Stay Low At The NVZ

You've probably heard me preaching about staying fairly low when defending at the NVZ. Bend your knees, keep your feet wide apart, and then bend your knees a bit more.

The big advantage to this is that it puts your paddle in a strong position to return hard drives, and it discourages jumping up. If you are standing upright (not in a good ready position), there is a tendency to move your body up, jump back, and push your paddle out to defend a drive. Pop-ups follow and you know what comes next.

The other thing that I have discovered is that being low with your knees bent will discourage you from reaching up to hit balls that are headed out. This is a huge challenge for many people and I have found that this helps immensely.

So, two huge reasons why you want to be in a good low ready position at the NVZ.

See you on the courts.

Michael Gauthier