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They lob every single ball. How do you set up at the net?
Against lobbers, move your home at the net a metre deeper. Every lob becomes an overhead instead of a chase.
The opponents defend by lobbing everything, high and deep. Your usual net position is being lobbed repeatedly. What adjustment do you make?
Against lobbers, move your home at the net a metre deeper. Every lob becomes an overhead instead of a chase.
Why
A pair that lobs every ball is playing a percentage game: sooner or later a net player is caught too close and the lob wins. The counter is to move the pair's home position back a metre, to around three and a half metres from the net, so that lobs arrive as bandejas and smashes rather than as sprints backward. The cost is that low volleys are slightly harder and drop shots have more room, but a pair that lobs everything rarely hits the drive that would punish it. Depth of position is a dial; set it by what the opponents actually do, not by where the textbook says the net is.
What this means at your level
Beginner
If they keep lobbing over you, stand a big step further back from the net. You will still be at the net, just not on it.
Intermediate
Deeper position, and take the lob earlier: bandeja it before it gets behind you. The point is to stop retreating.
Advanced
Vary the overhead. Against lobbers, the víbora to the side glass and the bandeja deep to the corner reset the point; the flat smash mostly comes back. Wear them down rather than trying to end it.
Common questions
The opponents defend by lobbing everything, high and deep. Your usual net position is being lobbed repeatedly. What adjustment do you make?
Stand a metre deeper, so every lob is an overhead. Against lobbers, move your home at the net a metre deeper. Every lob becomes an overhead instead of a chase. A pair that lobs every ball is playing a percentage game: sooner or later a net player is caught too close and the lob wins. The counter is to move the pair's home position back a metre, to around three and a half metres from the net, so that lobs arrive as bandejas and smashes rather than as sprints backward. The cost is that low volleys are slightly harder and drop shots have more room, but a pair that lobs everything rarely hits the drive that would punish it. Depth of position is a dial; set it by what the opponents actually do, not by where the textbook says the net is.
Why not crowd the net to pressure them into driving?
They are not going to drive, they are going to lob, and you have just made every lob unreachable.
What should a beginner do here?
If they keep lobbing over you, stand a big step further back from the net. You will still be at the net, just not on it.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Vary the overhead. Against lobbers, the víbora to the side glass and the bandeja deep to the corner reset the point; the flat smash mostly comes back. Wear them down rather than trying to end it.
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beginnerYou have served. Where do you go?
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