How to win points easier

Everyone wants to win.  All of us would probably like a way to win even easier if we could, but so many of us are so scared to work on parts of our game, or even change things up.

The current professional game is going through a major change right now.  For the past ten years or so, the pro that had the better defensive game would win most often.  Nadal has made his fame playing defensive to win The French Open a staggering eleven times.

Condensing that down to the game of us mortals, the person that could get to more shots and place them back without missing would win.  Or get one more ball back than your opponent.

Now though, things are changing.  While it is and always will be important to have great defensive skills, the player that is more aggressive with their footwork and moving forward will have the advantage.

According to Pete Bodo at ESPN.

more players seem focused on pre-emptive ball-striking and offense.

More pros are going from defense to striking hard and moving, so what does this mean for me? And how do I use this to win the points easier?

That’s the more difficult part, but it’s not that hard.  It just takes some practice.

Going from Defense to offense

Step one is to work on your defense.  Getting more balls back in play will on help you.  But don’t just get the ball back, try to be more forward thinking with your plan.  As you get pulled wide, instead of just getting the ball back in play, work on countering your opponents positioning.  If they stayed where they are, try to hit the ball where they’re not to get them moving.  If they seem to have everything covered, throw the ball up high and give yourself more time to get back.

Controlling the point

Once you’re able to get more balls in play, work on controlling the point from the first couple of shots.  Use your serve to set up your oppoent off the court to use your strong forehand down the line.

Try to return a serve in a way that will get the server moving from the first shot.  If you can do that, you should be able to take control of the match. If you can get your opponent moving more than you, their battery will eventually drain and you’ll be the fresher player.

Move forward

You don’t have to be a great volleyer, but working on your net game can help you finish off a point quickly.  Once you start to control the point, and you get your opponent moving, you need to start looking for chances to move forward.  If you can manage to get your opponent off the singles court and into an alley, moving forward and looking to volley can take time away from them to get to the next ball.  Plus it makes that volley a heck of a lot easier to hit when you have half the court to hit into.

Many players are afraid of the net because they don’t have as much time to prepare their shot, or they try to do too much.  If you get your opponent off balance before you come in, you can usually get a weaker shot hit at you.  Also, if your opponent is off the court, there’s less pressure to hit the volley in a tiny area.  This usually leads players to being more succesful at the net and helps them get used to being up there.

What should I do?

Next time you serve on the Ad (left) side of the court, aim your serve out wide.  The goal here is to get your opponent off the court on the first ball.  By doing this on the Ad side, you will most likely be hitting to their backhand, which is usually their weaker shot.

If you manage to get your opponent out into the alley to return, aim your next shot (try to use your strongest groundstroke) to the other side of the court.  Get them moving.  And try to take the ball early.  If you can take the ball right off the bounce, you’ll be in a better position and your opponent will have less time.

Follow that ball in towards the net, and if they are able to get a racket on it, you should have a wide open court to place your volley.  You don’t even have to try to hit a winner, just put it across the court, back where they returned from originally.  If they get that ball hit it back to where they were before that last shot.  Keep them moving.  If they start to anticipate you making them move like a yo-yo, then you hit behind them and really confuse them.

If they manage to win the point, you just made them run about 4 times as much as you did in the point.  Keeping this pattern up will run them down and make them run out of energy.

Look to be aggressive and move forward to control the point.