How to Handle High Balls – Moonballer Medicine

One of the most common questions for tennis coaches is how to handle high balls. Especially on the often weaker backhand wing. This video deals with various approaches to dealing with high balls, both aggressive and defensive. We like to call it Moonballer Medicine.

It might sound like a basic problem, but high balls on the backhand was one of the tools Nadal used to give Federer trouble for many years until Federer started taking the ball earlier with a more aggressive approach. His bigger head size racquet also helped to give him more margin of error. This video mainly deals with the double-handed backhand, but you can always use the slice of course. We hope to create more content around the single-handed backhand later on, but a lot of things we discuss in the video also apply for the single-hander.

If you watch the Djokovic practice session he did in Marbella ahead of the French Open, you will see how he practices hitting a defensive high ball to the opponents’ backhand. This is a useful strategy also on the highest levels of the ATP Tour. The idea is not only to give your opponent trouble but also as a defensive shot to be able to recover your position on the court. It works a bit similar to the slice. It slows down the tempo and gives the opponent a tricky shot to play aggressively.

How to Handle High Balls – Video

How to Handle High Balls is another video in the Tennisnerd training series we call “Tennisnerd Academy”. I will try to work with different coaches to be able to capture their approach to solving a problem. Many of these videos have been done together with Nikunj and Vijay Siwach, two excellent coaches who love being able to explain concepts on the court. I have also shot a couple of videos with coach Luiz Perez in Marbella and I hope to do more in the future. That is why I am curious about what your biggest issues are on the tennis court. Please comment below.