The Mind of the Baseliner—and How to Transform It!

[johnyandell]

Let's get your thoughts on Jeff Greenwald's new article "The Mind of the Baseliner—and How to Transform It!"

[tiffanybryant]

I just came back to the site after a year off and read Jeff's article. My question is now does this apply to a 3.5 woman's player (me) or does it?

[makhan67]

The Mind of the Baseliner -- and How to Transform it

Another great piece of work.

Many a times we see the recreational players slug it out from the baseline. Many social players that I see spend around 90% of their time just rallying, rallying, and more rallying. When I asked them as to why they do it, their response, "We come here for a workout". They see more sweating when they have to grind it out from the baseline and they derive more pleasure in doing so. If the social, recreational, and club players are happy with this approach who are we to object?

However, if you are a promising junior, or an advance player who likes to take your game to another "winning" level then this is the article for you. Grind it out from the baseline but be ready to pounce on that short ball, take it to the net, and finish it off with a winning volley. I am sure as you learn how to attack you will derive more pleasure from your "workouts". If rallying from the baseline can give you satisfaction, winning a match using these tactics, will doubly satisfy you and will take your game to another level.

I will be using some of the approaches discussed in my Coaching lessons.

Mahboob Khan
Director, Cardio Tennis, and Play and Stay
MKTA, High Performance Coach
Islamabad, Pakistan
Mobile: 0092 300 8568403

[jeffgreenwald]

One of great aspect of this game is that we can choose how we want to play. Playing from the baseline is fun too. But, it won't always produce the result you may want or deliver a level of satisfaction that I believe comes from mastering multiple shots.

Jeff Greenwald

[GeoffWilliams]

Net play has so much more difficulty than baseline. The variety of shot you face is so much larger, and the ball in the air can jam your internal rhythm even if it is a slow moving ball. A sad thing to see is so many women, even pros, just don't ever hit any overheads at all. It's like they are being taught to take three point shots instead of slam dunking. Strange how different the women's game is from the men's.