TTT #11: Smaggresive Singles Strategy - Playing By Numbers
Seth and I had a good talk Monday morning about singles strategies, so I decided this would be a good place to post. Hopefully this will help us develop a language throughout the Bethany tennis program that we can communicate in when we need to make changes to the type of strategies we are playing within a match.
So here are four singles strategies, laid out by number.
0
"Zero" strategy is a strategy that calls for zero mistakes. It means that your goal with every shot is simply to get the ball in the court. This is a good strategy to use at times when your opponent is having trouble keeping the ball in the court. It is also a good strategy if you have fallen out of rhythm and are making a lot of mistakes, it can allow you to find your rhythm again.
1
"One" strategy is to pick one spot on the court and attempt to hit all shots there. This could be used to pick on an opponent's glaring weakness (usually their backhand) or could be used as a control measure on your own game. One example of using it as a control would be to pick your "spot" as crosscourt, and every shot you would attempt to hit crosscourt. This way you would be choosing to make a safer shot each time.
2
"Two" strategy means you only play two different types of shots: neutral and aggressive. This is a bit more risky and attacking strategy, and it requires that you know when is the proper time to be neutral and stroke the ball back in the court, and when is the time to be aggressive and attack the ball. Obviously, there is no strategy where you are trying to swing as hard as you can, but this strategy is the one that allows for the most pace. If played well, the "two" strategy can really keep an opponent on their heals.
3
"Three" strategy means that you are working your opponent to both sides of the court, but keeping the ball about three feet inside the sideline each time. This is the strategy that is my favorite, and Jared Schwartzentruber played this strategy to perfection when he was at his best last season. He won several moments of beauty just by stroking the ball to each corner of his opponent's court but not getting too close to the lines. After a while, opponent's simply become tired and cannot keep up with the constant movement required of them when playing against this strategy. Also, it is important to realize that with "three" strategy you are controlling the point, but at the same time not taking an unneeded amount of risk to do so. It is the beautiful, smaggressive strategy I love.
The other important thing to note is that these can all be good strategies, and one of them probably fits your game and mentality more than the others. For this team, I've typically tried to identify your characteristics and line you up accordingly. I like to take players who naturally gravitate towards the number "two" strategy and put them in doubles, because aggressiveness is rewarded at a higher rate in doubles than singles. My top of the lineup players in singles (Joel King, Luke Hostetter, Jared Schwartzentruber, Wes Klassen) have typically played their best tennis when they were controlling the match with number "three" strategy, and maybe coming to the net mixed in.
So who are you? Where are you comfortable? Just five months left to find out before the season begins!
This will be useful for me to know, since I could end up playing both singles and doubles at Goshen next year. In my two varsity years, and the year before that, I focused completely on doubles strategy and so when I play singles sometimes I don't really know what to do, and end up running to the net, or just hitting hard from the baseline.
ReplyDeleteGood deal. Credit for the number system goes to Arul from Maple City. It's kind of how I've always thought of singles, but I really hadn't had a system to describe them until I talked with Seth.
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