Ahhhh, the Lob… The most hated tennis shot by recreational players… :)
Even though the Lob can be a very efficient stroke to use against the net team, it is rarely practiced by players. But if you are the exception and you understand its effectiveness, here are a few guidelines for making it a weapon:
Technically, look at it as a groundstroke aimed higher: bend your knees to get under the ball more. The racquet swing path is angled a little more upwards compared to a regular groundstroke and depending on the type of lob (offensive or defensive) the racquet face should be a little more open.
Height: The lob should be sent high enough to clear the net player. Drill to work on the lob: have a partner at the net feeding balls to you on the baseline. You will try to hit every ball over your partner who puts his racquet and arm extended upwards. To make the drill more competitive, your partner at the net can chase the lob and play it but he cannot pass the service line to play the point.
Depth: The lob should land deep enough so that your opponents will have a hard time chasing it down. Imagine a line that goes parallel to the baseline and is situated halfway between the service line and baseline – we’ll call it the Middle of No Man’s Land (MNML). Your lob, to be very effective, should land between MNML and baseline, the deeper, the better.
Spin: The lob is very effective when hit with topspin for the following reasons: topspin makes the ball come down sooner and once the ball bounces it takes off fast making it difficult to retrieve by the chasing team; also, the topspin lob travels lower and faster through the air.
Slice can also be used on defensive lobs, which we’ll discuss below.
1. The Defensive Lob has the main goal of getting the ball back in the play and it can be categorized into four types: return lob, buy-time lob, defending lob, and run-down lob.
– Return Lob is used when returning serve. It can be done because you intend to keep an attacking team back to the baseline or just to surprise the net player with a lob serve return.
Execution: block the incoming serve making contact with the ball further in front and open the racquet face slightly. The result is a flat or slightly slice spin lob.
– Buy-Time Lob is used when a player is pulled wide, off the court, and needs to buy time to recover by sending a ball very high and deep. The result is a slow, high, flat, or sliced lob executed by pushing the ball with the racquet slightly open (very little backswing and acceleration).
– Defending Lob occurs as a result of blocking a very hard incoming ball (e.g. powerful overhead from the net players) with the purpose of just staying in the point and making the players hit one more ball. Sometimes that is all it takes to win a point… to hit one more in.
– Run-Down Lob – This happens when the team at the net is being passed by a lob and they run it down to hit it back. If the incoming lob is deep and they don’t have enough time to run around it, their option is to hit it over the shoulder (or between the legs ? as another high, deep lob.
Execution: Have the continental grip on the racquet, get behind the trajectory of the ball, let it bounce, and then hit the ball on the downfall by pushing it over the non-dominant shoulder. Your intention would be to send the ball high and deep so you have time to recover.
2. The Offensive Lob is a little harder to execute but it is very effective in winning the point with it. It is the topspin lob played when the player is in balance, in a good position to do whatever he wants, and under no/little pressure.
The execution is very similar to a topspin groundstroke except that the offensive lob is higher (just enough to clear the net players) and deep to the baseline.
It can be used on the serve return (when the serve is slower), and mostly from close to the baseline since the player has more court to work with.
As far as placement, besides the depth, the Lob should be sent over the player’s weak side (e.g. backhand) or down the middle (the net players will have to make a quick decision about whose ball will it be).
Practice the Lob often. When you meet the team that hates it, you will emerge as a winner.
