In today’s blog we’re going to go over the off pace, or off speed, attack.
When it comes to offensive strategy where you’re speeding up the ball right to an opponent’s torso, right to their body, sometimes it’s not the best idea.
You’ll realize this in the higher levels. This is more of an advanced strategy.
If you’re a beginner or intermediate player, these tips are going to be very helpful for you in the future.
When you’re playing advanced players it can be easy to for them to defend those balls coming straight to their body where their paddle is.
Those players are going to be ready for the balls that come straight to their body.
They’re going to have their paddle up around naval level. If you speed up a ball, even if it’s as hard as you can, their paddle is right there ready to block.
They could either reset it or they can make you pay and just push the ball faster than you actually sped it up.
Let’s say your opponent is standing at the non-volley zone and you get a high ball, you should attack the ball to her right or left hip or even a little bit lower. You want you opponent to reach out for the ball.
You don’t even have to hit that hard of a ball. You could just kind of push it and angle it down to the left or right of them.
What that’s going to do is that it can allow them to miss.
They could be a little bit late getting to the ball and they could either dump it to the net or maybe they could pop it up.
If they pop it up you can then finish the point with winning shot.
In essence you want it hit a setup shot. This is the off-pace attack.
When your opponent hits the all a little bit high you can try to go for that off-pace ball by sending it to their left or right hip. An added bonus is that your opponent won’t know what direction you’re going to hit to (ex. Their forehand or backhand).
Try to move them around in the jinx.
You can either push or roll the ball. The whole goal is to make your opponent hit up on the ball with this off-pace attack. The attack is slower but you should make your opponent reach and make them hit up.
To hit a setup shot, or to hit a winning shot, you don’t have to hit the ball as hard as you can.
Placement of your shot is so important. It’s key.
What happens psychologically with a player when they are getting ready to defend is that they are ready for the ball to come at them. Their paddle is set up right in front of their naval area.
They are less ready to defend to their right or left side so by making them reach you are more likely to get them to hit a pop up shot. By doing this you have more of a chance to get a closing shot and win that point.