Kill! Kill! Kill!

Every so often in a match you will get a chance for a nice kill shot to the nick in the front corner.

Usually the best time is when you get a loose high cross-court from your opponent. You have to be ready with your racket up and you have to be ready to move forward so that you can cut the ball sideways to volley it to the nick. Finally you must not make a mistake and hit it into the floor or the tin!

At Comberton Saturday morning sessions our more advanced players use a practice in pairs that helps cut out mistakes on kill shots.

Each player takes a side of the court. They feed themselves a loose high shot and try to kill it to the nick on their own side.

They then try to retrieve their own kill and send it as a loose high feed to the player on the other side. This player can try to kill the cross-court feed if possible or otherwise return it to themselves to try for their own kill. Then they send it back to their partner on the other side.

Scoring is 2 points for a kill of your opponent's cross-court feed. 1 point for your own feed. But minus 2 points for a tin from your opponents feed, and minus 1 point for a mistake from your own feed. You only get points for a clear nick - the danger if you miss a nick is that the ball sits up for an easy return.

You can play first to 7 points and then change sides. Backhand kills are much more difficult so for a fair test you both need to have a go each side.

Using this practice will help you stay balanced, focused, and calm when you get an opening in a match for a clean kill.

One of the greatest kill shot players is Amr Shabana - check out some of his rallies on the web.