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"Keep The Ball In Play!"

I have only few weapons at this time; forehand, serve and reflexes at the volley. My serve is not very reliable, but when it works, it really works. I have more chances to hit return a hard shot at the volley more often than not, which I am not sure how I do besides reading the body language of my opponent and not blinking while the ball is coming towards me. My forehand is my most reliable shot, and usually has very good pace with topspin, or I can use it to hide a slice floater or dropshot.

Given this, I try to maximize the opportunities I get to my forehand and try to move around as much as I can while I am at the volley. I still have to learn to hit hard returns at the volley, currently my returns are moderately paced at best, and my overhead shots are weak.

This past week two comments made me think of how I am perceived to play in doubles. First comment was something to the effect that "only if I could scale back the pace to 85%..." The second was during a match by my irregular partner: "keep the ball in play, keep it in play." These comments are helping me better understand why my regular group of guys play the way they do; soft, high-percentage shots, second serves that won't even qualify as 'weak.' To their credit, they do keep the ball in play as much as they can, that is not to say they have long rallies (very seldom we exceed 6-8 host within a point), they tend to wait for someone to make a mistake like going for a winner. I have been enjoying playing with this group because the match are friendly, social, with much laughter, and no one takes things too seriously. Few people are in it to win every match, we are trying our best to have fun and put in some exercise.

However, this does bring up the philosophical side of the game. I have much to learn without a doubt; at the same time I think in tennis, as in my professional life, one needs to rely more on his/her strengths while trying to improve his weaknesses. However, just like in life, no one will wait until one turns his weakness into a strength, and I personally do not believe it really actually happens. I can work on my weaknesses, for example my backhand, but that will replace my forehand as my preferred weapon, it will only make it reliable enough that it may not be my most obvious weakness.

The second part of my approach, or philosophy, is to get to the winning point as quickly as possible. Some people talk about rallies as if that is a good thing. I don't even enjoy watching rallies, let alone playing them. Rallies drain my energy so fast, even if I win the point I know I'll be losing the next one. The shortest path to winning the point is my preferred approach. This is not to mean that every shot has to be hit full force or onto the line or both, but it does mean that one has to take advantage of chance he gets to hit a winner, the chance may not present itself again during that point.


I think this is particularly true in doubles play. In doubles it is significantly harder to find open court to hit well-placed moderate-pace shots as winners. The only time there is a guarantee of open court space during the opponents' serve, and that is only for a very short period of time until the server advances to the aggressive volley position. In order to take advantage of that 1 second period in which the court has an opening, either in front of the servers or the alley towards the outside of the server's partner depending on their movement, the returner cannot be gentle with their shot. S/he has to hit with pace, and relative accuracy. Not every shot will make it, and error rate is certainly higher with this approach than just 'keeping the ball in,' however, with a soft or moderate return the chances of losing the next shot is actually higher as the serving team will most likely be already at the volley and have more chances of finishing the point than the returning team.

For me it is important to stay aggressive on court and be in the defensive as seldom as possible. Scaling back my shots to '85%' just to keep the ball in play is so against my instincts and knowledge of the game today that I cannot even adapt to the thought of it.

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