18 July 2012

ATTACKING AT THE WRONG MOMENT II.: CAMERON PILLEY vs. BORJA GOLAN

Yesterday we had a similar example where Ramy Ashour went for the high pace forehand low kill in the wrong moment (at 0:13). Today it's Cameron Pilley's turn to commit a similar tactical error.
Yesterday, Ramy had little space for a decent backswing which resulted in finding the sidewall early, which made the ball bounce out towards the middle. In the current example Borja Golan (in white) hits an excellent near-dying length at 1:26, the ball bounces off the backwall just, hence again there is little room for a natural, free-flowing backswing; at this moment Cameron Pilley (in blue-black) opts for a hard paced low drive (not quiet a kill) which, just like yesterday Ramy's ball, ended up being very loose and enabled Golan to go pretty evidently for an attacking boast that Pilley could not retrieve yet. 
The only real difference to yesterday is that Ramy's ball hit the sidewall too early whereas in today's example Cameron's ball was simply too straight, not fading at all towards the sidewall - in both cases the result was a loose shot and being stuck in the back, far off the 'T' whilst the opponent goes for his next shot. 
The common error in both cases was the idea itself to go for a high pace low shot under those circumstances: if room is limited, if there is no space and time for a free-flowing backswing, you better avoid high paced shots as there is a good chance to miss-time your shot and also miss the sweet-spot of your racket, and as a consequence lack precision/accuracy; in these situations you better just lift the ball straight, or even cross-court, as Amr Shabana demonstrates it in a recent video at 0:17, and more importantly and beautifully at 0:32.