Taking the Ball Early

Taking the ball on the rise in tennis is a mindset that takes focus and determination. Moving to the ball is demanding on the body and takes much more effort than waiting for the ball. That is why so many recreational players tend to wait for the ball, because it is easier on the body and naturally we do what feels best. However, if more players were aware of the benefits of moving to the ball and how the benefits apply to multiple sports, they would buy in.

Benefits

1. Hitting the ball early takes time away from your opponent. One of the main reasons why tennis players hit aggressively with a lot of power and to the corners from behind the baseline is to take time away from your opponent. However, in striking the ball very hard and to the edges of the court, you are incurring a very high risk of inconsistency and unforced errors. Taking the ball early or taking the ball on the rise means that you do not have to strike the ball as hard as you reduce significant distance of up to one to two metres each way of the ball travelling to your racquet and out from it, taking away a substantially more time away from your opponent than a hard struck shot can before they can get back to their ideal recovery position. It is simple – the earlier you hit your shots, the less time your opponent has to prepare and react for theirs. Conversely, if you strike a dropping ball, you will have given up too much court and need to strike the ball much harder to have any threat to your opponent to penetrate their court and defense.
2. Taking the ball early opens up a lot of angles. Being closer to the net allows for you to hit sharper angles to the sidelines. It is simple geometry. Your arc of fire to the sidelines are wider when you are higher up the court, meaning your opponent who already has less time to recover has even more court to cover when you hit diagonal shots. Your opponent will be running corner to corner while you generally control the middle of the court.
3. Taking the ball early cuts off the opponent’s angles and hence you have less court to cover. Again it is simple geometry, crosscourt and diagonal balls have less distance to travel wider out the court the higher you are inside the court. Therefore the distance you have to cover from the baseline if you are high up the court significantly lesser over the course of a 4 shot rally and hence a game, a set and a match.
4. Taking the ball early allows you to focus on good impact and use the balls energy to redirect the ball into the open space or back behind. A ball that is just off its bounce and rising still has significant every before it loses most of its energy by the time it reaches the peak of its bounce. When the ball has more incoming speed into your racquet, it hits your strings with more force and hence you are able to create a much higher rebound speed than a dropping ball whether this is not possible. Many times, if you are able to take the ball early and on the rise, you are able to let the hard struck ball “pocket” into your racquet string bed and redirect it into the open court or behind with good timing ad impact. When you take a ball on the rise, you can make use of your opponent’s pace to generate a lot power, in addition to providing your own – a devastating combination. Conversely, if you strike a dropping ball, the ball is already much slower and you will need to generate your own pace to be offence.
5. Taking the ball early on the rise against your square contact face creates natural topspin. A rising ball against a perpendicular surface will create natural topspin. This lends the ball some shape and additional margin of safety. Top tennis players who play high up on the court not only understand this, but take advantage of it to hit the ball harder and even wider knowing that easy access to topspin allows them to a fair margin of safety. Conversely, if you strike a dropping ball, you have to ensure your own topspin so that the ball does not fall into the net or sail long.
6. Committing to taking the ball early avoids the dread high bounce and shot over your shoulder. Hitting the ball at your hip to chest height is the most ideal for a good range of grips between eastern and semi-western. By committing to hitting the ball in this strike zone, you are able to avoid the dreaded high ball about the shoulder where you lose significant power and control and can likely only brush the ball high back deep.
7. Having this skill allows you to take the return of serve early. You are also not afraid of “heavy” groundstrokes. When opponent hits a big serve or a massive kick serve, or heavy groundstrokes, taking the ball early and on the rise means that the effect of spin is minimized. This is major on the return of serve, where the various spin serves will be slightly less wicked just as it bounces off the court and you are not pulled too far off the court or be stretched. Hard serves that you connected well early also return to the opponent much faster, often before they can come out of their serve and be set up for the third ball.

Best Practices

1. When playing try to stand close to the baseline and move forward to dictate play. If your opponent hits the ball with good depth, adjust accordingly.
2. Simplify your backswing so that it goes back far enough to establish a strong load but no further. A shorter backswing will help with your timing and comfort when taking the ball early.
3. When the ball is low work on establishing a neutral or square stance and bending your knees so that your center of gravity is low. This will help maintain good posture and balance as you set up below the ball.
4. Focus on your opponent’s body language and strings prior to hitting the ball. By doing so you may get some cues and clues to the quality and direction of ball your opponent is likely to hit.
5. For example, you may hit a deep ball to your opponent’s backhand and notice that they will be reaching to hit a slice that is likely to float through the air. This may cue you to move in quickly and hit a swinging volley, if that happens to be your style.

General Footwork and Set up Tips

Taking the ball early requires the same great footwork you would use on all your strokes and more. These general footwork concepts are going to seem obvious if you have been around the game for some time, however a refresher never hurts.

1. Always initiate the split step prior to your opponent making contact with the ball so that you can react explosively to the ball.
2. Utilize your adjustment steps, small calculated steps, as you approach the ball and assess the optimal setup point.
3. Work hard to move your feet out behind the ball so that your last step to the ball is forward into the court rather than horizontal toward the sideline. By doing so you allow your hips to unload into the ball, where as if the last step is to the side the hips have a difficult time rotating through.
4. Focus on keeping your head still through contact. This will help with your point of contact and timing. If your head were to change elevations or move horizontally at contact, more than likely your racquet head will follow which commonly results in miss hits.

The Drill for Taking the Ball Early

Taking the ball on the rise can be taught and implemented through training. Working on taking the ball early can be physically exhausting and mentally draining. As you practice remember to enjoy the process of what you are doing and as long as it is effective, the results will come.

The drill is effective for improving the ability to take the ball on the rise is where a player and their partner stand inside the baseline and exchange ground strokes. First, position yourself two feet inside the baseline. Second, begin to rally with your partner. Third, move in on each short ball ensuring to take the ball on the rise. Lastly, lets cover what to do on balls that most people find challenging during this drill.

Low Balls: Lower down with your legs on balls that are hit low around your feet and hit your ground strokes. If you have to take adjustment steps back to allow for the ball to rise up to your preferred contact point do so, however only when necessary.

Balls that Sail Long: If the ball is headed long go ahead and practice your swinging volley. This will help you attack balls that float through the air and improve your hand eye coordination.

What You Need to Implement

Taking the ball early in tennis isn’t all sunshine and rainbows; it takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Through practice and doing the best practices and the drill mentioned previously you should be able to improve these key skills for taking the ball on the rise:

• read the ball sooner;
• set up for the stroke earlier;
• improve your timing and hand eye coordination;
• improve your footwork and move quickly to the ball;
• begin to hit with more topspin, court distance is shorter, need more spin to keep the ball in.