(By Brian Pace)
Coaches’ blog: MASTERING BALL PLACEMENT
One of the biggest conceptual obstacles is creating a true agenda with regards to the shots that you have in your arsenal. Most players are consumed with making sure that they are executing the correct mechanics with regards to the shots they have developed. Where your game can become stagnant is when the approach does not shift. Most players in this situation are focused on executing technical shots when they are in a competition environment. One of the best concepts that you can implement that will shift your focus and make you more competitive is Ball Placement.

I will break down is a complete and total approach to “Mastering Ball Placement” during match play. There are so many different and unique approaches that it will start to seem exhausting and repetitious. What you have to understand is that you may not have all these approaches, but you do need to develop the approaches that are native to your best skillsets. Don’t look at what you will see here as shots, because you have already developed them. You need to look at them as specific plays that you need to analyze how well you can execute them, as well as how your opponent responds to them.

3rd Ball Attack
The most straightforward way to implement ball placement is the 3rd ball attack. Exposing a trending position by following up with an attack after the serve will reveal itself. The most important factor for securing a trending position is where you place the serve. You can see in this clip that the middle position is exposed right at the point that the opponent made the serve return.

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