The US Champion Shares His Secret to High Speed
This is a brand-new, technique-focused column in a question-and-answer format. The mystery figure answering is a former national team member, a veteran coach, who would rather keep a quiet, peaceful life and a good night’s sleep than become famous. I think sharing these technical insights is quite valuable, and a good complement to this account. So the “Reaching the Summit” column was born.
Against a left-handed opponent, when receiving serve I usually stand a bit toward the middle. But then he likes to serve fast to my backhand baseline; I move back to the backhand to receive, the return has no quality, and then he hits two wide angles and I feel very passive. What do I do?
Pull your left leg back to your backhand spot. Then press onto the left leg and loop straight through. That is the simplest method.
If that does not work, you can also push one. But not the kind of push with the bat face flat. Your opponent is left-handed, the ball comes fast, long and forceful, so you have to go with the spin and unload it. Keep the hand relaxed, then on the second-bounce rising phase, “point” at the side of the ball with a bit of a slicing motion, going along with the spin. If your touch is relaxed enough, the ball will not go off the table.
A ball from long pips, both long and spinny — how do I receive it?
Actually it is not that spinny. It is dead heavy. A long-pips serve, struck hard with a big hit, is just heavy. To deal with this ball, the best is to grit your teeth and rip on the early descending phase. On the early descent, snap onto it and hit it like a flat ball. Here flat ball means a ball with almost no spin. The main thing is to find the right timing on your loop-drive.
Where exactly is the gap between an 1800-point and a 2000-point player?
Serve and receive, plus awareness. Through rhythm and placement, break the opponent’s center of gravity. A good receive mainly has to exceed the opponent’s expectation.
In the next part, let me share the US men’s singles champion Kanak Jha’s secret to high speed. He won the US singles title and shared how to put time pressure on the opponent through fast attacking.
He says he is not a power player, so he can only try to suppress opponents with line, rhythm and game speed. Fast attacking is his advantage.
The key lies in the forehand looping stance. He says you should hit with a nearly parallel-foot stance, which lets you strike the ball at an earlier point. If the left foot is planted too far forward, the contact point gets delayed and you cannot attack fast. With nearly parallel feet, when the opponent serves to your forehand you can also take it with the backhand; and balls aimed at your body in the middle are easier to handle, too.
Here is my analysis — pay attention, everyone. This stance is for faster attacking. With a parallel-foot posture, you cannot transfer much power from the legs into the ball, so it looks less brutal. Generally, with the right foot further back and the right shoulder dropped, that posture loads up better and lets you fire higher single-ball quality. But for someone like me who pulls the arm far back on the swing — winding up the big arm — it looks like higher ball quality, but the contact point gets delayed, and the overall rhythm and speed slow down. That actually hurts my continuity, too.
Jha understands deeply that faster striking matters more, because power is not his advantage.
One more key point: with Jha’s stance, you have to pay special attention to thrusting the hips. Apply force to the ball through the rotation of the hips. So he is now training to achieve better coordination among the hips, arms and upper body.