Lisa Naumu & Kris Anderson verses Kim Jagd & Helen Wilhelm
March 22, 2019
First two videos of Kris Anderson and myself playing women’s 2nd round Senior Pro vs. Kim Jagd/Helen Wilhelm. Lakes CC, Spring Fling, March 22, 2019.
We won the toss and chose to serve first. We like to get the first points on the board.
Kris serves, they return to me. Kris moves in as I hit the 3rd shot with a drive to Kim’s backhand as she is coming in. We win the point.
Kris serves, ball comes to Kris. As she hits 3rd shot I move in toward kitchen line. We both work our way to KL hitting mostly to opponent’s backhand dink. All unattackable dinks. Opponent gets impatient and hits the net.
It’s important to point out the unison and teamwork that we have by working together to get to KL fast and dink a lot until they either get impatient and do too much with the ball and miss or pop up the ball. We look for this to put the ball away to a gap or open court.
A timeout is called to stop play.
The lesson in this first video is to try hard to make it to the KL to take over the line and dictate the points early.
Part 2
After timeout Kris serves, ball comes to me. Notice Kris moves in early because she has confidence that I will hit 3rd shot drop into the kitchen so if either opponent hits anything high she will be there to cut off the ball as I approach the KL. The ball comes to me deep, notice Kris watches ball bounce to help me with the call as she moves to KL early. As I come in I popped the ball up and they took advantage of that and won that point.
Sideout. Other teams serve.
Kris gets the return, hits back comes in quickly. Let’s the ball bounce then hits a drive to win the point. Lots of options. This gave her time and room to take a big swing to drive the ball.
Kris serves, ball returned short so Kris hits drive instead of dink or drop shot. This proves to be effective because the point was won.
Another key element to a winning team is the ability to retrieve lobs. There is a lob over our heads. Retrieving the ball requires communication and positioning yourselves to get back into the point as soon as possible. I retrieve the ball by hitting back into the kitchen to slow point down and to give us time to get back into the point.
Stacking
We also use stacking. You will see Kris serve while I am next to her waiting. After the serve, she then slides over to the forehand side and I take the backhand side where my forehand is down the middle. It works well to mix up the look and we do it when I serve too sometimes.
Defensive Block
The defensive block is used by Kris and me on some points because our opponents sometimes try to surprise us or try to make us pop up the ball. Our blocks put the hard-hit balls back into the kitchen and we reset immediately to get ready for the next shots. Defensive mode to offensive mode is a really good thing to have as a team because we keep the ball in play and turn it around to our advantage.
This can frustrate opponents when you and your partner are consistently getting all the balls back.
Lesson
The lesson in this video is to help each other call the lines. Get return back deep and come in quickly with the partner. Serve deep to get a short return whereby you can drive the short ball to be more aggressive.
Have defensive blocks and offensive hits.
Call timeout if you lose 2-3 points in a row to change the momentum, regroup, reset and discuss other possible strategies that you may have to change.