Hit Better Groundstrokes: Driving vs Lifting - Make The Right Choice ft ATP Top 300 and ‪@WinstonDu‬

What's up everyone? Karuh here. And yes, we travel back in time. I'm here with Winston. This is 2022 and we're doing a lesson. Today's lesson is kind of the only lesson I've wanted to do all year long. It's a ball striking lesson that's going to help all of you guys play a little bit better from the baseline, make some better decisions. But we're going to work on today is something that I go back to a lot throughout the year when I'm not playing that well during my practices. It's a very basic that will help again, decision making, hitting the right shot more often. So let's just jump right to it. So last time Winston was on the channel, we actually did this shot selection video. I highly recommend you go watch it. But another thing that's incredibly important when hitting your your ground strokes is understanding if you are hitting the ball on the way up at the peak and on the way down in the arc of the ball. Right. So we need to be able to recognize this more like all the time. So by just paying attention to that, it's going to be easier for you to make decisions. This is not about if you're going to be aggressive, where you're going to hit it. It's just what are you going to do to the ball regarding driving it a little bit more or actually putting you back in the arc a little bit more. And but let's just have Winston hit a little bit here. So just trying to pay attention to try to call it if you're going to be hitting on the way up or on the way down. So I'm calling the ball. No, not what you're going to do. So you're just calling like by the time you're making contact, do you think the ball is going to be going up? Do you think the ball is going to be going down? Oh, it was coming down a little bit. Down's coming down. I want to send you up. Also depends on how early. Yeah, like you sometimes you got to make a decision. So that's coming down. You see, that's coming up. There you go. See how you kind of lift it a little bit. He lifted too much. You could have driven a little bit more. If it's in that sort of like peak, yeah, then I would think like I'd play it more like it's coming down already because it's losing its momentum like up, it's going to start breaking and coming down. So I'd play a little bit more like it's coming down on the way up. It's really like, again, on the rise. Everyone knows that. But on the rise, Paul can drive it a little bit more. It's starting to sort of break and slow down. Then I'd play more like it's coming down. Well, it's going to be on the way up. Drive it. Oh, I don't lift it so much. It's going to come in. Coming now. Oh, yeah. There you go. Drive a little bit more. You can do more press down. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. And drive it a little more. Oh, yeah. There you go. You can drive it. Oh, there you go. It's only up. We're going to drive down. There you go. Up, down. Oh, it's still coming up. It's still coming up. Left a little way from it. Yeah. Give him a couple of rippers a little bit faster. There. Yeah, that's coming up. Even if it's low, right? Even if it's a low ball. Yeah. Right. Even if that ball is low, it's still coming up. So sometimes the reason we're doing this is sometimes you see a ball, like really let one go big. Yeah. And you see that that ball is coming low and people want to over and lift it and the ball flies away on them, right? Where it's like you actually even from low here, you want to drive that ball a little bit more. You know, go big again here to my point. Well, that was actually pretty good. Go again. Go. If I can just drive it, I still have control and still have controls. That ball is still coming up. It's just having that sensitivity and that awareness like faster, right? Like sometimes it's on you. Sometimes it's on you. It's like, oh, I'm going to go take it early on the rise and I'm going to drive it. Sometimes, actually, I want to let it drop so I can go and shape it high. Sometimes the ball is just hit in a way that the only way to do it is what the ball has. I think my natural tendency is to let it drop. Yeah, your tendency is to let it drop. You like the extra time, which is OK. So you have to be more aware of when you're having to hit. There you go. On the way up. That's the wrong way down. Nice. It's a drop. Now you're going to put a drop, put it back in the arc. That one is going to drop a little bit more. There you go. But that's on the right. Right. Oh, there you go. That's on the right. Right. There you go. You know, I'm just having that like awareness all the time. Up, up, up, up. I want to get up to that. Early up. He's been driving. Good. Way down. Oh, yeah. You wanted to catch it on the way up, right? Yeah, I was trying to move in to take it. Yeah, but it was it was already breaking down, too. So I just want to demonstrate a little bit. I'm going to have Gustavo feed, actually. I want to show how the same ball, you know, depending on how quickly we go up to it, how quickly we make a decision to either go take it on the rise or not. You're going to have to play it a little bit different. Right. Like the ball is breaking up. Ball is going up. Right. So if if I get to that ball really quickly and is on the way up, I can drive that speed a little bit more. I like again. Well, I'm going to get to it. It's on the way up. Well, I'm not really too worried about lifting a ball. You guys think you can see on that camera a little bit better again. Well, I'm going to get up that ball. Right. But if you don't the same thing. Right. And I decide to drive. So go. But I'm a little bit late to it. See, like that ball is going to break down. Like, look, I'm a little bit late to it. And I try to drive in that ball immediately comes down off my racket. Right. So I'm a little bit late, too. And it's coming now. I'm going to have to just give it a little more shape. I was a little too much shape than me that much. But to that one. Oh, so let's get let's get Winston to do a couple here where some of them are going to hit. Let's do four. You're going to let it drop. Do the same feed, maybe a little more speed on it. Intentionally, let it drop. Still trying to be offensive with it, but you're going to let it start coming down. And then some of the dude, let's do five of them or you let it drop. So your son will drop. Well, I'm going to have to shape it a little bit. Little more speed with that. There you go. Even if this is a beauty, so you're going to have to shape that. So you're going to have to shape that. You decide not to go take it super early again. You're going to have to shape that good last launch. Not shape it. OK, great. Same feeds. Now you have to be more aggressive with your feet to try to go and take it on the rise before it starts coming. Coming down is the same ball. But you see how, depending on where in the arc you're hitting, you can drive them a little bit more. They still get spin. Those two get spin because naturally you get spin. So I'm not you're not trying to be so. Don't worry about necessarily flatness, right? Just worry about like, OK, this I'm driving more. I'm not really throwing the ball back in the arc. And we're all going on the right. Oh, see how you can drive that a bit more. Go, go, go, go. There you go. Go take it on the right. There you go. You're a couple down the line there. Whoa, there you go. Go, go, go, go. That's going to come down. Oh, that was close to coming down there. Go there. There you go. Last one up. Whoa. This is for everything. OK, like it's not like it's on your returns. It's on on everything. Like, right. Like, for example, returning at my level, either boss coming up, like guys going to bomb a serve by the time is that me like that ball is on the way up so I can just drive it. Oh, right. Like if I'm taking that return early, if you're in the back, you want to let it drop and then send it high. Rafa style. Then you have to make that decision as well. OK, so a couple to the back end. So like a couple, let it it's going to let it drop. Boom. Put it back on the arc. A little more body into it. And boom. Rage. Same ball, OK? So I mean, down in the arc. That's fun. And down the arc. Well, you know, one more hour. So I mean, I don't want to let that ball drop that much to it. OK, now same ball, but on the rise. And you go take it. Beautiful. Now you can drive a more trusted that naturally the ball is going to actually create spin because it's on the way up. That's coming down or just good. No way out, though. There you go. Oh, great. On the way up. Good. There you go. So again, just with the feeds here, we're able to see it a little bit more. Right. Same ball. You have two options there footwork wise. Like if you if you play a point and you have the time to get up to it and you want to drive it, you can. You don't have the time if you don't want to do it. You can let it drop. But understanding on what the ball is going for, where you're going to be at contact point on the way up, kind of breaking on the way down in the arc is super important. So these are going to be they're most likely going to be on the way up. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because the he is hitting is so big that, you know, with the feed that that ball is going to be on the way up. So try not to over lift it. Look kind of the usual with the usual. Yeah. Yeah. Stay low with it drives through it. So these are more your type of shots. They look like your shots when you're. But yeah, you kind of have to. Yeah. More like my shot. Yeah. And you have to kind of trust that you don't need to over lift it. That's not to say that your your style is still going to tendency to to roll the ball a little bit more, but a little bit more driving using the momentum of the ball. Yeah. There you go. Try to stay lower with it. Don't let that just rotate. But don't try to over lift. Yeah. Good. There you go. Good. Little wider base. I don't get it too close together. There you go. Try to step that right foot out out of your hip socket. There you go. Stay low with it. Well, there you go. Stay with it. I got to be quick. That really doesn't tell you what. So all these shots are on the way up as he's dating. This one is coming down. So he lived. He's good there. They're on the way up to the last one. Oh, there you go. Yeah. Go back inside again on the rise. Try to stay. Try to get nice wide base and stay with it here. Don't try to lift it just because it's low. It's a matter if I do open or close. There you go. Beautiful. Stay with it. There you go. Naturally. Again, the ball wants to go up. So there's no reason for you to overdo it. Yeah. I want you to lift it. Great. That's still coming up a little bit. Drive through it. There you go. Oh, oh, there you go. I'm putting the legs a little more aggressive. There's a lot of swing is going. Yeah, you go. That's the one. See how he swing for a lot of them were there. Yeah, because of the actual. Yeah, you want it to like, yeah, push it up. So it's sort of actually just like, OK, just to do it. There you go. Great drive. So there you go. Great drive. There it is. Easy. Last two. Good one. There you go. There you go. So Winston actually just had something interesting off camera. He's like, it can be a lot of thinking. You can I think of the balls going up is going down. I get it. But for the most part, it's very simple. If the ball is coming fast to you and it's not very short, meaning that the guy doesn't like rip it and you kind of like manifear, it's landing. If it's coming fast and if it's coming somewhat deep for the most part, the ball is going to be on the way out. He's just going to catch you. There's no time for you to back up and like let it drop. There's going to be bad footwork, right? So as the ball starts breaking away from you a little bit more and it's not right just down the middle, then you have to be hyper aware because sometimes you'll be able to go and cut that angle. Take it on the rise. See, I'm going to go take it on the rise, cut the angle. Sometimes coming down. Yeah, I have to lift that. It's coming down. I'm going to be up. There you go. Let's throw up. Throw. Good. Really good style. Yeah. But play with a little pace. I want him to feel like feel that ball. Oh, like just feed him like an inside out for him, like about here. Let it do your thing. Go back. Let it drop. Play high and then play the point out from there. Try not to hit any winner, but go anyway. So he's going to let it drop. Instant thing. Now it's on the way. At first, it's complicated, but it's not really. Like you will become so natural after a while. They it keeps you focused on one thing and it just makes everything just so much easier, especially when you're feeling a little funky. You know, last couple. There you go. So toss that. Let it drop to the Winston thing. It's beautiful. Let's drop. Oh, you let that one drop. You could have taken it early. Didn't want you that one. He took it on the rise and he has to take it on the rise. Take it on the rise again. Take it on the rise and down to a high point. Some balls that you choose to do this. I would have been like pinning it here. That's up to like it's whatever. Right. So sometimes again, that ball that you you might be seeing a point is like, oh, why did he take that ball like a little earlier? Like the feet didn't just react fast enough. So you have to take your medicine. So I ended there. I leave the short. I don't see if that's enough. But then you should have been given the same feed. But go take it on the rise now. For the for it. For the first for it. You don't have to come in, but go take it on the rise. Let's start normal. Start normal. React to it. Yeah. Same feet. We'll take it. That's a little harder for me, naturally. A little more drive. No, it was on the rise, right? But again, you it wasn't necessarily you made a decision even to hit it on the rise. You have to because it was coming kind of fast. Yeah. And you just committed to that. Yeah. You can finish on that one, I think.