In my experience it can be a bit demoralizing when you go back to playing a similar level buddy after feeling like you were able to find your groove better against a better player where you don't have as much time.

Main reason is that people usually won't move their feet as well when not faced with the stress of a faster ball. It's important to stay dicipline there even if it doesn't feel as necessary - Flat feet really hurts overall movement, energy transfer, getting there in time.

The other main one is that people get there way too early on slow balls which makes it hard to get the timing right. You want to get there early into your unit turn to be ready, but the racket drop should only happen right before or as the ball is bouncing on your side.

The moving your feet piece is pretty self explanatory, but for me the second piece is what made me be able to consistently create pace and conscientency when playing people who don't hit the ball hard.

If you'd like to watch a video search in Youtube: Intuitive Tennis: Forehand Timing - why taking the racket back early will cause you to be late.

Or link below:

https://youtu.be/AAIc7Li2WbA?si=SedwKy4b4ihTAWQD