Working on hands through different variations

How to do the “bad dink” drill with your partner 👊

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Hot Takes are Back 🔥

Why it’s important to drill with players worse than you

A lot of players I talk to are worried about the level of their drilling partners. While it’s usually best to be drilling with someone of your level, or even slightly better, there is definitely a certain percentage of your drilling sessions you should be working with someone below your level. Aside from the confidence you can gain by repeatedly wiping the floor with your friend, these practices can be really beneficial for you. Next time you drill with someone below your level, try focusing on a few of these details to get the most out of your practice:

• Opportunities: when drilling at the kitchen line with someone below your level, chances are they will be popping the ball up at a higher rate. You can use this as practice leaning in, deciding which dinks to take out of the air, and which one’s you can speed up on. 

• Attacks: This is your time to experiment with some of the attacks that don’t come as natural for you. For example, I’m most comfortable hitting my backhand flick crosscourt or through the middle. When I’m in these types of practices, maybe I’ll play a dink game where I only hit my backhand flick down the line. 

• Mid-court aggression: The better you get, the more you have to pick and choose your poaches and speedups through the mid-court. If your someone that naturally likes to reset the ball at the mid-court, look to work on your aggression and take some risks poaching.

Let’s talk returns 🏆

As you get better and better, your return will be under constant pressure from big serves and drives as you approach the kitchen. It’s a very underrated shot - if you can make your opponent out of position on their 3rd shot you’re at an even bigger advantage as the return team. As far as strategy when returning, here are a couple things to think about:

• Returning cross court when unwinding the stack. Your team is typically at its most vulnerable unwinding the stack. Returning deep cross court will give you the most time to get to the kitchen. It also forces your opponent to hit it down the line towards you, which is tougher than cross court because there is less angle to get the ball low. 

• Returning to the inside foot of the right side player is a good spot to test out early. This is a ball a left side player will often take with their forehand. Or they might opt to crash and let the right side player take it. It’s a good idea to test the communication here early. 

• Pick and choose your moments. It’s beneficial to be aggressive in the return against players who struggle to get to the kitchen. It’s even worth a miss or two depending on the game. You also don’t have to be aggressive on every return - maybe if it’s deep to your backhand you hold off, but short to the forehand you rip it hard. 

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