That’s when I started hitting hard
Control first, power will come. My forehand waited two ladder seasons.
After two seasons on my club's 3.0 women's singles ladder, I was admitted to the 3.5 summer ladder. I was excited and nervous, and mentally ready to get my butt kicked.
My first 3.5 match was against a former 4.0 player. I lost 6-0, 6-1 in an hour. She hit deep, flat groundstrokes at twice my pace, and I had no time to set up and return them. She hit winner after winner, wrong-footing me. She attacked my serves, first and second. She forced errors out of me, and she always knew where I was going to hit and was ready for it. I don't even remember how I got the one game.
It was so eye-opening that I came off the court excited, looking forward to challenging her again. "I want a rematch," I told her.
The rest of the 3.5 matches were mostly losses, but less lopsided. Playing up half a level no longer felt out of reach.
After ten losses in a row, I got my first win six weeks into the season, a tight one against a lady who had beaten me 6-1, 6-1 two months earlier, when we were both on the 3.0 ladder. A few more wins followed within two weeks, some by margins that surprised me.
What did I do differently? I hit harder. Why did it take me two seasons to get here? I have to go back to the 3.0 ladder.
3.0 vs 3.5 matches
In the 3.0 spring ladder I won ten matches, and some of them were easy wins on my opponents' unforced errors. My only strategy was to hit high, loopy groundstrokes deep to the center and wait, giving my opponents no short balls. I had no control over serve placement and mostly served into the middle of the box, but my serves had enough spin that returns often went into the net. Fewer double faults, fewer balls long or in the net: I was just more consistent than the other players. Nothing fancy.
In the 3.5 ladder, however, the loopy ball stopped helping. Opponents chipped it, or sent it back high and deep to my backhand, reminding me how short I am. My serves came back deep or got smashed. And the 3.5 players hit their groundstrokes with the pace I had been envying, deep and sometimes at sharp angles, so that I was scrambling to get into position in a way I rarely had at 3.0. When I occasionally hit an angle that stayed in, they retrieved it with ease and put me straight back on defense.
Half of my opponents came to the net regularly, and their net technique was much better than mine. My passing shots didn't get past them, dipping the ball at their feet didn't work, and my lobs got put away. When I attacked the net myself, I lost the points to my own poor net skills.
In most of those matches I was on the back foot with zero control, making forced and unforced errors in enormous numbers. I never got to execute my game plan, if I ever had one. They had a better sense of court positioning, shot selection and high-percentage execution, all of which take time to develop. I forgave myself: 16 months of tennis against their three or more years.
One thing at a time. If I could have changed one thing then, it would have been the pace of my groundstrokes. I didn't want to be a moonballer.
I booked more lessons.
The lessons
My coach happened to catch a few points of one of my 3.5 matches. He pointed out that I could have hit hard when I was inside the baseline, but instead I took the pace off and hit a neutral ball back. I had played it like a 3.0 match, hitting rally balls until someone made an unforced error.
His comment confused me for a second since he had always discouraged me from using power, repeating his favorite mantra: "Control first, power will come." Why was he suddenly telling me the opposite? Did I already have control?
From what he had seen, he thought I was consistent enough at the 3.5 level and could adjust my game a bit to suit 3.5 matches. He pointed out that what worked at 3.0 wouldn't work at 3.5. I shouldn't wait for unforced errors that were not coming. I needed to attack, force errors, and finish points, starting with adding pace to my regular groundstrokes.
As a developing 3.5 player, I needed a shot selection instead of one rally ball:
- a high, loopy neutral ball to buy recovery time when behind the baseline.
- a driven topspin groundstroke when on or inside the baseline.
- if the ball is at waist height and I'm inside the baseline, hit it as hard as I can.
I was pretty good at the #1 shot, sometimes I accidentally hit a #2 shot, and I had no idea how to hit #3.
To drill the #2 shot, I first adjusted my swing path from the old exaggerated 45-degree low-to-high brush to somewhere between 15 and 30 degrees, aiming no higher than 5 feet above the net. I found my sweet spot for the swing path, then swung faster from inside the baseline.
The #3 shot drill was fun. I stood right behind the service line, and my coach fed me high-bouncing balls to smash. That felt so good. I could do this forever.
The regression, and the progression
Changes take time to settle into skills. My coach cautioned that it could take me one to two months to be able to hit groundstrokes with pace consistently. I would inevitably regress before I progressed, and losses were guaranteed. Some of my first ten losses in the 3.5 summer ladder were part of that regression.
I hit on the ball machine two to three hours a week. I exaggerated my swing and hit the back fence a lot. Balls stuck in the mesh fence were my pride. Sometimes I hit into the net when the racquet face closed too much.
It cost me a few matches to realize that I was muscling the ball instead of driving it with my legs. I adjusted: loosened the forearm, transferred my weight from the back leg to the front, rotated my hips without over-rotating, and hit hard with a sense of control.
With more machine sessions and match play, my groundstrokes became more contained. Far fewer balls went long in the following matches. I learned there was no need for 100 percent effort. Why waste energy?
In the last two weeks of the summer ladder, my new groundstrokes became a weapon. I hit hard from on and inside the baseline off either wing. Some were not returnable, and some brought me weak returns that I put away with drop shots. I love drop shots! One opponent said my shots were "powerful like bullets."
The end of the summer ladder
I went back to my coach for a review. He encouraged me to keep the current pace in the 3.5 matches, with one caution: advanced players can simply tap the hard ball back and let me exhaust myself during a match. He demonstrated it by returning all my groundstrokes with sky balls, which were no fun to run down. I'd better learn how to handle those sky balls next time.
The ladder ended with 14 losses and 5 wins, with improving scores on my side. I was happy with the progress in one ladder season. More importantly, the ladder admin approved and let me stay at the 3.5 level for the next ladder despite the record.
After the summer ladder ended, I got to play my first opponent again. This time I lost 6-2, 7-6(7-4). It was the best loss of the summer. She said I'd beat her next season.