Playing the hard hitters

You have to be prepared to lunge deep and stretch far when you play against the hard hitters. Hard hitters tend to drive the ball very low above the tin. You cannot stand upright and hope to lift the ball high and deep which is precisely where you need to hit them to if you want to beat the hard hitters. I played Keng last night again and I observed that he hits drives as hard as any pro's. That's not to say pro's hit that hard as a matter of course. They don't. But, to play against hard hitters, you have to react quickly without overreacting. I still overhit some of my shots when I play Keng. It's a matter of timing and seeing the ball early. When I do it right, I lift the ball and send it deep. When I don't I end up hitting the ball too low and it lands in mid-court where Keng finds it the perfect spot to drill it from.

Next, seeing the ball early is critical too. The ball is moving faster and seeing it early means I can hit the ball early and straight. I struggled to keep the ball straight last night because I did not see the ball early enough. My defense was decent and kept me in many rallies, but I did not put much pressure on Keng with my returns because they was loose. I'm not going to pressure someone that plays like Keng with a powerful drive so pressure has to come from deep and tight shots coupled with good movement of the ball to the far corners of the court. That I did do with several constructed points that started out with penetrating drives and cross and ended with very close drop shots.

To beat Keng authoritatively, I have to use more athleticism with deeper lunges, more knee bends, and sharper focus on seeing the ball earlier.