anticipation in tennis is unnecessary most of the time and let me explain that in a little more
detail when we're talking about the elite level or the high level you rarely see players anticipate
if you pay close attention to the players you can observe this when you watch TV you pick the
player with the back to the camera you will see that 99% of the time they make a move after the
opponent has struck the ball so they rely on their ball recognition to set up the next shot
the reason why they don't anticipate very often because it's a highly inefficient and ineffective
way to play tennis because ultimately Nobody Knows the outcome of a specific shot because
your opponent might have an intention but whether your opponent can execute the intention is a whole
another subject for that reason the chances at the elite level or the high level would be
50 50 if players would anticipate all the time and what anticipation is is basically making a
move prior to the opponent making contact with the ball this is what often gets taught as the
best way to play tennis and often it's said that the greatest players in the history of the game
are great anticipators but they are not by simply observing them we can see that they play the vast
majority of the points in real time the reason why they don't rely on anticipation is like I
said it's a highly inefficient and ineffective way to play tennis because ultimately you will
be relying on luck another reason why you don't see anticipation very often at the high level or
the elite level is that those type of players are masters of disguise so even if you wanted to figure
out what shot they're going to be hitting based on the backswing or the preparation you really don't
know what they're going to do because they can mimic a certain stroke and then execute another
stroke altogether so for that reason it is a highly inefficient and ineffective way to play
tennis and that's why you don't see anticipation very often at the high level and also at the elite
level now anticipation at the recreational level is even a worse idea because players at this level
often have issues with their game for example they have technical deficiencies they have footwork
problems they have ball recognition problems so they might have a certain intention on whether
they can execute the intention is highly unlikely so it would turn into a big guessing game and I
give your chances at 25% if you were to anticipate or in other words predict the future of what's
going to happen with the incoming ball coming from a recreational level player especially
at the intermediate and the lower recreational levels the title of this video is anticipation is
unnecessary most of the time which means there are times where anticipation is necessary and these
circumstances are obvious offensive situations and obvious defensive situations and a couple of
other things that we're going to get into in great detail and high level players and Elite
level players are really good at anticipating these circumstances they've played many matches
they've played thousands of sets and they know by feel what's going to happen under
these specific circumstances because they've seen it many times it's almost as if it's an
automatic move they don't think about it and they anticipate the future and these type of scenarios
extremely well and you guys at the recreational level need to learn to anticipate these obvious
scenarios because while they might be obvious to an experienced tennis player they might not be so
obvious to you I'm going to explain in great detail when you should anticipate in tennis
so what you have to learn to utilize this offensive anticipation these are going to
be situations where you are dominating the rally where your opponent is in a lot of trouble and one
tell sign that your opponent is in trouble is when they're reaching so as soon as you see this
move and your opponent is trying to get to the ball and they're stretching their arm out and
you can see that they're in despair now is a great time to anticipate and what you're going
to do is move up into the court because it's going to be a lot easier to put the ball away
from closer to the net now this scenario can involve a lateral movement where your opponent
is stretching this way it can be a defensive movement where your opponent is catching the
ball behind their body like this or it can even be a situation where your opponent is
being dragged in forward and they're barely get into the ball scrambling up to it and shoveling
it back in play when you see these movements take place what you have to do is anticipate
a defensive shot because it's going to be highly unlikely that the opponent is going to come up
with something amazing from those scenarios 99 of the time they're going to give you a very easy
ball now if you stand at the Baseline and wait for this ball to drop down it's going to be a lot more
difficult to put away and plus you give your opponent time to get back to the middle of the
court so what you should do is anticipate a weak shot when you observe these scenarios you sneak
up to the net and now that you're close to the net it's going to be a lot easier to put the ball away
defensive anticipation is going to be a scenario where you are in trouble and you're going to
anticipate problems in the rally and what you can do is basically two different things you can
go 50 50. now let me give you an example let's say that you hit a really weak ball right down
the middle of the court now your opponent has a super easy forehand you're standing
right there behind the Baseline now you have the choice of either going to the right or
the left most likely if you just stand there and your opponent hits the ball you won't be
able to get to it because it's going to be too powerful of a shot it's gonna be too fast of
a shot for you to be able to get it so you can do is basically guess go 50 50. pick a
side prior to your opponent making contact and now you have a 50 chance of getting it right
now another thing you can do and this can be combined with the 50 50 method is that
you back up when you observe a defensive scenario so let's say you hit a ball that's super weak and
it's Landing inside the service line now your opponent is coming up and they're going to be
aggressive so you can just stand here and go 50 50 but you can also back up and give yourself
more time to react now from here you might not need 50 50. here you have more time to react
and play defense and get the ball back in play if you play somebody that's extremely strong or
let's say somebody has an easy overhead you might have to back up and go 50 50.
so it's super important that you guys utilize defensive anticipation because often when you
are getting the ball back in play and you're making your opponent hit another shot they will
get frustrated they might give you some mistakes or sometimes you'll hit a really good shot or
you hit a defensive lob you can neutralize the ball and get the upper hand back in the rally
another situation where you should definitely utilize anticipation is when you hit a good drop
shot when you observe Elite level players or high level players you will see that when they hit a
good drop shot they always move into the court and this can be done immediately after hitting
the good drop shot and that is an anticipatory movement now why would this be the case because
let's think about the scenario we've hit a good drop shot what can the opponent do the ball
is going to be very close to the net on their side they can hit a counter drop shot okay so
for that reason we want to be closer inside the court so we can defend against a counter
drop shot they're very unlikely going to hit the ball hard and deep so for that reason we
can anticipate them either giving you a floater back or hitting a counter drop shot and that's
why when you hit a really good drop shot you have to move into the court almost immediately after
hitting your shot so this type of anticipation is something you'll see all high level players do all
Elite level players you will not see someone hit a drop shot and then back up because it doesn't make
a lot of sense they're going to expose themselves to a counter drop shot so next time you hit a good
drop shot move in almost immediately after hitting your shot now you're gonna have to
feel that it's a good drop shot because what if you hit a horrible drop shot you move in and now
your opponent's got a super easy ball to put away so you're gonna have to have the feeling
that it's a good drop shot you know what I'm talking about it sometimes feels like you hit
it really well and it sometimes feels like it hit it horrible so when you hit it horrible of
course you can't move up because you're gonna get hurt but when you hit a drop shot it just
comes off your racket clean and and soft and it seems like it's going to be a good drop shot now
is the time to sneak up to the net and you're going to have good chances to win the point
another form of anticipation that you see very frequently at the high level and the elite level is when
players hit a very soft passing shot let me give you an example a player comes in and now the Defender
hits like a little chip that goes very low over net and bounces very short or they hit like a
little short spinny ball that just barely goes over the net and lands very short in the box now
basically what the net person is going to have to do is bend down and play a low volley so what
you see high level players Elite level players do is after hitting one of these soft passing shots
they immediately Rush the net because again what is going to happen it's very unlikely that the
volleyer is going to be able to hit the ball hard and go deep they're either going to do a little
drop shot volley a half drop shot Volley they're going to try to half volley the ball a little bit
deeper but in any case because the ball is so low and they're so close to the net there's a
high likelihood that the ball will indeed sit on up a little bit so two scenarios can happen either
gonna hit a really good drop shot or the ball is going to pop up in both of those scenarios it
makes a lot of sense that you are closer inside the court and that you're moving up if you stand at
the Baseline you are exposed to those type of shots so the next time your opponent comes to
the net and you do a little chip right at their feet and you do a little spinny shot right at
their feet immediately after hitting your shot you're gonna have to sneak in now just like the
drop shot don't do it if it doesn't feel good coming off your racket because if you attempt
to hit a ball right their feet but the ball is sitting up high and you're moving you're going
to be dead so it's gonna have to feel good coming off your Racket and if it does the first thing you
got to do is anticipate a ball that's going to be played closer to the net and start moving forward
and guys one thing to keep in mind is that anticipation is never 100% accurate
so the things that I just talked about these obvious scenarios when you anticipate you're
not guaranteed that the things that you think are going to happen are gonna indeed happen
even in these obvious scenarios sometimes the opponent will still come up with a crazy shot
for example if you are playing the offensive anticipation your opponent is scrambling
stretching their racket out they still might be able to come up with an incredible shot every
now and then the problem with anticipation is that you are predicting the future and
it's only a good thing in these obvious scenarios while it's not 100% accurate I do
encourage you to utilize the anticipation methods that are discussed in this video