy winner. He is being proactive. Examples in the video are at 4:20 and 4:49.
   

Federer's backhand preparation. Topspin on the left, slice on the right.

2. Wait for the opening - Fernando Gonzalez simply just hits crosscourt slices until the other guy messes up. His forehand is BIG. Plus he knows that most people are going to his forehand when they hit a shot coming to the net. So he takes off running a second early. Examples of this are at 0:26, 3:03 and 3:40

Follow the Bouncing Ball