Creating Chaos by Changing Contact Point!

The last few articles have discussed the importance of the Contact Point, CP. I have mentioned the direct influence this has on the specific footwork patterns needed to produce the most offensive shot possible. The way a player looks to maximize his/her shots is by making hitting at the ideal CP, this concept is the complete opposite of what he/she should attempt to do to the opponent. Imagine a world where your opponent hits short balls or misses on most shots. It would provide a lot of Ws which we we all love. So how can this utopia be achieved? There are many answers to this but today I’ll discuss only one of them, the slice. A low ball in today’s game is key to make players, who hit with top-spin, to hit up. This is vital for a player to take an offensive position as the ball will not penetrate the court as if it were driven. A non penetrating ball will sit up and most likely be short allowing the player receiving the weak ball to establish his/her position inside the court. From there it becomes a matter of maintaining the position by hitting to the open court or looking for a winner by hitting behind the opponent. So how does the slice do this? It’s a ball that will stay low not allowing it to come up to the ideal contact point of the opponent. CP most likely will be below thigh level which doesn’t allow the opposition to drive and penetrate the court. If the slice is not executed properly it can sit up and have the reverse effect and you can find yourself in defense real quick. Middle? Out wide? Where should the slice be hit? Against a right hander the best place to put the slice to is off center to the Ad side. This tempts the opposition to run around the backhand and look for a more offensive shot, the forehand. The problem in this case is that the forehand becomes a liability as the player will have to hit up due to the low CP. Now you have the result that was looked for and an offensive shot is acquired. The aggressive nature of most players gets them in trouble and you have to use this in order to be offensive and aggressive yourself. So how can a player defend the slice? We have all said it, a player hits a good slice return it with a slice. If a player does this, stay patient and look to reset the point. Remember, changing the CP of your opponent can really make your life easy on the court. The best players are those who can get the ideal CP most of the time, so if you can take that away from a player, he/she will be nothing more than an average Joe. No offense to any Joes out there ;-)