Why I Stopped Speeding Up From Below the Net

Published May 25, 2026

There was a tournament weekend last fall where I lost three matches in a row I should have won. Every single match followed the same pattern. I would build a good rally at the kitchen, get into a dink exchange, and then go for a speed-up that did not work. Sometimes the ball went into the net. Sometimes it sat up perfectly for my opponents to slam it back at my chest. Either way, the result was the same. I gave away points trying to attack when I was not in position to attack.

My regular doubles partner Reece pulled me aside after the third loss and said something I have thought about every session since. He said I was speeding up balls that were below the net just because my hand felt good, not because the situation was right. That was the whole problem in one sentence.

The Habit That Was Costing Me Points

I had developed a bad habit without noticing it. Any ball that came to me at the kitchen line, if it was even remotely attackable, I would go for the speed-up. It felt aggressive. It felt like I was applying pressure. What I did not realize was that I was speeding up shots from too low. The contact point was often below the net tape, which meant I had to hit up on the ball to clear the net. Hitting up means the ball travels in an arc, which gives the receiving team time to react and an attacker's angle to come back at you.

Looking back at video from those tournament matches was painful. I could see the moment in slow motion. The ball would come over at maybe paddle-handle height, somewhere around my hip. Instead of taking a soft drop or a controlled dink, I would step in, accelerate the paddle, and try to flick it past the opposing player. About one in four worked. The other three either went into the net or floated up for an easy putaway. Two-to-one losing trade. Every single time.

What Reece Told Me to Pay Attention To

The fix was not complicated. Reece broke it down at the courts after our next practice session. Watch where you are making contact with the ball. If you are contacting it above the net, fine, you have options. Speed it up if the spot is open. If you are contacting below the net, your only good option is a soft shot. A reset, a roll, or a dink. Speed-ups from below the net are wishful thinking, not strategy.

He also pointed out that the kitchen line is not always the right spot to attack from. Sometimes the right move is patience. Reset the rally with a soft drop, get a better ball, then attack on the next one. I was treating every kitchen exchange like a knife fight when half the time the right move was just to keep the ball low and wait for a real opening.

The Drill That Fixed It

I spent about three weeks running a specific drill before every session. My partner would feed dinks at varying heights, some above the net, some below. My only rule was that I could only speed up balls that I contacted above the net tape. Everything below got a soft response, either a dink back or a reset. Nothing else allowed.

The first week was rough. My instincts kept pulling me toward attacking the lower balls. I would get halfway into the swing and have to abort, which usually meant a sloppy dink. By the second week, my brain started catching it earlier. By the third week, the discipline felt natural. I stopped seeing low balls as attack opportunities and started seeing them as control opportunities.

Why This Drill Works

The reason this drill helped is that it forced me to override a reflex. Speeding up feels good, especially when your hand is hot. Soft hands feel passive even when they are not. Drilling the discipline removes the temptation, because your only choice is to follow the rule. After enough reps, the soft response stops feeling passive. It starts feeling like the smart response, which is what it always was.

How the Game Changed

The first tournament after that adjustment, I won my division. Not because my technique had improved dramatically in a month. Because I stopped giving away free points. The match scores were similar, the rallies looked similar from the outside. But I was no longer feeding my opponents easy putaways every time a ball dipped low.

Reece and I talked about it after the finals. He pointed out that the speed-up problem is one of the most common patterns he sees with 3.5-4.0 players. Hand speed gets to a certain point, paddle technology lets you generate spin without much effort, and players start believing they can attack anything. The truth is that the geometry of the net does not care how fast your hand is. A ball below the tape needs to go up to clear the net, and going up means giving your opponent time. That math does not change at any skill level.

What I Tell Other Players Now

When players in our open play sessions ask me for one piece of advice that improved my game the most, I tell them this story. Stop attacking from below the net. Reset, dink, roll, whatever. But do not try to win the point with a ball you have to hit upward to clear the net. The math is against you and your opponents will eventually figure out that all they have to do is wait for the next pop-up.

It is not glamorous advice. Nobody walks off the court after a great match and says the best part was their discipline on low balls. But the points you stop losing matter just as much as the points you win, and the players I respect most in our regular group are not the ones with the flashiest speed-ups. They are the ones who almost never give away free points.