Tip of the Week: How To Cover the Court
The tennis court is 27 feet wide in singles and 36 feet wide in doubles. If you can follow a few basic ideas, you can make the court feel much smaller for your opponent and allow yourself to cover the majority of the shots they will use against you.
First, you have to realize that most players hit the majority of their shots to the opening. This means that if you took three steps to your right to hit the last shot, you should move to your left right after completing your follow through. Also, rather than recovering to the middle of the court, try to go past the middle and split step right as your opponent is about to swing at the next ball. This will help you take away the opening and still allow you to go back in the other direction if necessary.
If you have been pulled quite a bit away from the middle of the court by your opponent’s last shot, instead of sidestepping, turn and run towards the opening. The shuffle step, or sidestepping, should be used if you only had to take a step or two away from the middle. I would still recommend recovering past the middle of the court to cover the opening. Once you have determined your opponent’s tendencies (they hit a lot of crosscourt shots or they keep hitting it to your backhand for example), you can recover a little more in the direction that they are likely to hit the ball. I would still cover the opening more often than not, and make your opponent prove that they are capable of hitting it behind you or to the smaller area of the court.
Standing closer to the baseline will help you cut off the angles of your opponent’s shots. The trend these days is to stand back quite a bit because more and more of the players are trying to hit the ball through their opponent. Against this type of player, standing back makes sense, but be sure to recover some of the ground you have given up if your shot is getting them in trouble. The good players will hit a lot of balls low and short if they see you standing way back. You do not want to lose points because the ball bounced twice or because you were unable to cut off any of the angled shots that they hit.
Finally, work on moving well in between hits so that you don’t have to use your explosive steps every time you are hitting the ball. This means conditioning yourself to anticipate where the next shot is likely to go. Remember the idea about the opening, the tendencies that your opponent has, and the position that you are in after hitting the shot. All of these can help you prepare for their next shot and give you a good chance to get them moving more than you have to. The player who makes the other player move more than they have to, usually wins the match.
Steve Annacone, USPTA Elite Pro, is the Director of Annacone Tennis, www.annaconetennis.com and MyHamptonsPro, www.myhamptonspro.com throughout the Hamptons, NY. Please contact Steve at sannacone@aol.com or 865-300-7323Â
