[Applause] foreign Collegiate tennis we had a saying at Vanderbilt
give your opponent enough rope to hang themselves and simply what we're asking of our players was
to put one more ball in play so putting one more ball into play is just you giving them the chance
to pick it up so in this video I'm going to show you how to defend like a champ let's start with
the mindset a lot of players are reluctant to scrap and throw themselves around on the court
because it doesn't look pretty uh and it was Flash the scoreboard really doesn't care whether you win
a point by playing defense or hitting a winner but the bottom line will look a whole lot different
so if you take pride in defending Pride enforcing errors instead of going for shots that you may not
have or that are not appropriate you're going to win a lot more matches the first rule of Defending
is to get back into a good defensive position and create time so you have the time to get into that
good spot of recovery so you want to get away from this and this to a well-balanced position
where you can cut off angles again where you can look to move forward when you're being pulled
off the court do your darnest to go Cross Court do your darnest to get some height on the ball
Cross Court will allow the ball to travel longer a longer distance that creates time and of course
height the ball also travels longer so that is what you need you create the time for you to move
back into your appropriate defensive position if you're on the run from all the way on the
outside to over here and you're trying now to slap a winner down the line don't do this this is dumb
um yeah you might make one out of ten and it feels awesome but you're still going to lose the match
the same goes when you're all the way back here when you're being pushed off the Baseline you
want to return the ball high and heavy lots of topspin so you have time to move forward again
and be ready to jump on offense if the situation calls for it hey by the way did you see this point
[Applause]
thank you
[Applause]
oh it's ridiculous if you're completely opposition throw up Sky balls nobody cares
because if Andy Murray can do it and he thinks that's a good tactical decision
then I think we should probably take a look at it and do that as well use your slice to
defend the backspin will also slow your own ball down and that again gives you time to recover
the added benefit of course is on a slice that ideally the ball is low and that means
that your opponent has to move up to the ball and possibly lift the ball which also makes it slower
and again that gives you more time to recover especially when people have really extreme grips
and or a two-handed backhand a slice is a great way to dig yourself out of a hole because with
either of those shots extreme grips and a two-handed backhand it's really difficult to
get under the ball if you're comfortable hitting slices work on both a shorter and a deeper slice
because especially that shorter slice opens angles it pushes your opponent off the court and it also
pulls them up so moving diagonally to a ball is difficult for a lot of people who just like to run
right and left now by definition when somebody's attacking you they have the upper hand they're
the attacker and it's not the easiest nor the smartest decision to try to hit a really precise
shot when you're somewhere on the run so much better idea is to neutralize that first ball and
take a cue from pickleball
dip the ball down to the approacher's feet if you manage to get the ball low they have to lift it
which slows the ball down which is a much tougher first volley to play and that gives you time for a
much more balanced position to get into because yeah if it's a slower ball you get to the ball
hopefully a little quicker and better bounced the second option then also is to just throw
a lob over them after you dip the ball down low because you pull them in and a lot of players then
may you get up to the first volley but they're not recovering appropriately they're just stuck
at net that's when you lob them regardless of level getting the serve back is crucial
now whereas at lower levels a good idea to defend against harder serfs is to just simply move back
just step back one or two steps to give yourself more time the next thing that you may have to do
is instead of taking a huge swing foreign you just shorten up your take back the higher you
get in the ratings of course the serve is a weapon but not just the serve also the next
ball of your return serve plus one you hear that all the time so here's a great drill
to neutralize that first serve and take away the option of yeah attacking the second ball
what you're trying to do is literally Ram that ball straight back at them just get
the ball deep through the middle that jams them that takes away angles that they need
to hit a successful second ball I do know that it's not necessarily always the pace
of the serve that poses a problem for players how do you return a dink surf a slower ball
that pulls you in and you tend to overhit well got a solution for that watch this video here
I wanted it Cross Court