in last week's video I taught you how to become a better Defender so now you're defended you
neutralize the point now what attack of course take over the point so in this video I'm showing
you how to turn defense into offense let's get going a lot of times players don't even
realize that they change the momentum of the point they're kind of like yay now that I ran
right back left Center somewhere I have a little bit of breathing room and they take a little bit
of a mental break and that is what really good players don't do they see immediately that they
have their opponent at the ropes and they jump onto offense so here's what you want to look for
you can start playing more offensive when you're on balance meaning that you can split step low
body really good low bass and you don't have as much of a distance to run to the ball so if you
can take two three aggressive steps to the ball that is a good sign that you're in bounds that's
when you can be more aggressive what's another weapon that you have to put pressure on your
opponent hit as hard as I possibly can coach nope not hitting harder take time away from
your opponent once you change the momentum of the point most likely when you play defense you were
further back behind the Baseline and you were just happy to get the balls back now if you're taking
that little mental break and you're not coming forward when you can and you're letting balls drop
that allows my opponent to reset the point so regular rally ball
not moving up just kind of hanging out back here and letting the ball come to me
and that gives my opponent plenty of time to regroup I mean I'm still hitting good quality
balls but I'm not really doing anything to put pressure on him let's change it
foreign more errors and as you hear from me breathing hard this is really exhausting so
when you're deciding that you're taking the ball sooner you also have to consider that you have
less preparation time so you may have to work a lot harder but it's going to pay off so that's the
time factor that is how you rush your opponents word of caution though if you're trying to take
the balls on the rise or the Apex the top of the bones what you don't want to do is force
yourself to short hop the ball let the ball rise into your Strike Zone and for most of us a very
comfortable strike zone is hip high to shoulder if you're hitting anywhere down here or anywhere
up here or you're going to lose control now we've all seen Pro successfully hitting Four Hands from
here meaning behind The Doubles alley on the add side of course for lefties the other way
around Rafa takes the forehand on the next chord over but can we do that too to my mind yes as
Club player as mere mortals we can look for more forehands you want to use your forehead more most
players hit the ball harder with four hands most players can create more Top Spin on the forehand
and you can create more angles on the forehand but I think there's a way more important reason
why recreational Players Club players should use more forehands think about how we teach tennis if
you've ever seen a beginner lesson or intermediate beginner we always start working on the forehand
we always end up working more on forehands most players are more confident comfortable with their
forehand so when you start to take over the point use the shot that you like more start to look for
forehands when you have to take one or just two steps around your back end you're running around
your backhand so make it a goal when you practice everything that bounces about a racket length to
the left of the midline try to hit four hands if you successfully defend it you took over the point
you are starting to force short balls and if the short balls are really short come to net yes look
to play volleys you might say that your volleys are not that good and that might very well be the
case even if you lose points you're investing into the future and you're actually doing that in two
ways one short term one long term so short term is if you're starting to attack balls that are
sitting somewhere around here you're signing your opponent that they can't just hit the ball into
just anywhere you're going to attack it and that forces them to hit more precise shots
and that way you force errors when you come in and you are covering the net correctly
you are forcing them to pass you on the dime maybe they do that once maybe twice
it's going to be really difficult for them over a long period of time the duration of a match
to hit passing shots the only time you're going to the middle when you're coming in is if you
approach down the middle which might not be a bad option because it takes away angles for
your opponent if you attack either side that is where you follow the ball so if you're attacking
the outside you're shading over ever so slightly to the ad if you're going to the deuce Court you
shade over to the deuce court and as the long-term investment you're adding another tactical tool to
your toolbox you're ready to expose when your opponent gives you gifts a couple of scenarios
why people might not be as confident coming into net number one is they're not closing far enough
then we have the over closers we'll talk about that in a second but where you want to be for
your first volley is inside the service box that will most likely allow you to hit a volley at
least above your hip anything below of course is really difficult to do but force them to give you
higher Balls by closing in appropriately of course on the opposite end we have the net rushers if you
have your belly button up at net then it doesn't take a really good Lop for your opponent to LOB
not the best overhead but at least I didn't invite him to have the entire backcourt open if I'm over
closing if you missed last week's video here it is and in that video you'll learn how to
give yourself the chance to take over the point and do all the things that we talked about today