What is the particular action the thrower uses?
I think thats variable depending on the court, the thrower, and
whether its a singles of doubles game. For some reason, some say
dead floor, some say the lower part of the back wall at Miami
is particularly live, you see a lot more well placed chic chacs
at Dania than you do at Miami. In any situation, the best chic
chacs are thrown on the forehand with a side arm action, you see
some guys who can just jam it in there with power, but generally
it seems to be a touch shot, thrown high on the frontis with some
fading action as it approaches the back.
Is it telegraphed, or am I just sensitive to the opportunity?
I think the shot is telegraphed in singles, but with that much
court to cover, damn near impossible to stop if its thrown right.
How hard is it throw correctly?
I think in doubles its damn near impossible to throw unless youre
playing against a backcourter who likes to cheat up. In singles
its a good bit easier because the margin for error is so much
greater. Difficulty is also dependent on the court from what I've
seen, again, Miami for example, it seems damn near impossible
to throw a perfect chic chac, whereas at Dania, close seems to
be good enough more often than not.
What kind of errors can the thrower make, e.g., too high, too low?
The two most common errors on that shot that players seem to make,
are throwing it too short, allowing an opponent to cut the shot
off near the 11 line, or throwing it too hard, not necessarily
high, but overthrowing and hitting the back wall first, which
leads to balls that bounce out, often for relatively easy rebotes.
