How to Make Your Opponents Hit the More Difficult Shots

When teams are close in skill level, who wins and who loses can come down to which team plays more high-percentage shots or puts itself in better situations more often.

When you’re playing a team that’s equal or better than you, you can win more often by forcing your opponents to repeatedly hit the more difficult shot throughout the match.

Here’s how.

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Apply maximum pressure

No one is comfortable hitting a shot with someone charging toward them.

If your opponent has time to get behind the ball and make a strong shot (like after a weak return), you can apply pressure by hustling straight toward the kitchen line.

This shrinks the court, forcing them to hit a more accurate shot, which can lead to mistakes by your opponents.

This works especially well if you know they’re about to hit the ball to your partner. For instance, if they're targeting your partner or if your partner is slower to get to the kitchen.

You can run this strategy to apply pressure without even touching the ball.

One word of warning: when doing this don't go left or right, instead stay straight ahead. Since your opponent has time to choose their spot, they might see you and hit the ball in the vacated area.

By just hustling straight ahead, you give them less room to work with and force them to make a decision.

Once they're about to hit the ball, split step and look for an opportunity to attack if they made the wrong choice.

Force them to attack down the sideline

Another way to force your opponent to take the harder shot is to leave the sideline a bit more open than you think you should.

This doesn’t have to be dramatic – just a few small steps will do.

Shading toward the middle forces your opponent to hit toward the sideline – where the net is two inches higher – and there’s an added chance their shot will go wide.

Going into every match, you want to make your opponents prove that they can beat you down the sideline.

If they are able to, then stop shading the middle and play more straight up.

However, once you do this a few times, you'll learn just how difficult it is for some players to successfully attack along the sides of the court.

Wait for your moment to attack

On the flip side of forcing your opponents into harder shots is making yourself take easier ones. Don’t fall into the trap of speeding the wrong ball up or going for a putaway too early.

Instead, use those moments to hit an aggressive dink (something past their feet) that forces your opponent out wide or to hit a ball with their backhand.

This will cause them to be off-balanced and hit pop ups, which will give you an even easier ball to put away and win the point.