Steal This Drill: Aggressive Groundstrokes
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 09:10AM CAtennis 
Are you the type of player who's been told that you play too far behind the baseline? If so, this one of the drills that you may want to incorporate into your tennis routine. As the first diagram on the left shows, the further back you play, the less court that you have to "work with". You simply cannot generate sharp angles that are designed to make your opponent run. Furthermore, regardless of how hard you hit the ball, the ball takes an extra half-second ( = to distance between your position (red "X") and your baseline) to cross the net - thereby providing the opponent with ample opportunity to recover. Thus you are relegated to being a grinder - welcome to my world. Conversely, the closer to the net you are (blue "X") the more angles you can generate and, consequently, the more court your opponent has to cover (in a shorter time period). The more miles he puts on his odometer, the greater the likelihood the he will run out of gas and bag it.
Now, you have probably heard this advice before: "you know what?! You play from way too far behind the baseline. You should play closer in." Brilliant, right?! I've heard the same thing many times before. Although the advice is sound, things are not, however, all that simple. First, if you make your home "in the vineyard" (i.e. 10ft+ behind the baseline) your footwork is tailored to long distance running - that is, relatively slow but can go on all day. In addition, your strokes are suited for generating your own pace since, by the time the ball gets to you (or you get to it), the opponent's shot has lost some steam. Lastly, since you don't deal with a lot of low balls, your balance is also a bit out of tune.
To fix this from a practical point of view (this is what CAtennis is all about), try performing the drill in the second diagram above. Basically, the players stay inside the baseline and, at first, rally to get a feel for the new court positioning; thereafter, they play practice points (either baseline games or figure-8s). The rule, for points, is that you cannot step behind the baseline or you "fall off the cliff" and lose the point (stepping outside the service line is OK). Players should look for rallies and not charging the net off the feed. The beauty of this game is that sometimes you have to "short hop" the groundstrokes and, other times, you must step in aggressively and take the ball out of the air (swinging volley or regular volley). For the most part, however, you can practice hitting aggressive volleys.
The player will notice that a change in positioning will require adjustments in the strokes as well as an attitudinal shift. To master playing from this zone, your footwork must become faster, your center of gravity must become lower (oh baby, do those lunges come in handy now...) and your preparation more efficient. You will learn to use your opponent's pace and redirect without having to generate much of your own. Does this mean that you MUST play from closer in on all points? No, you can do whatever the heck you want. But if you want to be a good player you need to become comfortable playing from everywhere around the court - 10 ft back and 10ft in. Otherwise you are relegated to playing the part of a retriever for the rest of your career. A good tennis player, however, is comfortable under all situations and capable of doing what's necessary to overcome the obstacles that the opponent is throwing her way.
For more helpful information, please friend us on Facebook.
Reader Comments (2)
Whenever I try to play a few shots from inside the baseline during a rally, its amazing how it steals time away from my opponent - I can actually see my opponent slightly panicking that the ball is coming back already. 90% of the time my opponent is surprised and kind of out of position or hits an error. Unfortunately, I still prefer to camp out behind the baseline since it gives me more time to hit and its more comfortable because of that. I almost have to outright force myself to move inside the baseline during a rally, but it usually pays off.
Remember - you have to flow like water. Play the shots that are called for under the situation. Just like water, ally gentle pressure "forwards" towards the court...but if the opportunity os not there flow back and flow in. However, playing closer requires slightly different strokes, mentality and movement..you have to learn how to cycle through the steps smoothly - like an automatic transmission. But these are the drills to teach you how to make the necessary adjustments.