Fast serves to the elbow

Happy Holidays Alois and Jeff

I try to return all long serves aggressively, but one problem I have is when someone serves long and fast to my playing elbow.  I end up leaning one way or another to make room but I don't have enough room to really hit hard, meaning I end up with a passive shot such as a block.  This allows the server to start the rally as the aggressor.

I tried to combat this by pivoting.  This worked well at first, but I had to kind of cheat and commit myself to pivoting and hitting an aggressive forehand before I could see where the serve was landing.  The server figured this out and would serve fast and long to my BH.  When I pivoted, the ball ended up in my playing elbow!

Any advice how I can learn to hit aggressively against such serve tactics?

Cheers

Ji-Soo

Hi Ji-Soo,

It is a matter of watching and reacting with as little movement as you can.  Just use the movement of the upper part of the body to start with to move into as good a position as possible.  When the ball is coming really fast into the middle sometimes you will not have enough time to move your feet.

When you move to this position now rather than making a passive block, make sure you are going up with your stroke to make a topspin stroke. It doesn't need to be a big stroke but move your bat forward and move your bat fast to generate your own pace on the ball. It really doesn't take a lot of time just the intent to make a more aggressive stroke.

Also consider your placement.  It may not come naturally at first but try to return the ball into a difficult position for your opponent.