Now's time to do a drill focusing on offense or defense. Now the reason why this drill is so important is because most players just go out and they play whatever type of ball they receive, whether some opponent hits the ball hard and it challenges them and they try to hit it hard back or you get a short ball, but you don't realize it. 

And that's why playing offense and defense and realizing this is so important. And so what we want to do with this is go out and rally with a friend, or you can even do it with a ball machine. And what you want to do is call the type of ball you're receiving before it crosses the net. So as the ball machine or your friend hits the ball, you want to call offense or defense.

 If you're calling defense, it means they're hitting a really big ball or a deep ball that's going to push you back. The key to this is when you call it because you're seeing it, because you equally move with your feet.

 This has to happen together because there's no sense in calling defense, but not moving back and putting yourself still in a poor position. So when we call defense, we want to also move back. And the last thing is we want to hit the ball high in the air to give ourselves more time to recover back.

Because if we move back and hit a defensive shot really hard, well, we'd be so far back in the court from moving back that we really would put ourselves in a poor position again, too far behind the baseline to do anything. Not only that, your ball is also going to probably land shorter because you're deeper in the court. 

So you have to put all these things together, calling the ball before it crosses your side of the net, moving back based on your call and they're responding with the correct ball based on your call. So again, if I say defense, I'm moving back and I'm hitting the ball high in the air to buy time and the recover if I'm calling offense because the ball shorter in the court and I'm moving up and I'm anticipating because it's short that I can drive through the ball or be more offensive with my shot. 

This way I'm going to have more opportunities because I'm recognizing when I get the short ball. So many players just don't see this. They get a short ball and they don't realize it. And by the time they get up there, it's actually a defensive ball and we don't want that. Now it's time to go out and do the drill. So you're going to hit or rally with a friend, and all you're going to do is call offense or defense before the ball crosses the net.

Do your best. Even if it seems like it's a little late, still call it and still try to respond with your feet and the correct shot selection, because that's the most important part. Just calling it isn't good enough if you can call it move and respond. 

Now you're putting yourself in the best position to handle your opponent's aggressive shots and to move up and be aggressive when you have more opportunities. And the more you do this, the better you're going to get at this. Now, if you feel like this is just too much and I don't know how to transition from calling offense to defense, simply break it in half. 

Have your opponent or a ball machine hit you a lot of balls that are defensive balls where you have to move back and consistently work on calling, moving back and hitting the appropriate shot. Then do the offensive side have a ball machine or partner feed you short balls where you call offense, you move up and you play an offensive shot.

This is the best way if you're having trouble distinguishing each one that you practice it and build a muscle memory to see it respond and hit the right shot according to the ball that you're receiving. 

And this will put you in a great position when you're playing singles or doubles to be able to anticipate and respond to your opponent's best shots.