"Space on the ball" is critical to accuracy and effective economy of movement around the court. Crowding the ball proliferates inaccuracy, however proper space and preparedness encourages accuracy and outstanding pressure on your opponent. Yes, we all know this but how do we change.

First of all we have to, as always go back to basics, just as all top players do in their workouts - They always drill the simple stuff with their trainers, setting goals consistently - (Geo. Hunt the many times World Champion back in the 70¹s) In his early days drilled for 3 months to length only on the right hand side of the court!! Well thetas obsessive and perhaps a little weird but he was many times World Champion.

A hockey player friend who used to play NHL for the Hartford Wailers before they became the North. Carolina Hurricanes, has been a validated inspiration to me on my teaching methods. Since he had a major car accident he has retrained himself to play hockey, and consequently as a coach he fully understands patience, correct mechanics, as well as the creation of muscle memory effectiveness, with focussed repetitive action. (do it slowly first, proper space on the puck makes everything easier & hinders over handling it..
One of the toughest things is this C word, change.

Those of you who know me well are well aware that I get out the chalk and blue tape from time to time and we map out the placement on the walls for correct geometry and ball travel lines. To encourage the best use of our shot action we must remind ourselves that the openness of the racket head and speed through the shot is what dictates power and trajectory to a good length.

We must also look at how close we are to a shot that we typically play well and remember a time when we played that one devastatingly good shot with such ease. We can ask ourselves how we were placed on the shot and we will find that we were untypical a little further away from it and also committed to the shot.

So lets make this more of a habit, by creating muscle memory that gets used to playing the ball from a slightly further distance.

One method is to play and imaginary shot along the wall side and back or front side and see where you lead foot is - then draw a line and x adding 12 inches in - this will put you seemingly way to far away from the ball -
then get your coach/opponent to feed a shot into that area to a length and then play your shot - have faith in the process and you will find that you start returning shots you have never achieved before.

Now keep doing this for 25 hours!! When done go to another part of the court and repeat. Remember that our bodies and arms have about 6 -9 inches of extension ability so our brains have often judged a need to get closer to the ball, that does not exist It is also important in this drilling to correct yourself if you start crowding and also look at the flight path of the ball, - in other words will the shot angle correctly off the wall and go where you want it to ?- where you have decided to play it ?- if not (for those of you who play golf you will know how important technique is and space on a shot as well as full commitment to each swing & where it lands & why that particular location on the course).