Every padel player eventually faces a heavy hitter – someone who hits the ball very hard. Usually, it will be somebody that has come from a tennis background that is new to padel.
The trouble with heavy hitters being is that when you are playing at the net you often find that there is no time to react and get into a position to be able to play a good volley.
When your opponent hits the ball very hard there is a good chance that the ball will be out or it will bounce well clear of the wall giving you an easy return. Your alternative is to play a block-volley to the feet of your opponent and tempt them to hit even harder until they hit the ball out.
Let’s take a closer look at all of the tactics at your disposal so that you can win more points against players who hit the ball really hard.
Be In A Good Ready-Position When You Are At The Net
Have your racket head up and ready to react to the ball coming to you. Keep your knees flexed and be up on the balls of your feet and you will be able to react either to the left or to the right as the ball is coming to you.
Dealing With A Hard Heavy Ball That Is Coming To You At Chest Or Shoulder Height
If the ball is coming to you at chest or shoulder height it’ll probably go out if you let it fly straight past you so that may be the best option in the situation.
If your opponent is using enough topspin to bring that hard shot down before it hits the back glass it will bounce and then kick well forward off the back glass. This again makes it an easy shot for you to be able to return.
What would you need to do is take a couple of steps back and wait for the ball to kick off the back glass, and come back forward to you.
Coming from a tennis background I made the error of trying to follow the ball to the back glass only to have it bounce past me again before I could react. The ball will come to you. There is no need to chase it all the way to the glass.
Watch The Take-Back Of Your Opponent’s racket
You can judge from the racket take-back whether your opponent is planning to play flat with a slice or with a topspin. If they’re playing with a slice then you must do everything that you can to block the ball as your choice of volley because it will be nearly impossible to play after the back glass because slice-spin balls drop back to the court really quickly after hitting the back glass.
If they are playing with topspin or hitting flat let it go, take a few steps back, and pick it up on the rebound if the ball was in.
As your opponent takes their racket back you can see if they are preparing to hit a slice or topspin and you can begin to get ready to react to the type of spin that the ball will have.
Hard Shots Are Usually Linear
If your opponent is hitting a hard shot it will usually be Linear. That is either straight down the line or more or less straight down the center.
This means that the bounce off the black glass will also be more or less linear making it easy to read where the ball will be bouncing back to.
As you move back to get ready to hit the ball as it comes back to you off the back glass, have your racket head lifted and prepared to play the linear ball as comes to you. In these situations, you will be able to let the ball come slightly past you and play your shot and use the forward momentum to return to your position at the net more easily.
Pretty soon your opponents will realize that hard-hitting shots passed you don’t work that well and they will stop playing them.
Choosing The Direction Of Block Volley Shots
Just place the racket head in the path of the ball that is coming to you instead of trying to hit the ball back to your opponent. Block the ball straight back to the player that hit the hard shot to you.
If they have hit really hard, they will have played with a really big follow-through. If you block the ball straight back to them they will have less time to get the racket back into position to play another shot.
Alternatively, block the ball into the corner of the court on the side of the player that is just played the hard shot to you. Again that means that they will have less time to get themselves into position with a racket in position to play another shot.
What’s more, by playing the ball into the corner, you are making it slightly more difficult for them to return the ball to you.
Playing hard shots is risky. If you just keep blocking the ball back to the same player that is already hitting the ball hard over and over again eventually they will make the decisive error.
Invite repeated hard shots to the frustration of your opponent and make them play harder and harder until eventually, they hit the ball out.
Relax Your Shoulders And Upper Arms
Tensing up your shoulders and upper arms when your opponents are playing hard shots at you compromises your ability to direct your block-volley to where you want it to go. You keep control of the ball more easily when you have a relaxed upper body that can absorb some of the impact of the ball through your racket.
Remember hard shots are good for you because it gives you the ability to either block the ball back to your opponent and control the point or just let the ball go past you and pick it up as it bounces back towards you of the Back Glass.
Now that you have a clear idea of the type of tactics you can use against hard shots you should be able to control these types of shots way better than you used to and Win way more points in your padel games as a result.