| Reacting to Your Opponent's Shot |
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| Written by Larry Hodges | |
| Monday, 18 February 2008 | |
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Reacting to Your Opponent’s Shot: The Three Key Points By Larry Hodges When do you react to your opponent’s shot? Let’s focus on reacting to the direction of your opponent’s shot. On any given shot, there are three key points in the stroke. They are: 1. The split second when your opponent has mentally committed to the direction of the shot; 2. The split second when your opponent’s stroke telegraphs where the shot is going to go; 3. The split second when the ball actually leaves the opponent’s racket. Beginners and most intermediate players react mostly to #3, reacting to the ball leaving opponent’s racket. Advanced players usually react to #2, and sometimes to #1. If you focus on watching your opponents (and studying players from the sideline as well), you will learn at what point in a player’s stroke the player commits to the direction of the shot. For example, most players commit to the direction of a smash or loop before they even begin their forward swing. Watch how the shoulders rotate backward, and there’s usually a distinct difference on how far they rotate back, depending on where the shot is going to go. Also, on most shots, the racket is aimed where the shot is going before the forward swing begins. If you make a habit of watching for and reacting to these and other signs, it becomes a learned reaction to an opponent’s stroke. It gets trickier at the higher levels, as players hide their direction or commit later in the stroke. For example, they may aim a crosscourt backhand, then at the last second tilt their wrist back and go the other way. Yet all players have to commit to their shot at some point before contact, and you should learn to react to that for any given player. There’s also that period of time where the opponent has decided where his shot is going, but hasn’t yet telegraphed it with his stroke. You don’t want to get in the habit of over-anticipation, but sometimes you can react to this. For example, most players return most shots to the backhand right back to their opponent’s backhand. If your opponent is predictable on this, and you have a strong forehand, why not sometimes anticipate this, and step around early to use your forehand? (Or just prepare to play a very strong backhand.) If your opponent returns short serves to the forehand mostly crosscourt to your forehand, why not anticipate it? If your opponent consistently serves long to the backhand, why not anticipate it? These, and endless other examples, are anticipation via pattern recognition. Just make sure you don’t anticipate and move so early that the opponent can still change directions. Also, don’t overdo it, or your opponent can pick up on it, and go the other way. Finally, if you want to really maximize how quickly you react and move to an opponent’s shot, don’t get into the habit of waiting to see if you have to move. ASSUME you have to move on all shots, and be ready to do so the instant you know where the shot is going, whether it’s by #1 (anticipation via pattern recognition), #2 (learned reaction to an opponent’s stroke) or #3 (reacting to the ball leaving opponent’s paddle). |
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