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Partner out of position, middle ball on your backhand. Where?
Out of shape, backhand volley in the middle: deep through the middle, and let the pair recover.
Your partner has been pulled wide and the middle ball comes to you on the backhand volley. Where do you hit it?
Out of shape, backhand volley in the middle: deep through the middle, and let the pair recover.
Why
When your pair is out of position, the priority is to get back into it, not to win the point. The backhand volley from the middle goes deep through the middle, the biggest, safest target, to keep the opponents back and give your partner the time to recover. Once you are both back in position, the attacking options return. Trying to end the point from a scrambled shape is how one wide ball becomes a lost point; keeping it simple for one shot is how it becomes nothing.
What this means at your level
Beginner
When you can see your partner is not in position, hit the safe ball deep and let them get back.
Intermediate
The backhand volley deep through the middle also splits their pair: neither of them owns it, and it gives you a beat to reset.
Advanced
A deep volley to the feet of the deeper opponent is the reset that also attacks. Deep, low, central: the reply comes up and your partner is back for it.
Common questions
Your partner has been pulled wide and the middle ball comes to you on the backhand volley. Where do you hit it?
Deep down the middle, and let the pair reset. Out of shape, backhand volley in the middle: deep through the middle, and let the pair recover. When your pair is out of position, the priority is to get back into it, not to win the point. The backhand volley from the middle goes deep through the middle, the biggest, safest target, to keep the opponents back and give your partner the time to recover. Once you are both back in position, the attacking options return. Trying to end the point from a scrambled shape is how one wide ball becomes a lost point; keeping it simple for one shot is how it becomes nothing.
Why not a sharp angle away from both of them?
A sharp backhand angle from the middle is a low-percentage shot, and if it comes back your pair is still out of shape.
What should a beginner do here?
When you can see your partner is not in position, hit the safe ball deep and let them get back.
How does this change for an advanced player?
A deep volley to the feet of the deeper opponent is the reset that also attacks. Deep, low, central: the reply comes up and your partner is back for 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 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.
intermediateYour partner got pulled wide. Where do you stand?
The pair moves like one body. When your partner is pulled wide, you take the middle.