Moving for backhand flick early

Tam Eastwood Asked 9 years ago

Hi Alois, I notice against a lot of his opponents Koki Niwa moves to do a backflick from short forehand before the opponent has even contacted the ball, how does he know that the opponent won't play a fast topspin serve long to his forehand?

Thanks 

Tam

Alois Rosario Answered 9 years ago

Hi Tam,

He does move early when we are looking at it, however he is recognising things that we are not necessarily seeing.  It is interesting to freeze the video just before the point of contact of the server and see where he has moved to and the position of the server as well.  It may be the throw of the ball, or the position of the servers hand after throwing the ball up that is giving him these clues.  

These types of cues you start to pick up with more experience of receiving serves.  Having said that, he still gets caught out sometimes.

Don't try to consciously pick up too many thing like this.  Just allow it to come to you with time and practice.  There is no substitute.