What a rally is actually for

Almost every card in this book is the same question in a new costume. Is this ball a BUILDING ball, or an ENDING ball?

Building means deep, crosscourt, with height, again and again. You are not trying to win the point. You are waiting for one of their balls to land short.

Ending means stepping in on that short ball and taking the point away.

Almost every point at this age is lost by mixing them up. Somebody tries to end a point from a building ball, misses, and calls it bad luck.

It was not bad luck. It was the wrong job.

So the question on every card is really: which one is this? Once you know that, the shot usually picks itself.

Deep and crosscourt until they give you something short. That is the whole game, and almost nobody does it.

The four shapes you will keep seeing

1. The crosscourt rally. The ball goes over the lowest part of the net and has the most court to land in. It is the safest ball in tennis, and it is where most points live.

2. Changing direction. Going down the line is how you hurt somebody. It is also the most likely miss, because the net is higher there and the court is shorter.

So the cards keep asking the same thing: is this the ball to change on?

3. The short ball. Their ball lands short and everything changes. Now you are the one attacking, and where your feet go matters as much as where the ball goes.

4. Getting out of trouble. They have pulled you wide or pushed you back. This ball is not for winning. It is for buying the seconds you need to get home.

Watch for the moment the shape changes. Most of the mistakes in a rally happen on the ball where one pattern turns into another, and the player is still in the old one.

You are not learning shots here. You are learning to notice which of those four you are standing in.

This is one page of the reference section.

The rest of Crosscourt IQ is 538 situations — a court diagram, the score, and one question: what would you do here, and why? Your player answers first, then the reasoning opens.

Ten cards are free, with the full answer key on every one.

Read ten cards free

More free guides

What each serve is trying to do to youFlat, slice and kick — what each serve is actually for, and what it does to the returner.What a tennis return is actually forThree jobs on every return, in order. Most juniors have never been told what they are.How to hit a defensive ball in tennisHigh, deep and down the middle — why the answer keeps being the same when you are in trouble.Where to recover to after you hitHit, stop, recover. Where to move back to, and why it is not always the middle.How to hit a tennis ball under pressureWhat changes about the stroke itself when you are stretched, late or moving backwards.The split step, and when to do itEvery return starts before the serve does. When to move, when to land, and why timing beats speed.You are playing a person, not a ballThe other side of the net is a person who gets tired, frustrated and predictable. Read them.Which points actually decide a tennis matchNot every point is worth the same. Take your risks on the spare ones, not the critical ones.