Tennis Tactics - How To Handle LOW BALLS

What's up athletes? I'm Daytree and you're here because you believe that you can max your potential on the tennis court with the law of success, learn, apply, and win. Now today, we're going to be learning how to combat really low balls without getting into a defensive position. These are really challenging shots because they're below the net and sometimes all you can really do is bump the ball back over. Generally speaking, these balls are hit close to the service line or the net, but there are some circumstances where the opponent will hit deep or the perfect slice and all you can do is half-volley the ball back. When it comes to the low ball, there are some key points to keep in mind. First, the further back you stand, the more distance you place between yourself and the net. That's why players who stand further behind the baseline are more susceptible to low short balls than players who stand near the baseline. The best range of grips for the low ball is a continental to eastern grip. The difficulty to hit at this height increases from eastern to western grips. If you have a full western grip, I would recommend you switching to a semi-western grip just for this shot. Anything beyond a western grip will require extremely good timing and would not be optimal. If you're hitting a more stationary shot, getting into an open stance will allow you to make contact further in front of your body and allow the strings to open up more. If you're moving forward, it's better for you to get into a more closed stance and use the karaoke step to transition into the net. If the ball is high enough, the topspin shot is a great option because it gives your racket the most space to travel and thus increases your potential for power and control. Here, sidespin will control the depth of the ball and decrease your margin of error. The best way to get your racket into proper contact position is to bend at the knees instead of at the back and increase your shoulder tilt in the forward swing. The degree of your shoulder tilt will increase as the ball gets lower. I think there's a common misconception out there that you have to close the racket face and then get the tip of the racket facing the court. While that's a cue to let you know whether or not you're doing the proper motion, it's not a technique you should focus on. This was mind-blowing to me because I thought the low ball was an entirely different shot until I looked at it another way and found out that it's an almost identical shot to the topspin hit at higher heights except with slightly more shoulder tilt. Your follow-through should be below your shoulder level. This will naturally happen if you focus on the internal rotation. Alternatively, you'll sometimes see players hit the reverse forehand because they want to put more topspin on it. Try to avoid focusing on the position of your racket to the right place and forcing a follow-through above the shoulder. For placement, hit the ball deep down the line or at a cross-court angle for the safest bet. You can hit deep cross-court, but it's a higher risk shot and you're leaving yourself open to being passed at the net. There's a certain level that the ball drops to where it becomes impossible to use topspin simply because you can't properly get your racket into position under the ball to perform an upward topspin motion and you'll often make contact at the bottom of the frame. This is where the low slice comes into play. This shot's still effective and if executed properly, could keep you in an offensive position. Start with a full eastern or continental grip so that you can get the strings under the ball. The strings will be more open than a traditional slice because the trajectory you need to hit at this height is different. You can hit this shot by cutting down the back of the ball, which will give it more backspin. If the ball's too low with no space, you can also scoop the ball deep to the open corners. This shot's similar to the low volley. I'm not going to go too in-depth about it here, but make sure to keep the off-arm stable for balance and keep your racket head above your wrist instead of dropping the racket. If you're at a 4.0 or lower level, you can move through the shot, which means run forward during and after you hit. Or if you're more advanced, you can slide to recover faster to the net. But I'll put some caution signs here so you won't injure your knees or other joints. Don't do this if you don't know how to slide safely, comfortably, and naturally. A drop shot is a higher risk shot, but it's also a viable option if you're moving forward. It's important for you to have forward momentum for the drop shot because with minimal racket take-back, you'll still need to drive the ball over the net. Get into your forehand or backhand slice position. Your main goal in this shot is to get to the ball early enough to get the racket under the ball and hit it with underspin and sidespin to get it out of reach. You should always follow a good drop shot to the net and be ready to block any shots. So that's it for this video. I hope you enjoyed the video. If you learned something new, be sure to subscribe and hit that bell icon. For more videos, click here. Now go out and train hard. See you in the next video.