Hey guys, this is James Ignatowich, and today I’m going to cover how to miss deep when you hit resets, instead of missing high or hitting into the net. Remember, the goal of a reset is to neutralize your opponent’s attack by hitting a soft shot that lands in the kitchen, forcing them to hit upwards and reducing their offensive advantage. But you can’t always execute perfectly, so let’s learn how to miss.
First off, you obviously shouldn’t miss into the net because if you do, you’re out of the point. But you also shouldn’t miss high because if you give yourself too much margin for error with height, your opponent will be making contact above their shoulder (Figure 1). This is especially detrimental in men’s doubles, as it’s the last thing you want.
I believe you should give yourself a margin for error as it relates to depth, meaning you should aim to miss deep, so to speak. For example, when you hit a reset, you want it to bounce inside the kitchen, right? That’s obvious, we know that.
But if you can’t pull that off, you should try to miss it just past the kitchen line (Figure 2) while maintaining a low trajectory, so you don’t get crushed. The opponent will still either be hitting up on the ball or making a pretty flat return.
However, if you aim too high and miss by 3 feet, they will probably smash it too hard.
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