ATP

If you cannot ATP, your opponent’s will continue to dink you out wide, pulling you out of position. Just being able to ATP and threatening it is huge in leveling the playing field.

The key with ATP is to get low and hit the ball right before the ball makes contact with the floor right before it bounces the second time.

Backhand ATP

Two-Handed vs One-Handed Backhand ATP

Two-Handed Backhand ATP – highly recommended to do this one.

• Easier to get around the ball and apply sidespin to curve the ball in.
• Is basically a forehand ATP but with your left-hand.

One-Handed backhand ATP

• Slice ATP
• You the ball to be wider out in order to hit this ATP because you can’t curve it in with the sidespin that goes around the post.

Connor Garnett 2 Handed Backhand ATP Examples:

Connor Garnett ATP, he pulls his wrist all the way back, buttcap facing forward:

And he waits until the ball is very low to the ground at his ankle height to make contact with the ball.

And he gets it to bounce on the inside back corner:

Another Example:

This time it’s wide enough he aims it inside the court instead of at the corner.

You can see he pulls his paddle way back and applies side spin.

However because it’s inside the court, Augie gets his paddle on it and hits it back towards the other side.

If you don’t aim for the back corner it’s less risky, but also a lot easier to defend. Lower risk, lower reward.

It’s still a strong shot because Connor Garnett’s right side partner Pesa Teoni was able to come cover it and put the ball away.

Priority Checklist

1. Anticipate – recognize from ball trajectory as soon as it leaves opponent’s paddle that a dink is likely going too wide and is going to be ATP-able.
2. Move quickly – to where the ball will go before the ball even gets there.
   • If you start moving after the ball bounces, it will be too late.
3. Get balanced and low
   • Once you get to where the ball will be, get low and get balanced.
4. Point paddle head at the ground. Wrap your paddle around the outside of the ball.
   • This way you can generate the most amount of sidespin.
5. Wait until the ball is lower than your knee to contact it with your paddle.
   • This forces you to go low and wait longer until the ball is further out wide. The #1 mistake beginners make is not waiting long enough and waiting until the ball is almost touching the ground to hit it.
6. Because the ball will have lost most of it’s momentum, you’ll need to hit it harder than you expected for it to not fall short.
7. Keep the corner on their side of the court in your eye and aim for that.
   • That part is the hardest for the defender to defend.
   • It’s also the first part of the court that becomes hittable.
8. Learn to bail yourself out
   • If in the middle of it, you realize the shot was not ATP-able, learn how to dink the shot back to the middle to reset the point.

Drill Progression

• Solo Drills:
  • Self-Feed: Drop the ball to yourself and ATP it.
    • Drop the ball and ATP it, but make it further and further back everytime until you are all the way back like this guy, who is basically one the other side of the court a little to the right of the line.
    • See how this guy can ATP from all the way in the back of the court: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm41xeytRo3/
• Partner Drills
  • Drill 1: Ball Feeding to ATP:
    • One person feeds the ball wide, the other person ATPs.
      • Do it for both sides of the court.
  • Drill 2: Dinking Game
    • One person dinks and tries to pull the partner wide, and then dink to the middle. Second person looks for ATP opportunity when the dink is too wide.