Tennis Plan A not working?

One of the guys that I've been playing with for a long time told an interesting tennis tale:


"I remember a player at X's session that, other than serving, would just stand near the net to play volley and smashing. He is good at that. But smart opponents would hit balls to bypass him. Lobs and hitting only to his partner all the time to avoid him.

 

I happened to partner him a few times. In the last one, which I promised myself never to partner him again, the opponents did just that and I have to return all the balls all the time. I had tried to hit the ball hard enough so that the opponents have a little more difficulty to handle the return.

 

At one point, he actually shouted to me that I need not hit the ball hard all the time. WTH? OK, I hit them softer. This actually gave the opponents more time and accuracy for their shots. All the more that none of the balls go to this guy. We lost 6-0 and he didn't want to talk to me nor shake hands after the set. Me neither.

 

It made me very moody after that set.

 

For many other partners, most of them would give advice on how to counter the opponents, who to attack and how to. You learn new tricks with them. With that guy, you learnt not to partner him."

My own thinking is that sometimes, if something is not working (I define not working in the most quantifiable way in that if you keep losing points), you need to change your plan.

This guy that we are talking about, not only is his team losing, people are not hitting to him ... why does he still want to stick to the same plan of waiting at the net until his team gets beaten 0-6?

 

One has to ask if he cannot even think of doing something different?

How about just staying back at baseline and go to "2 back" instead of one at the net and one at baseline?

 

I can understand where he is coming from, in terms of varying pace. 

Sometimes varying pace can get you points with opponent making errors, but it really is a personal thing.

Varying spin is easier for me than varying pace. But it's easier said than done.

 

It is a very good point made that other partners will offer advice on the opponent and overall approach.

In my playing together with other partners and from my personal experience, I have found that talking to your partner or another guy to change his game has almost never worked.

Let's be realistic.

The only way people can change their game at our level is to observe and learn and also try new things. 

We don't have coaches. 

Among the folks I play with, we talk more about the ATP pros' games, their strengths and weaknesses compared to analysing our own or our other friend's games.

Sometimes a good way to learn is to lose.

If your weakness is very obvious, and your opponent has enough sense, he will exploit your weakness.

If a lot of your opponents do it enough, you will get a lot of practise on your weakness until it may become less of a weakness ...