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Bandeja at the player or into the space?
Bandeja into the space, deep. Make them move to play it, and the reply is weaker.
You have a bandeja with both opponents back. Is it better aimed at one of them or into the open space?
Bandeja into the space, deep. Make them move to play it, and the reply is weaker.
Why
The bandeja wins points slowly, by making the opponents hit from further back and from further away. The target is the space rather than the player: deep into a corner, a metre or two from where they are standing, so they have to move and stretch. A ball hit straight at a defender in position is blocked with the pace you gave it. The exception is the víbora or the feet smash, which target the player deliberately to force a lift. For the bandeja proper, the corner beside the weaker defender is the spot.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Aim the bandeja at the corner next to the opponent, not at the opponent. Make them take two steps to reach it.
Intermediate
Deep into the corner behind the player who has drifted toward the middle. The wall then brings the ball to a spot they have to reach.
Advanced
Vary the target in the corner: sometimes so it dies on the glass, sometimes so it bounces before it. The defender has to guess whether to wait for the wall.
Common questions
You have a bandeja with both opponents back. Is it better aimed at one of them or into the open space?
Into the space, deep. Bandeja into the space, deep. Make them move to play it, and the reply is weaker. The bandeja wins points slowly, by making the opponents hit from further back and from further away. The target is the space rather than the player: deep into a corner, a metre or two from where they are standing, so they have to move and stretch. A ball hit straight at a defender in position is blocked with the pace you gave it. The exception is the víbora or the feet smash, which target the player deliberately to force a lift. For the bandeja proper, the corner beside the weaker defender is the spot.
Why not at the body, to jam them and force the block?
A ball at the body from deep is blocked back with your own pace. The bandeja wants them moving, not blocking.
What should a beginner do here?
Aim the bandeja at the corner next to the opponent, not at the opponent. Make them take two steps to reach it.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Vary the target in the corner: sometimes so it dies on the glass, sometimes so it bounces before it. The defender has to guess whether to wait for the wall.
Puzzles like this one
They lobbed you deep. Smash it or play the bandeja?
Deep ball, high hands: bandeja. The shot exists to keep you at the net, not to win the point.
beginnerBoth of them are at the net. What is the highest-percentage ball?
Only the lob moves a net pair backwards. Everything else invites them forward.
intermediateWhat do you do with the return of serve?
The return lob is how the receiving pair steals the net. Aim over the player who is still moving.