If someone plays the ball deep to you – whether they have hit the ball well or just blocked it back – you are now in neutral position. Which means that attacking is risky.

Therefore you need to play a neutral ball yourself and prevent your opponent from attacking and wait until you end up in more favorable position on court. Then you can attack again.

Do you feel that you always have to do something with the ball (attack in some way)?

I get driven crazy by another thing that my opponents always do. Whenever I hit a nice hard strike, they block the ball back. Most of the time these are light floaters. What is the best technique to beat this?

Here are some of my responses and what happens:
1 I try to hit it hard back and that is where the error occurs. Either by hitting it too long or short.
2. I hit it hard again, and they just tap it back again. This never seems to end until one of us makes an unforced errors.

What is your best advice to do in this situation? I feel like I am striking the ball great but I still lose many of these points when they just continue to block them back to me.

Thanks for your comment. I am still checking your book (over 800 pages!) but I see where you’re going – looking for the truth. Keep it up!

Very interesting lesson! I guess I’m at stage I with regard to some aspects of the game (e.g. footwork) and at stage two or three with respect to others (e.g. groundstrokes and service).

Did you read my book?

David