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Open racket face, hands low. What is coming?
Open face plus low hands equals lob, nearly every time. Half a second of reading beats two metres of running.
From the back of the court, your opponent drops their hands and opens the racket face. What are they about to hit?
Open face plus low hands equals lob, nearly every time. Half a second of reading beats two metres of running.
Why
Everything you need to know about the next ball is in the half second before it is struck. An open racket face with the hands dropped below the ball can only send it upwards. Read that shape and you can turn and start travelling before contact, which is the difference between a comfortable bandeja and a scramble to a ball that is already above your head. It is the most valuable habit an intermediate player can build, and it costs nothing.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Watch the racket, not the ball. It sounds wrong, and it is the most useful thing anybody will tell you this year.
Intermediate
Turn your shoulders as you read it and take the first step back before contact. If you are still square when they hit, you are already late.
Advanced
Good players disguise it, holding the same shape for a lob and a chiquita until late. Against them, read the height of the contact point and the speed of the hands rather than the face alone.
Common questions
From the back of the court, your opponent drops their hands and opens the racket face. What are they about to hit?
A lob. Open face plus low hands equals lob, nearly every time. Half a second of reading beats two metres of running. Everything you need to know about the next ball is in the half second before it is struck. An open racket face with the hands dropped below the ball can only send it upwards. Read that shape and you can turn and start travelling before contact, which is the difference between a comfortable bandeja and a scramble to a ball that is already above your head. It is the most valuable habit an intermediate player can build, and it costs nothing.
Why not a drop shot?
A drop is played with soft hands and a shorter swing, usually from higher and closer to the net than this.
What should a beginner do here?
Watch the racket, not the ball. It sounds wrong, and it is the most useful thing anybody will tell you this year.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Good players disguise it, holding the same shape for a lob and a chiquita until late. Against them, read the height of the contact point and the speed of the hands rather than the face alone.
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.
beginnerThe ball is at your feet at the net. What now?
A ball below the net cannot be attacked. Block it deep and wait for one above the tape.
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.