How to read these lessons
The site has one idea: show a passage of play rather than describe it. Here is what that implies, and the six symbols that appear on the court.
A situation, not a theory
Every scene is a passage of play, run in slow motion, with one sentence per idea. You watch, then you read, then you move on.
Trajectories are computed, not drawn
A shot is described by where it is struck, what it aims at, and its shape. The arc, the bounce, the spin and the ball leaving the court all come out of a simulation: what you see is what would happen.
Mistakes teach as much as successes
When a ball escapes a player, the distance he was short by is measured and shown. That is often where the lesson is.
Sometimes you watch from your opponent
Some scenes are played from the player about to strike. You step out of your own point of view, and the gap you leave him becomes obvious.
The six symbols to know
He reaches the ball
The green tick appears above the player, with the distance measured on the simulation.
It escapes him
The red cross says by how much, and why. If the ball passes above him, it is the height it passed at that is shown.
The reach
The dotted circle has a radius of 1.3 m. It makes visible, beyond argument, whether a ball was reachable.
The zones
Green, orange, red: the zone the current step is talking about. Its name is written inside, or just beside it when it is too narrow.
The ball
Its shadow on the ground says where it will bounce; the trail, where it comes from. When a player holds it, the trail disappears.
The figures
Dark, your pair. Light, the opponents. The player the step is about is brought forward, the others are dimmed.