tennis tactics should be logical and simple and when they're utilized by
players they should be utilized prior to the point starting now you're probably
thinking Nick how about tactics inside of a point in other words once the point has
already started shouldn't we execute certain tactics well I'm here to tell
you that high level players do not utilize tactics inside of the point consciously all
these things are happening intuitively as a result of muscle memory and repetition
and when I'm talking about muscle memory I'm referring to the brain remembering the
scenarios that players have been exposed to tens of thousands of times you've got to remember that
high level players have played tens of thousands of points if not hundreds of thousands of tennis
points and these things that are happening inside the points the certain tactics that are
executed are being executed without the players being conscious of them now the fascinating
thing about one video of mine that I did with my student Shamir was the following Shamir wanted
really badly to play a match against me you can watch this match here it's me against Shamir
now I made the decision to mic Shamir to put a little different Twist on the video do you know
what else I'm gonna give you the mic okay so um we can hear your thoughts your thought process
now I didn't give Shamir any instructions I just gave him the mic and said let's just
play a couple sets and we'll talk afterwards now what Shamir did was something that was hilarious
but it was also very interesting at the same time Shamir was under the impression that he
should provide a running commentary so Shamir in the beginning of the first set tried to talk
during the points and he quickly realized that the game is happening so fast there's not even
a time to say a complete sentence between the shots intensity yeah follow it in because it's
short ah But Nice Shot and this is what I want you guys to understand when you're playing tennis
the game is happening so fast across all levels even at the recreational level that there's not
enough time to have a conscious thought and forget about saying a full sentence the ball just comes
back too quickly so in essence the tennis game once the point has started has to be intuitive
and of course there's going to be many tactics that you can utilize prior to the point starting
I made an entire course titled intuitive tennis tactics that's on my website intuitivetennis.com
you can check it out basically for free with a seven day free trial and once the seven day
free trial is over it's only 14.99 a month after that and there's six chapters there's a
very comprehensive course and I give you many many tactics that can help you win more matches
these tactics are simple in nature this is not a complex so to speak where you're going to be
utilizing these convoluted methods no these are logical simple tactics that are utilized
for the greatest players in the history of the game but how about tactics inside of the
point while they are absolutely intuitive and players are not consciously thinking about them
because they've been exposed to these scenarios thousands if not tens of thousands of times how
about you guys at the recreational level where you haven't been exposed to these scenarios well here
you are going to have to learn some tactics that should be utilized inside of the point
now there's a whole chapter in my course on tactics that you can utilize inside of the
point and I'm not going to go through the whole chapter here but I'm going
to give you one valuable tip one tactic that recreational players should utilize and some
technical mistakes that players commit under this scenario now let me tell you what that
scenario is something that happens all the time at the rec level and that is when
your opponent or opponents are rushing the net the number one tactical mistake
that I see at the recreational level is that players will immediately lob their opponent
when they see them Rush the net this is a tactical error and I'm going to tell you why
see the lob is a low percentage shot you don't perceive it to be a low percentage shot because
you see a wide open space if you're playing outdoors and it seems like a good idea but in
fact it's a terrible idea whether you're playing doubles or singles so let's talk about doubles
first this is where I see the lob as the number one most overused shots at the recreational level
so we have a player that's stationary at the net and we have another player that's possibly
staying back or coming to the net so let's just take the scenario where one player is staying
back the other player is stationary at the net and this player right here at the Baseline receiving
the ball now in this scenario there's really not any rushing we're going to get to that later but
we have a person at the net a lot of times this Baseline person will immediately lob now mind
you that there's a baseline person on the other side and they can easily get to the lop so it's
not a very good shot but let's say the Baseline person on the other side is rushing the net
and there's a net person there and we have to realize is that when you do a lob the best time
to execute this shot is when the net rusher is still moving forward when they're set with their
feet if then a stationary position especially if they're a little bit further back let's say
between the net and the service line somewhere in the middle of the Box you're gonna have to
execute an excellent Lob in order to win the point it's going to be very easy for that person to hit
an overhead also mind you that the recreational level very few players possess a Top Spin lob
most of the lobs executed at direct level are defensive lob in other words flat lobs
and these are going to be very easy to run down so remember this whether you're playing singles
or doubles when you are executing the lob make sure that your opponent is still moving forward
then the lob doesn't have to be good and it can even be a defensive lob because your opponent
is still in a forward movement it's going to be very tough for them to change the direction
and go backwards the quality of the lob can be lower and therefore it can be higher percentage
if your opponent is in a stationary position if they're firmly planted their ground even if
they're a little bit further back in the court now you're going to have to hit a high quality
topspin lob to have any chance or win the point and it's a low percentage tactic for
that reason you have to be very selective when utilizing lobs when your opponent rushes the net
now while this tactical error occurs in both singles and doubles it is something
that I see more frequently when recreational players are playing doubles but I do see it
sometimes in singles as well and I'll never forget when my daughter first started playing
tournaments and anytime her opponent came to the net the first thing my daughter would do
is just throw up a lot and this is where I started thinking about the reasons why
a lower level recreational players utilize this shot so much and I came to the conclusion that
mentally it makes a lot of sense because it's an wide open space above the other player and
it just makes sense to somebody that doesn't have a lot of experience in tennis but it is
a trap while it might appear as if you have a lot of room to hit over someone it is in
all actuality a low percentage shots and there are much better tactics to utilize
and here's a tactic that I want you to utilize when your opponent rushes the
net I want you to make your opponent volley now I'm gonna make a caveat here when you make your
opponent Volley I want you to aim below the hip now if you watch the Laver cup I'm sure
you saw that Francis tiafoe took the head off Federer and Nadal in the third set super tie
break and when he took Nadal's head off it was a 10 on the breaker so it was a
crucial moment in the tie break and the whole world was watching and Francis tiafoe hit two
unbelievable returns right at the net person now he hit what I call the blind spot foreign
biomechanically has limitations of how they can defend a ball when it's hit at a certain position
in the body if you want to know in more detail what the blind zone is I talk about it briefly
in a value lesson with Anna and you can go to my website we have a full length video on this topic
I'm gonna get into it now otherwise this video would be an hour long but in any case I don't want
you to go over the hip at the recreational level because this is something that's very dangerous if
you go above the hip at the net person you can hit them in the throat you can hit them in the
head and you can hurt them really badly it is something that's very dangerous and something that I
don't want you to do I want you to go at the net rusher below the hip and optimally I want you to
aim right at their feet wide at their feet because now they're gonna have to volley up and when they
volley up they're very unlikely going to hit a volley winner and they're likely going to pop
the ball up and now you're gonna have an easier time to hit the passing shot on the next shot
another tactical mistake that happens across all levels when the opponent rushes the net is that
player's goal for the passing shot they start aiming for the line now here's the thing when
your opponent comes to the net you do have to hit the ball close to the line if you want to hit a
proper passing shot if you hit it anywhere near the middle the volleyer can get to it so
naturally you're going to be forced to hit the ball close to the line and that's going to be
a low percentage play a lot of players as their first instinct will go for the outright winner
they will try to hit the line and naturally they will commit a lot of Errors because of it
so again it's a much better option to make your opponent Volley especially if we're
talking about the recreational level and below their hip make them volley up and
now when they pop that volley up and you get a ball that's a little bit slower a little bit
shorter now it's going to be a lot easier to hit that passing shot winner on the next shot
so guys while tactics inside of the point are taking place intuitively at the high
level they might not necessarily take place intuitively at the recreational
level simply because recreational level tennis players haven't been exposed to
those type of scenarios enough so in that case you do have to consciously
be aware of some of the Tactical that you have once the point has already started