Defence is not one shot. It is three jobs, in order. You hit the ball. You stop. You get back. Miss any one of them and the other two were wasted.
Hit. Stop. Recover.
1. Hit. Most of this book is about this part — which ball to pick when you are in trouble, and why. High and deep gives you time. Low at their feet takes theirs away.
2. Stop. This is the one everybody skips, and it is the one that costs you the point.
When you run wide and hit, your whole body is still travelling sideways. If you let it keep going, you drift. Then you slow down. Then you turn. That is three moves and about a second and a half.
So do not run through the shot. Plant your outside foot hard and stop dead — the foot furthest from the middle of the court. Now that foot is a wall you can push off.
3. Recover. Then go, and go properly. Not a jog, not a walk back while you watch your own shot. Run.
Watch the ball while you run. Face the net and move with shuffle steps, or cross over if it is a long way. Never turn your back on the ball to get home faster.
Two questions that decide everything
Where do I stop? Not always the middle. You recover to the middle of their angles — the spot halfway between the two widest balls they could hit next.
Push them out wide and that spot slides across towards their side. Hit a ball up the middle and it is much closer to the centre mark.
How much time do I have? That is what your shot just won you. A high deep ball gives you about five seconds. A hard flat one gives you almost nothing, which is why it is so often the wrong choice when you are late.
The height of your ball and the speed of your feet are the same decision. A slow ball is only useful if you use the time it gives you.
Standing back is a trap. If a deep ball has pushed you behind your baseline, get your feet back in as soon as you can. Every target is further away from back there, and their angles get wider.
One warning. You will see professionals slide into these shots on clay and on hard courts. Do not go looking for it. A slide you did not train for is how ankles get hurt.
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.
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