shamir so i gave you a bunch of short balls what do you think about those are they hard to handle
some of them yeah some of them were kind of hard because like you said
i thought i was there but then i was still reaching and then you
had especially a tough time with the low ones right with the slices
yeah you kept dumping it to the next i i i just thought i would get there sooner
but then it was shorter than i thought so i didn't run enough
yeah you know what the optimal way to put away a short ball is if it's higher
because what happens on a lower ball let's say i give you a slice and you try to come in and put
that away it's very difficult to put away because when you hit the ball lower the ball will have
to travel on a curve it's going to go up and then down there's simply less space when you're closer
up to the baseline and you can just kind of sail it that makes sense if you're further back in the
court there's more space and the ball can fall safely inside the baseline but when you're closer
then there's a danger of missing it long also if you don't put any spin on it and you got
a low ball and you hit it hard you can miss into the net that's what was happening to you
a lot when i was giving you the slices
the optimal thing you can do when it comes to killing short balls is taking them higher so at
least the waist or above because now we can change the trajectory right when we hit it at the waist
it's going to go up and down but it's not going to go up and down as much as if it's below the waist
but optimally if the ball is providing you with sufficient height
you take it a little bit higher at around the chest height and now
you can absolutely destroy this ball because the ball is going to be more of a downward
trajectory and it's safe from flying along you can absolutely destroy a ball like that
so if it's a low ball think placement if it's a higher ball think attack in other words don't
try to kill it when it's super low yeah yeah i think to just get it in place don't go for
a winner because people go for a winner when it's too low and they make a mess out of it so there's
a technique that's a little bit advanced because you do need a lot of top spin on a super low ball
when you're moving up if you watch the pros they do kind of like a hopping technique where they hop
on the same leg and that's to help the racket go up rapidly on a low ball like that let me
show you so when the ball is super low and the players are moving up they will hop like this
to help the racket go up because here's what you got to do when you have a low ball like that you
got to provide it with tons of topspin and you got to go very vertical on it and it's overall going
to be a more of a shot that you're going to play out of your forearm it's more of a finesse shot
and so you super quickly is scoop it up with topspin and provide it with a lot of rotation
so to keep it in so it can go in inside the baseline okay oh yeah
and the reason why you want to do the hop step is to help the racket go up because you want
to be very vertical here okay you don't want to go like a regular topspin where it's it's more
at a diagonal this way it's almost like a topspin lob where you're going straight up and to help
this swing path where it's going straight up you can do like a little hop off the same foot and to
help the racket move up quickly okay so go back i'm going to feed you super low okay and your
objective is to get as much spin as possible that's what you need on a ball like that don't
think winner think get it in with as much spin as possible placement here we go come on hop it
you overhit that go more more vertical more steep more steep yeah do it again steep
i feed me a low one i want to show you how to do it perfect oh samir what a feed man
that was good i had to really fight for that one i couldn't really set because when
you set you can go like this there i kind of did it on the run like this yeah but again
same idea you want to do a little hop to help the racket go up here try it again
there it is a little bit more height more spin more acceleration upwards the key is very vertical
more more this way shamir watch watch me again i'm going to show you this way watch my racket
you see how the racket is going straight up don't go like this like a regular topspin ball you got
to go straight up like a lob this see straight up on this in other words it's on the same side
yeah you're not coming around as much you're coming more on the same side this way
you know what i mean the same side all right now imagine hitting this way so
normally topspin is going here okay okay don't want to do that you want to go on the same side
same side this is the ball you go on the same side here got it just here that's why i told
you it's more coming out of the forearm it's like if i take my racket up up the net and go
no you're still doing it wrong don't come around look i'm here i'm blocking you you can't go here
look you're gonna hit me you're going the same side like this don't let this racket
go across this plane absolutely oh okay watch there you go that's all you need let's go here
to here no okay it's a finesse shot you're just lifting it up on the same side
same side where you hit it from huh rafa does it all the time they all do it on this particular
shot jokovic does this better does it so don't let it go no you can't if you do that you're
gonna overhit if you come around all the way you're going to overheat yeah do it again you
hit it a little too much too much over on this side stay off stay over here make it shorter
it's more of a finesse shot you don't need a full swing go again come on there you go that time is
more yeah it's going to feel more like a flick shot flick yes like out of here it's more out of
the arm the body's really not doing anything it's already the arm it's all yeah do it again come on
come here there it is man that's it here we go from here come on put it away
go again yeah you bring it down a little more come again
good job nice that's excellent shamir and now what about this one
okay that one actually was waist height so it was a little bit easier you caught it well do it again
there's the hop nice you got it and a high one again slam this one shamir come on
that is so good man come on hop hop up ah you got lucky there you see
you didn't quite lift it enough you got lucky
nice one there good job samir and here's a high one again slam this one so strong
another thing when it comes to these super easy balls like the high floaty ones and they for
example come to your backhand side it doesn't make any sense to hit a backhand because it's much more
difficult to put the ball away with the backhand okay so you always want to try to run around those
like sometimes i hit a really good shot after i hit that good shot sometimes the astro shot
brings you into the court but sometimes it doesn't sometimes you get a great shot from here but you
have to kind of come up to the baseline and then see how your opponent reacts and then you're
you're already at the baseline to get to the short walls easier than if you're already back here
okay what you're talking about is um reaction anticipation so i made a whole video on being
proactive versus reactive yeah so it turns out that all elite tennis players even like
federer djokovic they play reactive tennis so you can see this very easily when they
are waiting for the other person to strike the ball they are waiting until the ball has been
struck and then they make a move it's very easy to see just pick anybody on tv and the player who's
standing with the back to the tv and take a look when they make a move it's always after the other
person has struck the ball so that's what i call reactive tennis however there's an exception when
it's an obvious situation what is an obvious situation let's say you and i are playing
i'll give you an inside out forehand like this that's almost a winner and now obviously you're
going to be scrambling and there's very very little chance that you're going to do anything
with that ball in that case i can be proactive and i can start sneaking in and why would i do that
because most likely what's going to happen you're going to go like this you're going to reach you're
probably going to dump it short and now if i'm already in it's going to be a lot easier for me
to get the ball like that i can put it away much easier yeah however and this is not something that
you have trouble with you actually do a really good job with short balls but some players maybe
a little bit lower a recreational level 4.0 and below and they will panic okay so they will see a
high ball for example they will run in like crazy they will sprint up to a ball and now they end up
having the ball get behind them a little bit and the other position they have to play the ball
like back here and all of a sudden they can't hit a winner so it's really important that your
movement matches the situation so obviously if you're in control the rally and the ball is coming
kind of high you don't even even have to sprint to a ball like that you can just kind of gently
jog or these small little steps to the ball that you're in position but it's unnecessary to go
too fast and put yourself in a situation where you're overrunning the ball and jamming yourself
okay it makes sense again not something that you have trouble with uh but this is very often the
case at the rec level the players panic and they get in there a little bit too quick and
end up getting the ball behind them i'm so glad you bring that up because you do got to dance
with the ball when you get that high ball you just got to keep it in front of you you got to give it
have a safe distance for the ball and now you just got to dance and track it and follow it and make
sure that once it's in the right place and you set the balls in front of you and then you rip
it rip it for a winter yeah let me show you what i mean so here go on a bass line and i want you
to do it wrong on purpose just for demonstrative purposes now shamir run up there too quick and
let's see what happens here's a short high ball running there too quick well see that's another
thing that happens to a lot of players that try to take the ball right off the bounce yeah yeah
on a high ball it's completely unnecessary it makes the stroke super difficult when you try to
take it off the balance so it's okay to actually take it below the apex so you just come in there
wait for the ball to drop below the apex and now you have time to execute your shot try not to rush
those high balls here try it again and do it right this time let the ball come down a little bit
there you go see how comfortable that is yeah it's unnecessary to take any additional risk
just wait for that ball to drop below the apex and then you rip it actually feed me a highball i'll
show you what you should never do on a short ball is this let the ball get behind you here
and that's what happens to a lot of players they just run in there too fast by the time they get
there the ball is back here and now they're in a horrible situation they have no strength back here
so you got do i always take sharapova as an example you gotta have this super fast footwork and if you
ever watch sharapova for example swing volleys she's moving her feet and she's like stalking
the ball like this she's moving like crazy and she has unbelievable intensity yeah even on the
easiest shots ever another thing that happens shamir is that players are nonchalant on short balls
because they think the point's over they think oh look it's a super easy ball yeah i got the
point already one that they kind of relax and that's why i always use sharapova as an example
because pretend like the easiest ball is the most difficult ball in the world even something super
easy like this have a super fast footwork like this and the intensity has got to be out of this
world yeah because this is where you're going to avoid all the mistakes that we talk about
today by having a lot of intensity with your feet and being at the right place at the right time
well shamir the thing is that a lot of players they don't practice these balls either
you know if they play from the baseline a lot they just don't practice half court tennis yeah so i
would all my students i spent at least 15 minutes of every lesson at the half court feeding them
high balls low balls swing volleys uh i i treat this part of the court very seriously because it
is there's nothing more frustrating than playing an awesome rally moving the other person around
and almost hitting a winner the ball comes back super weak and then you miss that frustrating
uh half court ball did all that work to get the meat so you got you got to get the reps in you
got to put yourself in all these different scenarios and practice so that your body can
recognize it in math situations yeah and you can be therefore more consistent here do a couple more
to finish off this video i want you to really smack this one and kill the short ball shamir
you actually overran that a little bit i did yeah do it again
it was right in the corner though see that was a winner but i think it was
a little bit riskier than it needed to be yeah you know do it again more margin
that's another thing that's important to understand a length is really irrelevant
when it comes to half court tennis it's very similar to the overhead you don't really gain
much from trying to go long if you hit it hard and it's short with enough angle it's
going to be a winner anyway so angles are are more your friends angles and don't worry
about depth so much when you're hitting these shots that's more of like bass line thinness
that's baseline tennis and even there it's not necessarily a right to try to go super long
but that's another subject for another day when it comes to the half court shots
aim for just the service line area maybe a little bit behind that corridor between the
service line and the middle between uh the service line and the baseline don't go past
the middle of the service line in the baseline yeah and it's playing with fire it's too risky
and worst case scenario if it's not a winner the next shot will be the put away absolutely there
you go got a super easy volley all right do a couple more and go put this one away
there it is and last one shamir
oh you let it drop a little bit you have to be more careful take it just a tad higher here we
go come on i remember samir to hit the brakes when you get there okay hit the brakes right way
before the ball you're gonna start slowing down make this the shoe squeak okay i hit the brakes
okay maybe a little more angle but i like that one
but maybe more angle pull the ball off the court a little more yeah
hey there it is easy winner easy winner all right very nice from here good job
all right i got the racket tap down you do you learned it man thank you shamir thank you
oh no thank you no i think you're playing really well thanks