Learn the intricacies of the topspin backhand dink

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Making your 3rd shot decisions 🔥 

One thing I’ve noticed after teaching a lot of clinics is how a lot of players seem to be searching for some secret formula for making third shot decisions. In reality, pro’s are doing what you’re doing out there - figuring it out! Different coaches teach the approach differently. In my opinion, what works best is to have a specific set of rules for yourself that you follow, no matter the day, opponent, and score. Even when I teach 3 and me’s I follow this rule of thumb:

 1. If the return lands within 2-3 feet of baseline and is clearly strong, drive it

2. If I’m contacting the ball well inside the court and above my hips, drive it

3. If I’m contacting the ball well inside the court and low, drop it (unless you’re totally scrambling)

I would define “well inside the court” as 3-4 full steps into the court, so #2 and #3 are referring to pretty short returns. To me these are the only rules I must follow for my game to be consistently effective at the highest level. If you’re taking a short low return and driving upwards at a pro, good luck because that ball is coming right back at your feet. Running back off a really good return? Have fun trying to hit a perfect drop.

Once again, there’s no secret sauce for the rest of my third shot decision making, aside from guidelines like this you want to make for yourself. You want to play to your strengths as much as possible until you realize your strength is playing into their strength. One important reminder is to not bail out of your 3rd shot strategy too early. I don’t like hearing as a coach “I tried driving the last two and it didn’t work so I started dropping all my thirds.” It shouldn’t be this black and white. Did you hit your targets on your drives? Did you even try driving it at both players? How about when the weaker player is unwinding the stack? There’s so many variables, that you need to be fluid in your decision making, so don’t put too much emphasis on it. As you keep playing I promise you the game will slow down in your mind and the decisions will become increasingly instinctive.

How to maximize your advantage as a lefty with Max 👌

1. Forehand drive and crash: I would argue that the biggest advantage of being a lefty is your team’s ability to crash from both sides. The typical play to avoid the crash is to return to the left sider, so if the other player wants to crash they have to with a backhand. If a lefty can become comfortable getting up there and at least looking to poach with the forehand, you take away the most common safe spot. Perfecting the forehand drive to set your partner up is also huge, so you always feel like your team has a crash play as an option.

2. Backhand counter: As a lefty, you’ll always have a forehand behind you protecting your middle. I’m not suggesting you should be cheating backhand all the time, but if a lefty can totally shut down their body/sideline with their backhand (when the ball is in front of them), there’s only really one spot for they can be beat with: chicken wing. Anything wider than a lefty’s chicken wing is their partners ball. Similarly, your partner can kind of sit on their backhand, and trust that a lefty will be home in the middle.

3. Two handed cross court backhand dink. I personally think it’s much easier to hit topspin dinks off the backhand side than forehand. If you can develop a consistent, penetrating dink to your right side opponents forehand, this is a rally they will usually want no part of. A lefty should never be the first one to bail out of this rally - make them get out of it. You’ll start seeing more balls in the middle and even open up the Erne for your partner.

4. Fourths: My biggest weakness might be my fourths and it’s totally not ok. A lefty can really help out their partner getting up on a return by clogging the middle. Any sort of high-ish middle ball needs to be clobbered by the lefty if they are already up. Just as a left side player will sometimes come all the way over to help their partner out while they’re coming in, there’s no reason a lefty shouldn’t be doing this too.

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