(By Larry Hodges)
Top Ten Tactical Receiving Mistakes
1. Too predictable. Vary your receive! Most of the below are variations on this.
2. Giving the server what he wants.
3. Too aggressive. If you attack every serve it becomes predictable.
4. Too passive. If you never attack the serve, then the server knows he can serve and attack every time. (If he’s smart, he’ll vary his attack.)
5. Passive against deep serves. You can’t really rush or angle the server against a deep serve, so you need to be aggressive.
6. No variation to pushes. Need to vary them to throw off the server.
7. No short push variation. Opponent knows your return will go long and so can hang back.
8. Long pushes aren’t quick, low, heavy, deep, and at wide angles.
9. No last-second changes of direction. So server can see where you are returning the ball very early.
10. Unable to backhand banana flip against short serves, the biggest development in technique in recent times – get with the program!!! (Here’s my Tip of the Week, Backhand Banana Flip, with link to a tutorial.)
