The term “banger” is used to describe a style of play where the player hits the ball hard and fast and really doesn’t try to hit the ball into the kitchen. It is not meant to be a derogatory term, just a descriptive name. There is instant gratification from hitting a drive and winning the point with one swing. Bangers will attack most balls from all parts of the court. They hit drives, swinging volleys, and attacking dinks, so don’t expect them to hit a drop shot. This winning strategy and style of play is always going to be around because it is effective at most levels of play.

The vast majority of players are beginners and intermediates and they like to get on the court and simply hit the ball hard. A well hit drive against a similarly rated player will win points and their shot will be difficult to put away.

Hitting drives gives the player a larger margin of error because they have a larger window to hit through. The square footage for the drive is 300 feet while the drop shot is approximately 60 feet and requires good touch.

A drive is designed to challenge the opponent’s volley. If they have excessive movement with a larger swing, they will make unforced errors. The banger wants to overpower weak volleys with hard drives.

Recognize that this is a difficult style to play against and develop your game to defend against it.

Remember that there is no rule saying that you must play up at your NVZ line. Almost all instruction is to have the partner of the player hitting the return of serve to be up and the returner moving up after their shot. This feeds right into the strategy of the banger. Sometimes the drives are just too overpowering for your volleys. Stay back if the banger’s drive is beating your volleying skills. In these scenarios, play the hard drives from your baseline like you do when any player is serving. So the banger has a hard serve, so what. Block it back into play. Your ability to cover your side of the court is a major factor on how good of a player you will be. How often do you get aced by your opponent’s serve? How often does your opponent hit a return of serve to your side of the court that you don’t get your paddle on the ball? The answers are rarely. The point therefore is to NOT move forward if your volley is weaker than your opponent’s drive. A banger wants you up and wants to hit the ball hard at you so you defensively block the ball back with your volley and they can attack that ball from close range. Staying back and playing every ball as if you were returning a serve is an option. Just don’t hit high balls and move forward. The bangers hit the ball fast and hard and a shorter motion of blocking the ball back into play from your baseline will be a very good way to keep the ball in play. Then develop hitting your shots with less pace so the ball travels a shorter distance and be lower to your opponent’s feet. This particular shot is named the “Dining Room” shot and can be viewed under that chapter.

If you elect to play the traditional positioning of you and your partner being up after returning the serve, your success depends on your ability to hit volleys in front or to the feet of the banger. This is easier said than done. But you should have a target area for every shot and your target area against bangers is to place the ball in front of their feet wherever they are. If you are up at your NVZ line and your opponent hits a drive and starts moving in, hit your volley with the intent of making the opponent hit a half volley or low volley. Often I will hit a drop volley because I want to try and get the point into a dinking game. When your opponents are hitting hard drives at you when you are at the NVZ line, you want to have short, concise volleys. The hard shot is designed to force errors from players who have large swinging volleys. Instead, you want to play the ball as if you were going to catch the ball with your hand. For example, baseball players do not have a backswing with their glove. Instead, they reach forward and keep their hand or glove in front of them. The same applies to a volley on a fast ball. Keep your paddle in front of your body, line it up to the incoming ball, and block the ball back. You can soften your volley so the ball doesn’t fly too far by applying a small amount of Underspin, also called backspin. Study the chapter on the Chip and Catch. Blocking your volley back in front of the banger’s feet is really important. Most bangers are going to hit a drive and move forward to attack weak volleys that have been popped up. So try to block the ball back to an area of the court so your shot lands in front of the banger’s feet.

If the banger hits a drive and stays back, then you want to hit a firm volley back near your opponent’s baseline which will keep them back, give them a more difficult shot, take away some of their power, make them vulnerable to any short volleys that you hit by accident, and give you a little more time. What you don’t want to do is hit a short pop up volley which allows your opponent to come forward and hit another hard shot at you from a closer distance. Bear in mind, the best players in the world have very good volleying skills and will beat bangers. I liken a consistent and controlled volley to a clap. You can clap softly for a drop volley or hard for a drive volley.

Hit your serve deeper. That will give you a little more time on the banger’s hard shot. Occasionally hit a short serve as bangers may hit the shorter ball long.

Hit your return of serve deeper. A deeper return keeps your opponent farther back and gives you more time. Deeper returns are a more difficult shot for hard hitters.

Stay back and hit dining room shots. If you could hit drop shots and move forward and had great volleys, then you would beat a banger. But bangers attack drop shots as they attack all balls. So stay back and hit your shot so the banger has to play the ball below the level of the net and they will make mistakes.

Hit lobs and stay back. Deeper lobs are difficult to put away. Deeper lobs will back the bangers up a little and allow you to hit returning shots low to their feet.

Another important aspect is to not play their out balls. Just like a baseball batter does not want to swing as pitches outside the strike zone, bangers hit every ball hard and you must recognize balls that are high will fly out. So when you are up at your NVZ line, bend your knees to get low, and do not hit balls shoulder height. Work on your matrix moves to get out of the way.

Bangers hit all the balls hard. Hit your serve short into the box which forces the banger to hit the ball while moving in and if they hit the ball hard, it may very well fly out.

• Do not play balls that will fly long and / or out.

• Hit your Return of Serve deeper and stay back.

• Use a smaller motion when defending against hard Drives.

• Have a short motion for your Volley.

• Block your Volleys in front of your opponent’s feet.

• Hit a high deep Lob on your return.

• Hit a Drop Volley if your opponent is moving forward.

• Hit an occasional Serve short in the service box.