by djarvik » Mon, 03 Sep 2012 21:18
With all due respect to everyone, you do not stay 1-2 steps from the net if you SV. In real life or in the game.
The SV supposed to work like this:
Big serve or precise serve followed by a mid court volley. At this point you need to make a decision, was your volley good enough? ...meaning the next shot your opponent will hit will be off-balance? ...off-balance from baseline or inside the court?
If this was a good deep volley that will force your opponent to run down and hit off balance - then I would take a step back. Likely he will attempt a lob or top spin reach shot that will pop up and maybe over your head. He cannot pass from this position, his pass will be short and will have little direction and power. That means you are either going to put away, smash the ball or you will have to hit a regular stroke of the weak pass.
I prefer deep volley to short volleys on the first volley. Yes, it may not result in immediate winner, but it gives me more time to observe my opponent and my shot and make a right decision for the next volley.
Short volleys are great too, but as a change up. (for me) I would hit one after I "teach" my opponent to anticipate the long volley. My reasoning is that IF the opponent gets to that short volley, a tap lob will go right over my head with little time for me to "see" the play and react. And if I will move back to cover it, I am open for a pass....and in this case, even a mediocre pass will work well, as the opponent is closer to me and I will have very little time to react.
Hovering 1-2 steps in front of the net DOES NOT WORK in real life or in this game. It is simply unrealistic and it should not work.
I get lobbed, but when I do, I know exactly why: Either my first volley was not good enough, leaving me mid court and making a gamble of either running all the way forward in hopes of a pass to put it away, or staying mid court and anticipating lob. And the reason I lose this point is because after I make that weak first volley, my opponent has all the time n the world to look at my positioning and make the correct choice of a pass or lob.
So my advice, work at that First Volley. This has been the key to success for SV game in real life and TS4. You cannot simply push that volley and run all the way to "1-2 steps close" to the net in hopes the opponent will feed the ball to you. If you do everything right - you dictating the play, the opponent has little choice and time to react.
Level 13 Edberg and counting...