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High lob or flat lob: how do you choose?
Net players close in: lob high. Net players deep: lob flatter and faster over the shoulder.
You have time on the ball and want to lob. When is the high, looping lob right and when is the flatter, faster one?
Net players close in: lob high. Net players deep: lob flatter and faster over the shoulder.
Why
The height of the lob is chosen from the depth of the net players. When they are close to the net, inside two metres, a high, deep lob is nearly unreturnable, because they have too far to run and no angle to smash from. When they are deeper, around three metres or more, a high lob gives them time to set up under it and the smash is comfortable; the flatter, faster lob over the shoulder is better there because it arrives before they can set up and is often a backhand overhead or a stretched bandeja. Reading their depth before you lob is the difference between the lob that wins the net and the one that gets smashed.
What this means at your level
Beginner
If the net players are almost touching the net, lob high. If they are standing well back from it, lob a bit flatter.
Intermediate
The flat lob needs more pace and less arc: hit through the ball with a firmer contact and aim for the shoulder line, not the sky.
Advanced
The flat lob into the backhand-overhead shoulder of a deep net player is the best attacking lob in the game. It wins the net and often the point.
Common questions
You have time on the ball and want to lob. When is the high, looping lob right and when is the flatter, faster one?
High when they crowd in; flatter when they stand deep. Net players close in: lob high. Net players deep: lob flatter and faster over the shoulder. The height of the lob is chosen from the depth of the net players. When they are close to the net, inside two metres, a high, deep lob is nearly unreturnable, because they have too far to run and no angle to smash from. When they are deeper, around three metres or more, a high lob gives them time to set up under it and the smash is comfortable; the flatter, faster lob over the shoulder is better there because it arrives before they can set up and is often a backhand overhead or a stretched bandeja. Reading their depth before you lob is the difference between the lob that wins the net and the one that gets smashed.
Why not always high. It gives you more time to move up?
A high lob to players standing deep is a comfortable smash. The extra time is theirs, not yours.
What should a beginner do here?
If the net players are almost touching the net, lob high. If they are standing well back from it, lob a bit flatter.
How does this change for an advanced player?
The flat lob into the backhand-overhead shoulder of a deep net player is the best attacking lob in the game. It wins the net and often the point.
Puzzles like this one
Both 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.
intermediateWhat do you do with the return of serve?
The return lob is how the receiving pair steals the net. Aim over the player who is still moving.
advancedThey are camped at the net and you cannot lob. What now?
If you cannot lift it over them, make them lift it for you. The chiquita is a slow ball at their feet.