Home › Puzzle › You are about to smash but the ball is slightly behind your head. Go ahead?
You are about to smash but the ball is slightly behind your head. Go ahead?
Ball behind your head: not a smash. Turn it into a bandeja and keep the net.
You have set up for a smash but the lob has drifted and the ball is now slightly behind your head. What do you do?
Ball behind your head: not a smash. Turn it into a bandeja and keep the net.
Why
The smash needs the ball in front of the body so the racket can come over the top and hit down. When the lob drifts behind the head, that angle disappears, and the swing sends the ball long or into the glass at a comfortable height for the opponents. The adjustment is to turn the shot into a bandeja: a controlled, sliced contact from beside and slightly behind the shoulder, aimed deep, and to recover to the net. Knowing when to change your mind mid-setup is as much a part of the overhead as the swing.
What this means at your level
Beginner
If you feel the ball getting behind you, do not smash. Turn sideways a bit more, hit it deep and safe, get back to the net.
Intermediate
The change from smash to bandeja is mostly the racket face: open it, slow the swing, aim deep. The feet are already sideways.
Advanced
Lobs that drift behind you are usually a footwork error two steps earlier. Move back more than you think on every lob; you can always step forward into it.
Common questions
You have set up for a smash but the lob has drifted and the ball is now slightly behind your head. What do you do?
Change to a bandeja. Ball behind your head: not a smash. Turn it into a bandeja and keep the net. The smash needs the ball in front of the body so the racket can come over the top and hit down. When the lob drifts behind the head, that angle disappears, and the swing sends the ball long or into the glass at a comfortable height for the opponents. The adjustment is to turn the shot into a bandeja: a controlled, sliced contact from beside and slightly behind the shoulder, aimed deep, and to recover to the net. Knowing when to change your mind mid-setup is as much a part of the overhead as the swing.
Why not smash anyway: commit to the shot you set up for?
Committing to a smash from behind your head commits you to a ball that hits the glass and comes back. Change the shot.
What should a beginner do here?
If you feel the ball getting behind you, do not smash. Turn sideways a bit more, hit it deep and safe, get back to the net.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Lobs that drift behind you are usually a footwork error two steps earlier. Move back more than you think on every lob; you can always step forward into 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.
beginnerThe ball is coming off the back glass. When do you hit it?
Move back with the ball, let it pass you, hit it in front of your body.
intermediateShort, high and yours. Bandeja or smash?
Deep ball, bandeja. Short ball with your weight going forward, smash.