Angles guide

Worked shots: what to expect and how to aim

Four common shots, each with what you might expect, what the ball usually does instead, and how to adjust.

A low, flat kill

You might expect: hit it low and hard into the front wall and it comes off at the same low angle and rolls out.
It usually does: a hard hit is a dead hit, so the ball comes off flatter than the mirror and slower, which helps. But spin matters more than you might think (Figure 4 on the spin page): topspin lifts the ball off the wall and carries it out, while backspin pulls it down. In the model the first bounce is about 6 feet out with backspin against 10 with none and 20 with topspin. A ball struck from high up arrives steeper and pops up higher after the floor (Figure 8 on the hand page).
Adjust: get low and hit flat, so the ball meets the wall nearly level. If you put topspin on a kill, aim a little lower, because the wall will lift it. If you cut it with backspin, it will die sooner, so you can aim a touch higher and keep it off the floor.

A one-wall lob

Figure 10. Seen from the side, true to scale. The one-wall long line is 34 feet from the wall. Worked out with the model, which leaves out the air: a real lob lands shorter than these, but in the same order.

You might expect: the lob comes off the wall at the mirror angle and lands where the arc says.
It usually does: a lob is hit softly, so it keeps more of its bounce and comes off squarer than a hard shot. Spin moves it a long way: topspin kicks it up off the wall and it carries deep, backspin pulls it down and it lands shorter. In Figure 10 it lands about 42 feet out with topspin, 36 with none and 31 with backspin (the model leaves out the air, so real lobs land shorter than this). There is no ceiling, so nothing stops a lob that is going long.
Adjust: if your lobs keep running long past the long line, take the topspin off (an open-handed, flatter lift) or aim a little lower on the wall. If they fall short, a rising, brushing underhand that adds topspin carries them deeper.

A pinch into the front corner (enclosed court)

Figure 9. Seen from above, an enclosed court 20 feet wide. Side wall, then front wall. The real path is worked out with the model; the dashed one is the mirror path.

You might expect: side wall, front wall, then out along the mirror path.
It usually does: the side wall slows the ball and sets it spinning, and the front wall grips that spin. In Figure 9 the mirror path comes off the front wall about 17° off straight out; the worked-out path comes off about 31° off straight out, cutting more sharply across the court, and at about 57% of the speed it was hit at.
Adjust: the ball finishes nearer the front wall and farther across than the mirror path says, so a pinch tends to die short and wide. Aim it by the mirror line, then expect that, and move to cover where it really goes.

A ball along the side wall

You might expect: a ball that brushes the side wall bounces off at the same small angle.
It usually does: a glancing ball slides through the contact and loses a share of its push-out speed, so it comes off flatter than the mirror and stays tighter to the wall. It also comes off turning, which changes how it comes off the next wall it meets.
Adjust: a pass that just kisses the side wall stays tight, which is what you want. If you need it to come away from the wall, hit it at a wider angle, not harder: a harder hit comes off flatter still.

How the numbers in these figures were worked out: the model.

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