Alright my friend i got new balls yeah only new ones man we don't mess around over here are you trying your
best no i'm gonna play about twenty percent first one in? no i don't need that okay all right
make shots shamir you got to get into rally so you can get a rhythm okay
so shamir that's a classic mistake i see it all the time because you hit your ball
cross court you pulled me off the court and you saw the line open and then right
away you go for the winner down the line yeah that was not a good idea go cross-court again
again because i know the line is there but you gotta remember that's a low percentage shot
and especially early on when you don't have your rhythm yet you're not playing
so well you're gonna make a lot of mistakes when going down the line
okay so it's okay even though that that line is open it's okay to keep going cross-court
okay i was rushed well why were you rushed you really i didn't hit that great of an
approach shot and it's another classic mistake at the 4.5 level you went for the
re like passing shot winner right off the bat why don't you make me play volley
go for the safe shot don't necessarily in the middle pick a bigger target you went
for the line and of course you missed it yeah so make me hit a volley remember guys the four
4.5 level. might not necessarily have great volleys may hit it maybe at their feet or just
make them volley hit it strong like don't push it right but play it at a bigger target okay
yeah shamir
again so a couple of things on that shot you didn't set up well because that slice penetrated
through more than you expected it to correct you didn't make any adjustments with your feet you
didn't back up at all you just stood there and of course that the the pace of the ball pushed you
back and you hit it off the back foot remember our pulling back on the backhand lesson we said
you don't want to lift that front foot and fall backwards remember pulling backwards vs
falling backwards yeah that's what happened there you hit it hard too you were falling backwards and
hit it hard the chances of that passing shot going in are very low yeah okay so when that
happens when you feel yourself falling backwards hit it very softly you're going to miss for sure
but ideally you want to move your feet get behind the ball a little more
then you got a good chance to hit that just remember a slice that's low like that you
got to bend when the ball is low you got to get low got it all right come on all right
sean here you're playing tricks on me what was that like fake drop shot i didn't know what to do
i saw that i don't know that's why i said you look like you were gonna fake me out i was gonna do a
drop shot i saw that but then i just like let me just slice it down like then i hit too hard come
on make your mind up and also drop shot probably not the best idea it's a high risk shot unless you
have exceptional feel right i wouldn't necessarily go for that it's not wrong by any means yeah but
i would keep it in your back pocket as a special occasion type shot it's much more high percentage
to go slice and it doesn't have to be that hard and that long yeah as long as it's low okay okay
again you're too early pulling the trigger too quick shamir you're pulling the trigger way too
fast my man nothing wrong with continuing to rally staying in the point longer the point
does not have to end so fast yeah because that means you're gonna make tons of mistakes
generally it's good for you to be in longer rallies yeah because that's what's gonna give
you rhythm you're gonna make more shots you're gonna get more confidence and then
maybe later on when you're feeling better you can start going for some of these shots
but you're pulling the trigger way too fast right now too soon
i love forehand cross court good shot selection there
was that in okay we got look the other ball was very high
right you gotta back up you can't play it off the bounce
why would you lob me
because I haven't tried it yet so you lob me because you haven't tried it yet
think about the lot think about the logic of that i had an approach shot you got a guy who's 6'5
yeah it would have been and this is the third time i came in i think and you're already trying to lob
me that's interesting you're doing this because it's not only you the first instinct recreational
players often have is to lob right away yeah because i felt in the defense don't do it
so i was like don't do it give myself time lift the ball up high it won't work
yeah because you're tall and all that it's a very very difficult shot to put away so
just like the drop shot do it occasionally don't overdo it it's maybe possibly the most overused
shot at the rec level especially in doubles so i just should have hit a regular shot i
told you before why don't you make me hit a volley maybe i don't know how to volley you
haven't tested me yet i came into the net three times i have not hit one volley yet
that's because you kept missing everything that's true all right come on okay
there's another drop shot shamir here but i didn't hit it hard enough but what was that shot
selection there was a drop shot correct i was trying to go like this but what were you trying
to do with the ball yeah i was trying to hit short yeah are you listening to my previous tips
what did i say about drop shots every now and again and now and then it's my second one
already probably in a row in the same situation yeah nothing wrong with making me hit a passing
shot on the run put me a slice down the line and let's see what happens slice down the line
or passing shot drop shot is tough especially when the ball is very low because you have to hit it up
drop shots are easier when they're up higher okay but even when it's up higher you're better off
not overdoing it so much it's very easy to under hit it doesn't clear the net or it's
very easy to overhit it it's going to sit up for me i'm going to come in and put it away
it's like i'm always trying to finish it sooner i don't want to be in the you don't
want to be in the rally you want to just end these points so fast
all right shamir that's a good rally my man see it's okay if the other person misses
it still counts as a point if you hit a winner it's one point if i miss it's one point
counts the same endure the fight don't same up very smart from here you're getting smarter come on
excellent
higher shamir higher here's the deal when you get pushed outside the court you got to
give the ball more height even if you would have made that that was so low over the net
i would have probably hit a winner there so by you hitting it higher with spin you give yourself more
time to get back to the middle yeah and also it's a good shot selection it's a very safe shot to hit
on the run because obviously if you hit hard on the run it's low percentage yeah so i was pushed
to the right and because i was pushed i should have just lifted it deep with spin absolutely
get myself back in time together absolutely you get yourself give yourself some time
absolutely yeah yeah yeah he does that but he no on the elite level not only does he hit it he also
hits it very aggressively yeah changes the offense no they can hit offense from pretty much anywhere
yeah yeah but at this level that we're at right now what that means if you try to do too much
offense from defense situations it's going to mean tons of mistakes if you're feeling super confident
if you're like up in a match and you're feeling good but are you playing maybe it's okay to do
that engage your depending listen depends on how you're feeling if you're making a lot of mistakes
you're not going to start making balls on the run from defensive positions when you
try to hit them hard if you're playing well maybe you can do it maybe you can afford to take some
risk right but generally speaking play it safer when you're getting pushed to the side okay
hi listen you committed another classic rec level error which is you're trying to anticipate
my shot before i saw you which one the slice so what happened was i went like this you saw
it's going to be a slice and for whatever reason you thought i'm going to hit a cross-court she
started leaning over towards the cross-court side oh were you hitting it to my backhand
no here's what happened so i was you were doing it prior to the contact so i saw you moving towards
the backhand side prior to me making contact with the slice so in other words you probably
don't remember but you were anticipating where i was going yeah and so i saw that then easily
i changed my direction and i went down the line so i'm not being reactive so you got to
play reactive don't try to predict the future it's going to lead to a lot of mistakes yeah
you're going to get it wrong a lot of times so if you're feeling vulnerable with your backhand
it's you have a tendency to do that but don't do that just be reactive
be reactive you have better chances to win the point because you can easily observe the ball
in real time in other words i'm going to hit my slice and after i have hit it then you observe
observe the ball and you collect information from it and then you make a move accordingly
that's how tennis is played at the high level only in very extreme circumstances maybe
if somebody has a put away overhead or if it's like a put away forehand or if it's like ivo
karlovic or john isner serving players are forced to guess but generally speaking players
always make their move after the other person has struck the ball
with a racket then they make a move so this example i was moving before you prior so you
were proactive and you you know it was so easy for me to win the point because i saw you moving over
there went down the line you were in big trouble so i did that because i didn't want to hit a
backhand probably i don't know why you did it but just generally speaking you got plenty of time
observe the ball and then make a move accordingly yeah after i make contact got it all right
so i'm here how dare you
don't play cat mouse with me first of all you lob me which we weren't supposed to do
and then you had these then you had the audacity to drop shot me i'm sorry look what happened
not a big fan of that passing shot though
okay but be careful not to be on the other extreme where you're just
rolling the ball in i got a super easy volley you do want to maintain some speed on the forehand
don't push it in this volley is super easy rip it but in a more central location or if you want
to go down the line don't go for the line go like for the middle between the singles line and the t
and also on this side the same thing middle but go for it rip the return i mean sorry rip the passing
shot the passing don't don't just this is going to be easy volley right so if i had to put a little
4.5 5.0 they'll make volleys from that easily so the placement was okay but i didn't know
not necessarily a problem with the placement but you got to rip it but just more aggressive come on
come on come on come on come on shamir where you're at where are you at
on the line shamir on the line great return i love that
again what do you think was wrong what else i'm not set everything falls apart
i was so i was just like locked in my foot so basically we had the same situation
yeah a little while ago where i had a slice and you just stood there i just did that and the slice
had some penetration you had to back up same exact scenario yeah generally speaking the
only balls that you can kind of hold your ground and pick up are hard flat shots because anytime
you pick up a ball off the ground early right off the bounce you're going to be reducing your stroke
so you're going to be dealing with like a half a stroke or three quarter stroke what does that
require that requires pace from the incoming ball not only that but the ball also has to be clean
that's like a block shot then not really a block block is like a very very small so i'm talking
about half a swing so it's still a little bit of a swing okay like a bunt okay so what is the slice
the opposite of a hard flat ball what's the top spin ball the opposite of that the ball is going
to be very lively after the bounce therefore it's not good to try to take those early off
the bounce and try to hold your ground you have to back up yeah a lot let the ball lose a little
a little bit pace and also the ball is very unpredictable after the bounce this is where
footwork comes in you got to set it up you got to set the ball up if you stand there you're at
the mercy of the ball the ball might take a weird turn after the bounce and you're just not able to
uh get out of the way and now you're going to be making a lot of mistakes that's what happened that
backhand exactly the same thing the ball went through the cord more than you're expecting you
hit it off the back foot you hit it hard too no chance that that backhand is going to go in
exactly yeah i agree all right so next time you got to start moving your feet when i come in okay
yes shamir that's the way to beat a moon baller
yes shamir there it is so that was excellent what you did on that return the reason why is number
one you put a lot of spit on there so it was there was safety there yeah and you hit a cross-court
was it on purpose or was it kind of a shank well i always generally try to aim for the middle so
you hit that you hit that a little too early maybe yeah end up cross court
that's the great thing about going down the middle because you get accidental winners that
yeah that way you know you were aiming for the middle you hit it a little bit early and ended
up as a cross-court winner right nobody knows i think you were aiming cross court
right yeah so just keep that to yourself okay don't don't tell anyone ok
shamir maybe the best return you hit today excellent
game set match shamir that was too good way too good