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The ball comes off your back glass sitting up. What is the shot?
The bajada is the attacking shot from the back: a high glass rebound, taken early and driven down.
A ball rebounds off your back wall high and comfortable, around chest height, and both opponents are at the net. What do you play?
The bajada is the attacking shot from the back: a high glass rebound, taken early and driven down.
Why
Most balls from the back have to go up, which is exactly why the bajada matters. It is the exception. When the rebound off your own glass sits up around chest height and you have time to set your feet, you can step into it and hit down through the ball, flat and hard, usually at the feet of the net players or into the gap between them. It is the shot that stops a good net pair camping, because it means not every ball you play from the back is a gift.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Not yet. Get comfortable letting the ball come off the glass first. The bajada is what you build once that timing is automatic.
Intermediate
Wait for the ball to drop to about chest height and step forward into it. Hitting it above your shoulder from there sends it long almost every time.
Advanced
Target the feet of whichever player is furthest forward, or the middle if they are level. A bajada at a body is easy to block; one at shoelaces is not.
Common questions
A ball rebounds off your back wall high and comfortable, around chest height, and both opponents are at the net. What do you play?
A bajada: step in and drive it down at their feet. The bajada is the attacking shot from the back: a high glass rebound, taken early and driven down. Most balls from the back have to go up, which is exactly why the bajada matters. It is the exception. When the rebound off your own glass sits up around chest height and you have time to set your feet, you can step into it and hit down through the ball, flat and hard, usually at the feet of the net players or into the gap between them. It is the shot that stops a good net pair camping, because it means not every ball you play from the back is a gift.
Why not another lob, keep it safe?
You can, but you have declined the best ball you will get from the back all point. Lobbing a free attacking ball is how rallies never end.
What should a beginner do here?
Not yet. Get comfortable letting the ball come off the glass first. The bajada is what you build once that timing is automatic.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Target the feet of whichever player is furthest forward, or the middle if they are level. A bajada at a body is easy to block; one at shoelaces is not.
What do the rules say?
Bajada means "descent", the ball comes down off the glass and you send it down again, which is the only way to hit downwards from the back of the court.
Puzzles like this one
The 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.
beginnerThe ball bounced then hit your own back glass. Still in play?
One bounce on the floor, then any number of walls. Only a second floor bounce ends the point.