The second shot pass is a basic strategy when your opponent takes the net – for your do want information about their volleying skills
This play works best when the volleyer is centered which then reduces the volleyers natural angles.
But in the main, this play creates pressure, challenges the volleyer to come up with the goods, and gives yet another chance to the opponent to miss their volley – for in a second shot pass that first volley may simply be missed.
Way way too often we face opponents who may volley poorly, but we cannot find out unless we give them the chance to miss.
In boxing this would be known as counter punching – where one jabs repeatedly and waits for the opponent to throw a real punch, which may create the opening for the “counter punch.”
The Art of Winning, though not always easy to apply, concerns the mental distress you create when your opponent makes repeated errors on the same shot.
Your second shot pass concept is so sensible and obvious that it isn’t! I’ve unfortunately being on the wrong end of that all too many times until I began to learn the error of my ways and change my approach. And studying the opponent’s tendencies doesn’t hurt, either. Keep ’em coming and I hope you are still reading my column. After three years, no death threats yet! Cheers, Bud
Bud – thanks for this, I learned this from playing the best player in the south many years ago – once learned I still lost to him, but used the same concept against everyone from then on !!!
best
Jim
I really enjoy your videos and analysis, Jim! Thank you. You always connect it to a story and real match examples. Great analogy with boxing. Giving your opponent chance to miss and get the valuable information, priceless. One of my good friends, a Canadian, who played the pro tour in the 70s, Dale Power, has always talked about “locking someone in the pattern” and I was on a receiving end of it when we played some sets:) speaking of notes, one of French musketeers, I believe either Henry Cocher or Lacoste always scouted his opponents and had a note book of their patterns and what they do well or not. Kind of vintage or pioneering version of what Brad Gilbert’s came up with in “who is doing what to whom” in “Winning ugly”…
4 Comments
bud light
April 13, 2018Your second shot pass concept is so sensible and obvious that it isn’t! I’ve unfortunately being on the wrong end of that all too many times until I began to learn the error of my ways and change my approach. And studying the opponent’s tendencies doesn’t hurt, either. Keep ’em coming and I hope you are still reading my column. After three years, no death threats yet! Cheers, Bud
Jim McLennan
April 13, 2018Bud – thanks for this, I learned this from playing the best player in the south many years ago – once learned I still lost to him, but used the same concept against everyone from then on !!!
best
Jim
Zhenya Kondratovski
April 1, 2018I really enjoy your videos and analysis, Jim! Thank you. You always connect it to a story and real match examples. Great analogy with boxing. Giving your opponent chance to miss and get the valuable information, priceless. One of my good friends, a Canadian, who played the pro tour in the 70s, Dale Power, has always talked about “locking someone in the pattern” and I was on a receiving end of it when we played some sets:) speaking of notes, one of French musketeers, I believe either Henry Cocher or Lacoste always scouted his opponents and had a note book of their patterns and what they do well or not. Kind of vintage or pioneering version of what Brad Gilbert’s came up with in “who is doing what to whom” in “Winning ugly”…
Jim McLennan
April 1, 2018Zhenya – thanks for this note – and especially the phrase “locking someone in the pattern”
best
Jim
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