AMA: Frustrating Partners, Attacking I-Formation, Practice Themes, Lobs, and more...

In this AMA episode, I answer questions from players I've coached recently, as well as Tennis Tribe Members.

You'll learn how to respond when an opponent has a clear pattern that keeps beating you, an in-depth breakdown of I-Formation, practice ideas, and how to play with non-strategically minded partners.

The first 3 are free to all, while you'll need to become a member for the last 3.

1. How to handle someone who hits sharp angles.
2. What to do if someone keeps lobbing the return vs the I-formation.
3. How to play doubles with a partner who isn't interested in strategy and just "smacks the ball."
4. Member only: The best way to attack the I-formation, and what to consider.
5. Member only: All the different ways to cover the lob after you get a short, approach shot.
6. Member only: 12+ themed practice ideas for a 90-minute clinic, and how I think about planning drills.

If you're in the Miami area and want to sign up for my doubles camp on April 18-19, we do have a couple of spots left. Shoot me an email (will[at]thetennistribe.com) or sign up here.

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Transcript

AMA Setup And What’s Ahead

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Hey everyone, welcome to the show. Today we're going to do an AMA episode. So I've got six questions here that are from tennis tribe members, and then a couple of them are uh questions from a recent high school match where uh my players on the high school team are around club level, so it's uh very similar, and then also a question from a recent doubles camp that I ran. Uh these questions are surrounding um when the opponent has a big tendency. So in this case, it was a sharp cross-court forehand, how to handle that. I'm gonna talk about eye formation. There was actually uh two different questions about eye formation, um, how to handle it if somebody has a good lob return against eye formation, uh, if you're using it, and then also what is the best way to attack eye formation as the return team? Another question surrounded uh being frustrated with uh this person's doubles partner because they weren't very focused on strategy. This happens a lot. If you listen to this podcast, you probably love strategy, you love implementing formations and tactics, but sometimes you'll play with players who aren't that into strategy, and that's okay. So I'm gonna talk about how I handled that. Um, and then at the end, I got an email from a coach uh a month or two ago, and he asked me for some themed practice ideas for his adult league players. So I'm gonna share with you exactly how I responded to his email. Um, I gave him about 12 different uh ideas for practice themes. So I'm gonna share that at the end, and that'll be um for members only. So these first three questions are gonna be uh free for everyone, and then if you want the answers to the last three, um, you can join Tennis Tribe memberships. Any level of membership gets access to the premium podcast feed. Uh before I dive into the questions, uh, I'm recording this on Thursday, the 16th. It's been a little bit since I've released a podcast. I was busy last week um training with a WTA player and then also had my doubles camp here in uh the Dallas Fort Worth area, um, which was really successful. We had a lot of fun. I'm gonna release some new content around that uh in the next month or two. Uh this weekend, I am heading to Miami. So I'm going to Miami tomorrow. Uh I am hosting with Racks and Rackets another doubles camp. We're actually going to do two different sessions, a morning and an afternoon session. I'm going to try to release this podcast either later today or tomorrow, which would be Friday. Um, if you're in the Miami area and want to sign up last minute, we do have a couple of spots left. So you can shoot me an email or I will link uh below in the show notes to where you can sign up. My email is will at the tennistribe.com. If you have any questions, or if you're in the Miami area and want to uh join me for the weekend, it's gonna be a ton of fun. We're gonna learn uh poaching and play calling and a lot of different club level tactics. Uh, and then lunch is provided on Saturday where I'll be doing a strategy presentation. Um so you're gonna get a lot of tennis in with me on the court with you, providing personalized feedback just like I do with all of my camps. Uh, and then also um we're gonna have a happy hour Saturday evening as well. So let me know if you want to sign up for that. So let's dive into this first question. So this was from a recent high school match. Um, this was actually earlier this week. Uh one of my girls' teams was facing a strong team, a team that was in a division higher than us. And the opponent in the deuce court had a really good forehand, and she kept hitting really sharp cross-court forehands. And I walked over to our girls on the changeover, uh, and I hadn't watched the match because there's a lot of matches going on. Um, so I had just walked up to their court, it was maybe mid-first set, and I said, What's happening? Uh, what's going on, what's working, what's not. And they said, This girl in the Deuce court is hitting really sharp cross-court forehands, and we're struggling with it. We're not sure what to do. Um, and it's especially happening on returns. So she was getting them on defense. So there were a few ways that I had them handle this. Um, the first thing, if you have control over your serve, if you can place it more down the T, then you're gonna take away her angles. So that's the first thing. On first serves, if you can try to target the backhand side, um, or even if she hits a runaround forehand, by playing this person through the middle of the court, whether it's on your serve or even during the rally, you're gonna take away their angles and their ability to hit their favorite shot, which is this uh dipping cross-court uh short forehand. Um, it was a very, very sharp angle. So playing through the middle of the court is a good idea, whether you're serving T or even on your serve plus one shot, if you can just lob it through the middle of the court, um, that's gonna take away her angles. Another good option is to use the Australian formation. So if we set up our net player where that sharp cross-court forehand is crossing the net, then all of a sudden she's gonna be hitting down the line. So that is something worth testing against players like this. So when you notice a return tendency, they have a favorite return, they like to hit it a certain direction. Just put your net player there and see if they can hit it the other direction. In this case, the girl could. She could go down the line. So that was a difficult proposition for us. So we tried to serve T on the first serves, and then if we weren't able to do that, if we ended up giving uh the opponent a second serve, um, our girls don't have quite enough control to serve down the T with the second serve. Um so this girl was able to easily hit four hands, uh, sharp cross-court. So what I had them do is hit that serve and then shift to the right to cover that shot. And then that serve plus one shot, I had them hit a simple lob back through the middle of the court, like I said earlier, and that took away the angles, right? If somebody likes to run side to side, and this also happened recently in a singles uh high school match, but if somebody likes to run side to side, then don't let them play them through the middle of the court. If somebody's really good at hitting angles, if they hit really good passing shots when you take them out wide, then don't take them out wide. Hit them through the middle of the court. Um, the the key to this though, generally at the club level, is most players aren't going to have both of those shots. So most players in the deuce court, if they like that sharp cross-court forehand, they probably don't like to hit it down the line as much. So get your net player in the way of their favorite target as the serve team. That is one of the best strategies that you can use to force more return errors and to win more service games. So that's how we handled that one. Uh, let's move on to question number two. This is from a tennis tribe member. Uh Fiona asked, if someone has a good lob return, should you play I formation? I'm thinking not as if I play regular formation and the returner lobs my partner. I'm usually fast enough to cross and pick it up. Um so she's talking about, let's say I'm serving to the deuce court uh in regular formation and that lob comes down the line. She's saying she's fast enough to run to your left over to the ad court and pick it up. And then she went on to say, however, if I was playing I and served to the ad court and crossed to my right to the deuce side, it would be difficult to change direction and go back to my left to cover a lob on my ad side. What are your thoughts? So hopefully you can visualize that. Um, if again, let's go to the ad court, for example. Um, we're playing I formation, we're having our net player go left. So I'm serving in I formation, and then I'm shifting to my right to cover a down-the-line return from an ad court player. But instead, they lob cross court. So as I shift to my right, they lob me uh or lob my net player, and it goes to my left. So I'm shifting to my right, and then I have to change direction to my left. So that is difficult. Um, and the first thing I would say to handle this is the best way to handle this is to shift your net player back a little bit. So if your net player can line up in eye formation, and then as soon as that serve goes in, just take a few steps back. If they're quick enough to get back and have a good overhead, then that's the ideal scenario, right? If you can get an overhead for your net player, then that is the ideal scenario. But if the opponent has a good lob, that can be difficult. So what can we do to make that lob land a little bit shorter or even prevent the lob altogether? So I want you to notice from this returner, Fiona, are they more comfortable lobbing from their forehand or backhand side? And then can you hit it, hit your serve to the side that they're less comfortable lobbing on? So most lobbers at the club level have a very good lob from one side or the other. In their weaker side, the lobs will land a lot shorter. So you can use that kind of in combination and have your net player back up a little bit, and they'll get an overhead from around the service line, maybe even inside the service line. So we want to focus on the return weaknesses first, and then we can worry about kind of how to cover the lob. But I don't want you to think you have to cover this very, very difficult lob if we can go ahead and just prevent it, right, by serving to their weaker side. Another thing you can do is use eye formation and have the net player go to the right. So that way you don't have to go to the um the right and your net player doesn't have to go left. So after you serve to the ad chord, if you start shifting left, you'll be able to easily cover that lob. When you say um in this question, it seems like you're never calling your net player to go to the right. So for anybody listening, if you use eye formation, you should not have your net player go the same way every time. You want to mix it up on the returner. So eye formation can be very beneficial in the ad court because, as the server, if you're right-handed, you can run to your right and hit a forehand groundstroke if that's your strength. And then your partner at the net has a four-hand volley in the middle during that down-the-line rally. But we don't want the opponent getting in a rhythm hitting that down-the-line return. So occasionally you should have your net player go to the right. As the opponent hits that down-the-line return, your net player can go get that ball, right? And that will put more stress on the returner. So we don't want to have that net player going the same way every time. And in this case, if they keep lobbing cross-court, just have your net player go to the right, you can shift to the left and cover that. Um, again, I'd prefer your net player to get an overhead. We'd love the net player to get the serve plus one ball as much as possible. But if the lob is really good and you can't quite direct your serve to a weaker side, or maybe there's such a good returner that there's not a clear weakness, then you can have your net player go right. You can still shift to the left and cover that. So you're basically shifting back into regular formation. Of course, you can just use regular formation. I think that's a good idea if the opponent has a really strong lob return and they don't lob against regular. So the lob return is a really consistent return. They're not going to miss a lot of returns. So, and it's more effective at the club level than it is at the pro level. So, because of that, if I can prevent them from even hitting a lob return, if they have a tendency to hit out on the ball against regular and then always lob against I, I might use more regular because they might miss a lot more when they hit out on the ball, versus if they hit a really good lob return, they're kind of putting us on defense and neutralizing our serve. The next kind of counter move to this lob return though, is to take it early. So this is a little bit more advanced, it's kind of difficult, but it's something you can work on with a ball machine or with a coach or even with your doubles partner if you have a basket of balls. If you can hit that serve, have your net player move right out of eye, or even play regular, um, it'll probably be easier out of eye and having them go right, you go left. If you can hit a swinging volley or somehow take that lob early, even if you can get there in time to hit an overhead from behind the service line, then that's going to be a great counter move to the lob because it's taking time away from them. Any team that lobs is trying to buy themselves time and trying to kind of neutralize the point. So that's a way to stay on offense. Again, it's a difficult shot, it's a very advanced shot. But if you're at a higher skill level, then you can do that. And if you're not, it's something you can work on. It's something you can improve again with a ball machine or with a coach if you have a basket of balls. And then the last and kind of safest option is just to lob it back. So you can get into kind of a lob battle. This is obviously very common uh at the club levels, but whoever can lob it a bit deeper in the court is generally going to be able to get out of the lob battle and win the battle and uh draw a short ball for your net player to hit that overhead, or for you to step in and take the ball early and get on offense and attack. So that's how I would think about that. Um, I think the key uh Fiona for you is just to call different movement patterns out of that eye formation. You do not have to have your net player go to the left every time. You want the net player to be moving in different directions, to be a little bit unpredictable for that returner. Uh, and that will allow you to get to your left in the ad court, for example, quicker to cover that lob. Next question is from Debbie. Debbie said, Hi, Will, uh, this morning was so frustrating. I tried uh so hard to stay focused, keep moving my feet, etc. But playing with someone, a guy who has no strategy, just wants to smack the ball, bad movement, doesn't hide frustrations, etc., is so very hard. I'm lost what to do. I wanted to suggest trying a different formation, but I just did not feel he'd be open to it. I'm just lost in these situations. It totally affects my play. Any suggestions? Thanks, Debbie. So, Debbie, this is a really common situation, right? I hear this a lot because I have people like you who follow my content, listen to my podcast. Um, you're a tennis tribe member, so you're really advanced with your strategy and you love to implement strategy just like I do. Um, and I run into this too, right? I'll go out and play with players who play tennis for the workout, and they just like the feel of hitting a tennis ball. Um, they're not that interested in the strategy and the tactics and the formations, all this stuff, and that's okay. Not everybody's going to be like that. Um, this podcast and my content is not for everybody. Some people would rather go do cardio tennis and just get a workout in, and that's fine. But what do you do when you run into this situation? So um, the first thing I would say is to try to come up with strategies based on what the guy is doing already. So it sounds like this was a mixed doubles match and he hits the ball really hard. You said he smacks the ball. Um, he doesn't have good movement, he has no strategy. Uh so if he hits the ball really hard, I imagine his rally tolerance is very low. So he might make one ball, maybe two, and that third ball he's gonna miss. A lot of times he'll miss the first or second ball. So if that's the case, if he's hitting the ball hard and he's not able to hit, be consistent from the baseline and hit uh hit three, four, five shots in a row, then you probably need to cross at the net very early. Right? You probably need to uh take the cross-court shot away from the opponent early on, because if you allow him to get into an extended rally, he's going to miss. So because he's hitting the ball so hard as well, opponents are gonna have a tough time redirecting his shots. So, first chance you get, honestly, I would do this on the first ball. So if he's hitting his return really hard, then you should just poach. And the opponents are gonna have a tough time redirecting that ball because he hits the ball so hard. And then you're preventing him from having to hit a second, third, fourth ball because you know he's gonna miss, right? If the opponent can consistently just bump the ball back cross court, just hit the ball back to where it came from, then your partner is gonna start missing. But if you can force the opponent to redirect on that first ball off of his hard shot, then you're gonna force a lot of errors, and then you'll get some volleys as well. So that's the first thing I would think about is just coming up with strategies. And I don't know anything else about this guy other than you said he hits the ball hard. But think about coming up with strategies based on what he is already doing. The other thing that I've done in the past, and this is difficult, um, since you're a member, uh, you probably have access. If you're a club level member, you have access to the Tennis Tribe um webinar archive. So you can go back to my webinar on partner communication. Uh, but the language you use with these type of players uh can help as well. So you can suggest things without saying, do you want to try eye formation or do you want to try two back? So one way I like to phrase this, especially with players who hit the ball really hard and they they kind of overplay from the baseline and make too many errors, I'll tell them something like this I think we're better than this team, so we just have to not beat ourselves. Honestly, I don't think we have to go for too much. So that kind of gets them in the mindset of playing a little bit more consistently. Um, you might also say, I'm gonna go for big targets, I'm gonna keep everything cross-court because I think we have a good cross-court matchup, and there's no reason for us to take any risk. What do you think? And that'll kind of open up the dialogue a little bit for him to not necessarily be open to formations and play calling and that sort of stuff, but to come up with a more broad strategy of like not hitting with 99% power, but maybe going for you know 60, 70% power. So if you can take ownership of that yourself and use some of the language, again, that webinar, um, I share a lot more information on that, uh, then I think it makes players like that adjust slightly and play a bit more consistently. And then from there, you can go back to my first point on coming up with strategies based on what that player is already doing. And then the last thing I would say to you, Debbie, is view this as a challenge. So being able to play and win with different partners is a skill that you can develop and you can work on. So not everybody's gonna be into formations, like I said, not everybody's gonna be into tactics and play calling and all this stuff. So it's a challenge for you to be able to win with partners who aren't as consistent, who do try to hit the ball really hard, who aren't the smartest players on the court. How can you still win with those players? So if you view it as a challenge, maybe you won't let it affect your play as much. And maybe you can turn it into kind of a fun game slash challenge that you uh you want to work on. So these next three are going to be um about attacking eye formation, uh, about covering the lob, especially on uh shortballs. So when you have an approach shot, how do we think about the best approach target? And then how do we think about covering the lob when me and my partner both get to the net? And then the themed practices at the end. These are going to be for tennis tribe members only. Um so if you are listening to the free version of the podcast, you can go to the tennistribe.comslash memberships to uh sign up and get my response to these next three questions. Uh if you're listening to the member feed, then um let's dive into these next three questions.