Hunting

Hunting

Hunting could probably be considered in the attacking section, but it is being separated out because of how important it is. How often have you watched your opponent's poor quality straight drive sail past you within reach, before taking the ball off the back wall? I would guess for most of those reading this, the answer is beyond count. Could you have instead played a shot, almost always a volley, from relatively close to the 'T'? This is what I am calling Hunting, being proactive and playing the ball from within the attacking areas if possible. This gives you the chance to keep pressure off yourself by playing the ball from closer to the 'T', while piling the pressure onto your opponent by playing the ball earlier, giving them less time to recover.

What I found when I first starting Hunting and what you will also likely find, is that most of the people you currently play cannot consistently keep the ball out of your reach from the middle of the court. My fitness even dropped when I first began hunting because the rallies were so much shorter! You will soon rise in ranking to the point where your opponent's can now keep the ball out of reach more often and rallies will be longer, but you can learn from my mistake and make sure your fitness improves outside of competition in the mean time.

To be able to hunt effectively, you need to consider where on the T you are at any moment. You can break the T up into back of the T (dark green) or front of the T (light green).

Back of the T

Where you should be standing when your opponent plays a shot depends on where they are playing that shot from. If you are standing too far forward when your opponent is in the back of the court, you will not be able to hunt and cut off a drive as effectively as if you were further back. You can test this out yourself with a second player by having them play a hard straight drive and seeing which position gives you enough time to get across to volley. By being further back you do make it harder to retrieve a drop shot or a boast, but typically these shots spend more time in the air, with a drop shot hit softly or a boast travelling a longer distance overall, making them easy enough to retrieve when further away. The straight drive and cross courts are far and away the most common shots played from the back of the court, so positioning yourself to more effectively handle them is a good idea.

Front of the T

Being further forward in the court can be beneficial in some situations. If, for example, you have played a volley drop into the front of the court, your opponent must then play their next shot from the front corner. There are many shot choices they can make from this position including a straight drive, cross court, lob, and a drop shot (there are others, but these are most common). Remaining on the back of the T will mean any decent quality drop shot from your opponent is very difficult to retrieve, if not impossible. Additionally, being at the back of the T allows a larger range of cross court angles to be out of reach of yourself with respect to hunting/volleying, forcing you to the back of the court to retrieve the ball, the antithesis of Hunting.