Hello Gregg le Sueur for Online Tennis Instruction. In the previous two videos,
we showed you how to generate more power on your volleys and also how to move
more effectively up at the net to help you poach and become a more dominating
force up at the net. Now one of the most common questions I get asked in
clinics, is how do you deal with lobbers.
So in today's clip we're going to show you a few strategies and how you can
deal with lobbing. When playing against lobbers it's very important that you get
back very quickly for the overhead.
It's essential that you have a very good overhead technique.
Now, when you're playing lobbers, you want to try to look for visual cues and try to
anticipate the lob early so you can move back before they even contact the ball.
So if you see them leaning backwards and the strings are open you want to start
moving and getting back ahead of the shot.
So watch over here: You can start here in the middle of service box and idially you
can be split stepping and you may fall forward, but this leg will help propel you back.
And you take crossover steps, crossover, you got a base, hit the
overhead and then get right back into the ready position.
Very often when I watch club players - the pros with the lob, they watch the ball first
and then move second. You want to move first and then find the ball second,
taking crossover steps.
Now, you may have to make some adjustments to your starting position,
based on your height, your reach and how quickly you can get back.
So if you play someone who is lobbing all the time,
you may want to start a little further back over here, so it's much easier to
get back for that overhead. But one thing to pay a particular attention to is,
when you start further back you're going to be much more vulnerable to that low volley.
so if you see the balls not being lobbed, you want to make sure you close in the net,
so you can try to get the ball that's a little bit higher over the net.
If you stand back here,
you may be forced to get a low volley and have to hit the ball up in a defensive position.
Ok ways to practice moving back to cover the Lob:
So the first thing you want to look for is to anticipate if your parents are
leaning back and the strings are slightly open,
you want to anticipate that possibly hitting a lob.
so if you anticipate the lob,
the first thing you want to do is you want to move back first and you want to
find the ball second. Very often I watch players they will try to find the ball
and by the time they find the ball they start to move.
It's too late the ball got over their head and they
cannot get the ball back as an overhead. So ways you can practice this is to
practice shadow swing movements.So you want to start sort of in the middle of the box,
got your ready position over here, you got some forward momentum and you go forward,
you're going to split you going to catch yourself with one leg,
use that leg, the left leg, to push yourself back and take crossover steps
all the way back to the service line. Now once you get to the service line,
you really have three options: If it's a short lob you may be base and I'll
go forward to hit the overhead.
All right, if it's a deep lob you may continue going back and then make
adjustments steps hitting the overhead and if the lob gets over your head then,
that's where you going to jump. You going to use the back leg to push up jump at the
overhead and then you want to recover back to the ready position.
So you want to do those movements over and over - so let's look at that one more time:
You got your ready position, you're going to go forward,
you're going to split, catch yourself,
push up with this leg, turn cross over, cross over to the service line and you
want to practice one of those three different scenarios and once you hit the
overhead you want to move back to the ready position. Alright you want practice
these over and over to the familiar yourself with the movement.
So when you go play,
it's much easier to implement in your game.
Another way to deal with lobbers is to use strategy.
Lobbers are very comfortable on the baseline, so you want to take them out of
the comfort zone by either pushing them back up against the back fence or you
can bring them forward. Two ways to bring them forward is you can hit an approach shot,
that's low over the net, it's slightly off pace where it bounces close to the
service line and the second bounces inside the court.
Another way is you can hit an off pace volley that land short.
In both instances what's going to happen, is you're going to
force that lobber to now run forward and try to scrape the ball up.
Ideally they're going to hit it very close the second bounce which will make it
difficult for them to lob it over your head.
If they're hitting the ball close the second bounce you cannot close the net
and have an easy volley to put away. Now, if it sets up be aware they can still
get the record below the ball and lob you.
So the key is to hit a low ball that land short and forces them to run
forward and have to scrape the ball up.
Ok let's take a look at examples of the two strategies we discussed:
Now there are other strategies you can use against lovers.
I'm going to start with the short lower approach shot:
Now you'll see how just practicing with my partner my friend Chris, we're just playing cross-court 1:1 doubles.
You don't always need four players to work on your doubles game.
You can have a very effective and productive practice
just with you and your partner playing one on one, playing cross court.
So in this situation we rally cross court.
I'm going to hit a off pace, low short approach shot.
It's going to force Chris to move forward off the baseline.
It's gonna make it very difficult for him to get the racket below the ball
to hit a high lob over my head.
So what's going to happen is a pop ball up, going to close the net,
stepping out, stepping through, getting very close to the net
and I'm putting the ball away.
Let's take a look over here: Again this can also set up your partner up at the net.
You see how he's reaching for the ball.
Your partner is start to move forward
and look to take the shot when the ball crosses the net.
Now let's take a look at an example of the short volley:
So this is when you up at the net in the situation I'm serving and volleying and
the idea is, you want to hit the ball before the service line and
keep the ball low so it's a really off pace volley and you want to try to slice the shot.
This is a very effective strategy in doubles, it's going to work against lobbers,
but in general this is a good play, because most people come and hit a deep
valley and the opponent on the baseline are not expecting it so often they're
off guard and they take up very late. So one of two things can happen in this situation:
He may not read it and get there late and the ball is going to bounce twice or
if he does get there
,as we discussed, in the low short approach shot
he may not be able to get the racket below the ball to hit an effective lob.
Will just pop the ball up.
So let's take a look over here: With the ball bounces, bounces a second time
halfway between the service line and the baseline. So you're not reacting in time,
but now if you did get to the second bounce you'll pop the ball up, i'll continue
forward and have an easy high volley to not put away.
To summarize plane lobbers: we first talked about how to effectively get back
to cover the Lob.
So when you up at the net you want to learn to anticipate if your opponents
leaning back slightly and the strings are open and they're going to be hitting a lob.
You want to move back first and then find the ball second.
When you move back, you want to take crossover steps all the way to the service line.
Now, you may need to adjust your starting position by staying a little further back
based on your height, your reach and how quickly you can get back to the service line.
But remember, when you stand for the back you can be more susceptible to a
low defensive volley.
So if you see they're not going to lob you want to move forward,
so if you get the volley it's going to be higher and ideally above net level.
We talked about two strategies on dealing or playing against lobbers and in many
other strategies that work,
we just covered the two, talked about how to get them out of this comfort zone by
bringing them forward.
First one was about hitting a low off pace, short bouncing approach shot and
the second one was hitting, when you up at the net, a low volley that bounces short
to the middle of the court which works in many instances.
But both tactics what would happen, is your opponent would be running forward
and ideally getting to the ball close to the second bounce where they
cannot get the racket beneath the ball enough to get an effective lob.
They're forced to kind of scrape the ball up, which will allow you to move
forward and they have an easy volley to put away.
So if you have any questions on this video please post your comments below