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TENNIS BLOG Tennis Articles Avoid the three capital sins of the backhand slice attack! | Avoid the three capital sins of the backhand slice attack! |
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| Written by Sergio Cruz | |||
| Apr 12, 2010 at 10:50 AM | |||
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As a coach or teacher you can hold your breath until your face is blue, while trying to teach players how to avoid the three capital sins of the backhand attack! In fact you may even die with a stroke, but pupils are not going to do what you say until they get beaten over and and over! Why? Are pupils in general obtuse? No! Do they think they know better? No! (may be!) Are they gluttons for punishment? No! Do they prefer to lose? No! Why then? The reason is simple. For as long as the 'big stars' (Federers, Roddicks, Sampras and others) do it, however dumb the play may be, tennis fans will follow and do it too! Nevertheless there is a time a player can be a fan and there is a time a player has to learn to think for himself. This breach with the fan world often leads to great improvements, because the player is no longer trying to identify himself with someone else but rather wants to assert is own self, his own self-worth as well as his own goals on his own terms. Hope you have overcome your fan-magoguery! (sort of similar to demagoguery). Because I am going to clean house right at the top. In the images that follow you will understand me better. This is captured from the first and only ATP match between Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. Given the status of Pete Sampras 'Perfect Pete' you would not think crass decisions would make part of his repertoire, but then again 'nobody is perfect'! Capital sin Nr. 1 of the attack: Do not land your left foot first! - On the backhand attack land your right foot early behind the ball and glide forward in a running step with your left foot.
As you can see in this sequence, when Pete Sampras lands the right foot (late ball contact was previous to right foot landing)
becomes blocked and that hinders his ability to move fast toward the net.
If Pete Sampras modern approach was well
executed it would result in the same effectiveness as the classic approach (with the carioca step) here demonstrated by
Yanick Noah ,
Yanick Noah classic attack!
Very few in all eras will ever come close
to the fluidity and nimbleness in the attack that Yanick demonstrates! Capital sin Nr. 2 of the attack: Unless you have your opponent
completely out of the court
in one side or he can not hit a passing shot, Do not attack cross court!!
In the next frame Pete makes his second capital sin in the attack, he ignores the fact
that Roger Federer is perfectly centered in the court
(in other words the middle of the court) and in an act of self
destruction or sheer arrogance, Sampras decides to attack cross court! When the down the line approach-shot
was the one to play! The arrogance or lack of
discipline cost Pete this point and only boosted Roger Federer's confidence whom you will see clenching is fist!
In the picture below you can see Roger in the middle of the court, while Pete by playing the ball cross leaves a huge gap
for Roger to pass him left or right.
- The passing shot by Roger is pure pro-forma, Pete left so much space to cover
on either side that barely makes an attempt at the volley and Roger obliges with a relatively poor placed passing and a
'thanks Pete' followed by a fist pump!
- If you compare
the two situations, picture above and picture below, it becomes evident, that with your
opponent well centered
in the court the play is down the line!
For the sake of helping you visualize, in the image below I created the situation where
the attack cross court is the right decision.
Capital sin Nr. 3 of the attack: If you made the mistake of attacking cross court and leave
yourself a gargantuan gap on one side do not hurry to cover it or try to cover both sides like Pete did, it is fatal!
In a situation identical to Pete's, use a deceptive tactic, move in behind the ball but show no intention of covering
the huge gap on your right. In fact pretend to cover your left. - Most opponents will not resist
the temptation and will try to pass you down the line. Just before contact (when your
opponent has his eyes locked onto the ball) make a quick dash to the right and you may be able to put the volley away!
- If he decides to go cross court you will read it because by holding your position on the left you
are not too busy or in a hurry to cover two huge gaps and you have more time to see and react to the play.
Hope you Enjoyed!
Sergio Cruz
Back from Avoid the three capital sins of the backhand slice attack!
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