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You have just hit a bandeja. Where do you go?
Bandeja, then straight back to the net. The shot is played to keep the net, so keep it.
You took a lob with a bandeja from around the service line and it is on its way deep. What now?
Bandeja, then straight back to the net. The shot is played to keep the net, so keep it.
Why
The bandeja is a shot for holding the net under pressure: you take the lob from around the service line, hit it deep and controlled, and use the time the ball takes to travel to get back to your net position. Stay where you struck it and you are stranded in no man's land for the reply. The rhythm is hit-and-move: as the ball leaves the strings you are already stepping forward, arriving at the net as they play their next shot, ready to volley or to bandeja again if they lob.
What this means at your level
Beginner
After every overhead, walk forward to the net again straight away. Standing on the service line to admire the shot is how the next ball lands at your feet.
Intermediate
Hit the bandeja a bit deeper and slower rather than harder; the extra half-second is what lets you recover to the net comfortably.
Advanced
Recover on a slight diagonal toward the middle rather than straight forward. The reply to a good bandeja is often a lob back to the same side, and you want to be under it, not beside it.
Common questions
You took a lob with a bandeja from around the service line and it is on its way deep. What now?
Recover forward to the net position immediately. Bandeja, then straight back to the net. The shot is played to keep the net, so keep it. The bandeja is a shot for holding the net under pressure: you take the lob from around the service line, hit it deep and controlled, and use the time the ball takes to travel to get back to your net position. Stay where you struck it and you are stranded in no man's land for the reply. The rhythm is hit-and-move: as the ball leaves the strings you are already stepping forward, arriving at the net as they play their next shot, ready to volley or to bandeja again if they lob.
Why not drop back in case they lob again?
If they lob again you will bandeja again. Retreating hands them the net; recover forward and make them beat you.
What should a beginner do here?
After every overhead, walk forward to the net again straight away. Standing on the service line to admire the shot is how the next ball lands at your feet.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Recover on a slight diagonal toward the middle rather than straight forward. The reply to a good bandeja is often a lob back to the same side, and you want to be under it, not beside it.
Puzzles like this one
They lobbed you deep. Smash it or play the bandeja?
Deep ball, high hands: bandeja. The shot exists to keep you at the net, not to win the point.
beginnerBoth of them are at the net. What is the highest-percentage ball?
Only the lob moves a net pair backwards. Everything else invites them forward.
intermediateYour partner got pulled wide. Where do you stand?
The pair moves like one body. When your partner is pulled wide, you take the middle.