Friday, August 10, 2012

Strategies

Happy Friday everyone! It's been a crazy week. Finals week for me, term papers due, and my brain is, well, mush. But not mush enough to forget about how important strategy in tennis is! :)


I have mixed feelings about scouting before a match. On one hand, you can come out knowing how your opponent is going to play, already anticipating something and knowing what the previous player did wrong to lose to your opponent. Then, there are some special people, me included, that will let that opponent plant a tiny seed in their brain and let it fester- by the time you come out onto the court, you’re too burnt out thinking to play. I think it depends on the person whether you should be scouting or not- your coach can always scout for you. Or, you can just think for yourself and play the opponent that day the way they’re playing- again, you never know if they changed their game that particular day to better suit the player they were against. 

That being said, there are strategies that you want to use again specific types of players. You have to know your game well enough to be able to adjust slightly to each player you play against. That being said, always stick with your A-game. If you’re a grinder, grind. If you’re a hitter, hit. But what sets apart good players from great players is the ability to read their opponents. 

I.e. pushers. Pushers are grinders without aggressiveness. They are annoying, I know. They might have the most atrocious technique or/and the most nonathletic body, but boy are they just tooth and nail when it comes to tennis. They will work their little (or not so little) butts off to get to every single ball they hit. It’s like when you accidentally step on an ant pile and all the little ants run around seemingly aimlessly- this is what a pusher does to a players brain; they’re everywhere. But no matter how aggravating these players are, they somehow get the job done- they make even the saner implode. So instead of gossiping about how awful pushers are, I’ll let you in on a strategy. Unlike what it seems, the pusher cannot physically get to every single ball if you pull him/her off the court enough. Because it takes half an eternity for the ball to come over to your side, the pusher has a chance to come back to neutral (middle of the court) after every ball. Taking away that time is the most effective way to play a pusher. As soon as you see the ball going into a lob, step in and rip the ball out of the air- doesn’t have to be a winner, but an aggressive shot will set you up for high volley or an overhead. BE READY. Like superman, sometimes pushers find a way of getting back balls that you would have thought were long gone. It may take two or three volleys to finally put them back in their place (I wonder where that would be…)

I.e. hitters. Hitters will blast the cover off of the ball at any chance they get. Often playing very flat and very hard, they make the sport look macho. They also are very sporadic. They may hit four flat out winners, but then hit seven shots into the fence. The quicker the point ends for a hitter, the better. Thus, your strategy is to drive them bonkers. The longer you stay in the point, the harder the hitter will try and hit (the harder the hitter will hit- say that five times fast. I’m obviously making use of my vast vocabulary.), eventually overhitting and smacking it into the fence or the bottom of the net. BUT, you won’t get very far if you keep it in their zone of hittage (lol! Not a word, sorry). If you didn’t quite catch that, here’s another way of saying it- stay out of their hitting zone, aka hit low or high. This messes with the contact point and a hitter hates adjusting to low or high contact points. A deep slice or a heavy spin lob does wonders against hitters, turning the macho superstars that hit winners left and right into stupid tennis players who keep making the same mistakes over and over. 

All I got for today, folks (reminiscing the childhood “that’s all folks”). Remember that you always have to maintain your own identity on the court, but still play smart. Don’t let anyone, including your opponent, make you step out of your plan A game- dictate the play and you’ll always be successful, even if you don’t win. Yes, that’s possible.

No comments:

Post a Comment