2 Reasons Why You Resist Coming To The Net
You may know that you “should” come to the net more often to finish the point but somehow you resist that and stick to the comfort of the baseline.
Why is that?
You resist coming to the net because you feel uncomfortable there. So you need to dig even deeper and ask yourself why do you feel uncomfortable at the net?
Some of the possible reasons are:
1. You don’t trust your volley and overhead skills.
This mistrust can be legitimate – meaning your net skills are really not that good and you make too many mistakes OR your net skills are actually good but your OPINION about them is negative.
If on order to determine your real net skills you’ll need to ask some friends and pros to evaluate your game and then make the conclusion.
And in case your net skills are really not good, just practice more. And there is no better way to do that than to go the net!
2. Missing hurts too much. Whether your net skills are good or no so good you will inevitably make mistakes at the net.
One common problem with mistakes at the net is that we look clumsy or funny when we make them.
It’s one thing to miss a backhand from the baseline and it’s a completely different thing missing a backhand volley at the net feeling clumsy and embarrassed.
Skills like reactions, balance, coordination, ball judgment and so on need to be on a much higher level to play successfully at the net as compared to the skills needed to play successfully from the baseline.
That’s why most women pros don’t come to the net. It’s not that they don’t have good volley technique; it’s because they are too slow and not coordinated enough to make tough shots at the net.
Why? Because they practiced ONLY tennis in their youth instead of developing athletic skills through different sports.
The truth is that the average club player hasn’t developed these skills in the youth and now in the adult stage it’s too late.
So in case your general athletic skills mentioned above are not that good, you will make more mistakes.
And if these mistakes hurt you – meaning you feel embarrassed when you miss (because you look clumsy or funny when you miss at the net), you will of course resist coming to the net.
What can you do?
Once you become aware of all these factors, you can make a more conscious choice. It is too late to really improve your coordination and reaction skills, but you can still improve your volleying skills a lot.
You can learn to hit more accurate shots, play different types of volleys, make better decisions at the net and have more reliable overheads.
If you can overcome the embarrassment of missing the shots at the net and focus on your improvement, you can overcome the fear of coming to the net.
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November 5th, 2007 at 8:59 am
to avoid hitting the net in the smash close to the net
November 5th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Hi Romano,
We can keep this one quite simple: aim further. Don’t try to hit down so much (too steep) but aim over the service line. The real question is WHY are you trying to hit the ball so steeply?
Maybe you want to hit the smash like the pros? Or maybe the ball is too much in front of you?
November 15th, 2007 at 9:09 am
One advantage of tennis player is that we can play other racquet game and not vice versa. Even in late years, my wife learn to smash and play at the net she picks the skill by playing badminton.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Good point, Celso. Although other racquet sports do help with the ball judgment and reactions but they can make it difficult to learn proper technique. I remember having problems with my strokes for a while since my first sport was table tennis. But it helped a lot with ready position and quick reactions to the ball.