Strategic Playing for the First Several Sets


It is worth noting that yesterday I had my first win in the 3.0 league=D 7-5, 3-6, and 10-6 in the tie-breaker set. In today’s lesson, Bob told me a bit more about strategic playing. It was all about probing different aspects of the opponent.

  • Keep hitting in the middle (or either left or right) as long as I can, and see what is the tolerance of the opponent – whether him or me would get frustrated first and try to make some change.
  • Consistently push either his backhand or forehand within a point.
  • Driving the ball from side to side and observe the pattern of his transition – does he have a high successful rate for the ground stroke while moving? Is his forehand-to-backhand better or worse than the backhand-to-forehand? Does he tend to hit cross court or staight down to the line?

The advanced version will also include the timing of pushing towards the net as well as volley, but I haven’t got there yet… I am still struggling to position myself in the transition of volley, let alone the judgement of lobbing or cut-across from my opponent… So, there is a long way to go(:

[Update March 7] The control of my ground stroke is nice, but the hitting point is far from optimal – I should keep the racquet a little bit “closer” and the hitting point should be a little bit in front while the racquet rising in its maximum speed and facing towards the net. Still, The target zone is “higher in the net”.

[Update March 15] The way to increase spin is to make the preparison faster and to prepare the racquet a little bit lower–all movements should be done before the bonuce.