Picking up shots gets a lot of height

Tanmay Singhal Asked 6 months ago

When I pick a shot it gets very high at the reciever end making it easy for them to play a smash. This is also happening in the case of chop. I try to bring it lower as much as I can but it still gets high. 

What am I doing wrong?

Alois Rosario Answered 5 months ago

Hi Tanmay,

It's great that you've noticed an area where you can improve your game. One common reason why your returns are getting too high could be the angle of your racket upon contact with the ball, especially with chop shots where precision in racket angle is crucial. Here are a few tips that might help:  

Adjust Your Racket Angle: For chopping, the angle of your racket needs to be more closed (facing downwards) compared to when you're making offensive strokes. Make sure your racket is slightly tilted forward to keep the ball flight lower.

Controlled Swing: Ensure your chopping motion isn't too aggressive or large. A controlled, smaller swing will help reduce the height of the ball.

Ball Contact: Aim to contact the ball at a lower height relative to the net. This can be done by hitting the ball closer to the bounce. Hitting the ball when it is higher will naturally tend to send it higher over the net.

Aim Lower: As simple as this sounds it can often help just to really focus on playing the ball lower.  You can put a string over the net in training and try to get the ball between the net and the string as we show you in the video on Keeping the Ball Low.