Returning Against a Serve and Volleyer

Not many players favor the serve-and-volley game style in the modern game of tennis. Accordingly, facing such a player can be very frustrating sometimes unless you have a great deal of experience under your belt. Here are some things to keep in mind when facing a net rusher:

1. Make him volley. This may seem like routine advice, but that's not quite the case. A S-V player provokes the following unconscious thoughts in your mind: A) he's coming in; B) he's coming in because he likes it; C) if he likes it, he must be good at it; and D) if he's good at it, I better keep the ball away from him. This is exactly the way the net rusher wants you to think; he wants to tempt you to go for the low percentage passing shot off his major weapon. It's hard enough to pass someone who is coming in off a ground stroke! Why would you try to do this off a serve?! Therefore, a better tactic would be to make the player volley and see what tools he has on his belt. Maybe it's all just a bluff! You will never know unless you test him. 

2. Your point of recovery following the return should be inside the baseline. The good serve a volleyers will attempt to combine good serves with sharp angles. For them, this guarantees that the returner has the most ground to cover. Therefore, returning and then recovering deep behind the baseline's center-T plays right into their hand. You want to recover in an aggressive position in order to ensure that you are as close to the next shot as possible. Force them to aim their volleys deep - not only may this draw errors but it will also reduce the angles that they can create. 

3. Don't forget about the chip return (NOT a slice). Depending on how solid your chip return is (if it's not, try to improve it), a chip return may give you a better option if you're unsure of your opponent's tendencies. For one, the chip requires little or no back-swing (you're utilizing the opponent's pace and only redirecting the shot) so you can make the decision on where to hit and how deep much later (in terms of tennis-time). Also, the chip requires a continental grip so if you have a one-handed backhand, it's easier to transition from the forehand grip (Western or Semi-Western) to the chip (since you only have to go half-way). In addition, a chip has a completely different spin - something that the volleyer may have difficulty handling. A topspin ball dips into the volleyer's string-bed. A well-struck chip will "pop up" of his strings - thereby forcing the volleyer to make adjustments. Volleyers are more accustomed to volleying against a topsin than against a ball that spins the "other way". 

4. Stay close in. Similar to playing a big-bomber, it's important to stay closer to the court when returning and thereby position yourself so as to cut off the server's angles. Most likely, the serve and volleyer will attempt to come in off a spin serve (kick, topspin, or slice) in order to give himself more time to close in. If you stay back, you will allow him to take an extra couple of steps - at which point, it will be difficult to make him volley below the net (your goal is to make him pop up the volley as opposed to sticking it downwards). Stay close in, use the pace of his serve (even a kick-serve has sufficient pace for you to use and redirect) and seek to make the rusher volley behind the center-T or half-volley around the center-T.

The center-T should be your target in these instances. Pound it incessantly and force the volleyer to generate angles from the middle of the court; don't give him an opening (i.e. too far away from the middle but within reach) from which he can generate an angle. Unless he's very, very good, chances are that he will have difficulty handling these shots. The best return is, actually, slightly cross-court from your return position - this force the opponent to adjust the face the face of the racket and to generate a slight "inside-out" angle. For example, if you're returning from the deuce side down-the-line, the opponent can stick a cross-court backhand volley without much difficulty. Return cross-court, and he will have problems generating the same angle with his forehand volley down-the-line. 

5. Attack. Another oft-forgotten play is to come in yourself (chip-and-charge). This may work as a great surprise-tactic since the server expects to face an opponent who is staying deep. You have a slight advantage in these situations because out of the two players, you're the only one who knows what to expect. Depending on the serve, you may in fact "beat the player" to the net since, the ball would have reached your position a split second after the server's contact with the ball. Chip down the T (low), rush in and pounce on the opponent's next shot (particularly any pop-up floaters). Stun him once or twice and you will either force him to do more with his serves (resulting in more double faults or second serves; [DING-DING] BONUS) or his volleys (errors). If you're lucky, you might actually force him to stay back ([DING-DING] DOUBLE BONUS) and that's when you know that you have really rocked his boat. 

Steal This Drill: Peel the Orange for a Nasty Slice Serve

The slice serve is an often underutilized serve but one of the most effective. When juniors (and other developing players) see Isner, Roddick and Karlovic bombing aces at 145mph+ down the middle, it is easy to become mesmerized and forget about all the other serving possibilities. If, however, we put testosterone aside and analyze Roger Federer's serving pattern, we see that he is one of the best at exploting the slice serve.

As a matter of fact, Federer routinely starts his service games with the out-wide serve and uses it up to 2/3 of the time (on first serves) thoroughout the match (more on a faster surface than on a slower surface). The slice serve is effective because (a) it gets the opponent's momentum moving to the right (red arrow) and (b) even a well struck return doesn't compensate for an open court (sharp cross-court backhand or down the line forehand - both difficult to track down). On the ad-side of the court, the slice serve is a great way to start a wrong-foot play (i.e., hit behind the returner) as well as to "keep an opponent" honest (especially when she runs around your normal serves and pounds winners).

When practicing the slice serve, it is often tempting to just put a target out-wide in the service box (deuce side) and aim for it. A better way may, in fact, be to insert a broomstick or PVC pipe right through the center strap (red line) and aim for serves down-the-center. Try to get your slice serves to curve outwards (orange line) around the right side of the pipe. This may be a better way to practice than aiming straight for the wide serve because you will work on actually seeing the ball breaking around the pipe as opposed to merely hitting flat serves out-wide (i.e., "side-winder's" v. "throwing darts"). That is, you're working on the slide; the skid; the curve. As you get better, move the pipe 1 inch to your right (i.e., the opponent's ad-side - purple line above) and continue curving your serves around it down-the-T. Keep moving it inch-by-inch until the pipe is about 10 inches or a foot off-center (your right side). When you master 10 sliders around the pipe in this position, start shifting the pipe more and more to your left (i.e., towards the opponent's deuce side) until it reaches about half-way into the service box (opponent's deuce side). This is the point where the ball should to "break" left and slide out-wide.

One of the concepts to keep in mind when practicing the slice serve is to vizualize "peeling the orange". I first learned this from Guy Fritz when I was practicing at his and Kathy May's home in Rancho Santa Fe which was surrounded by orange groves. At first, I thought that he actually wanted me to quit my day job and start peeling oranges for a living but what he meant was that the string bed simulate an orange peel moving up and around the ball. Here's the interesting part: the red part of the arrow outlines the path of the string-bed BEFORE it makes contact with the ball. The blue part of the arrow outlines the general contact point. The RED zone is, however, the contact zone for a good kick or top-spin serve. This means that, from the opponent's point of view, it looks as if you're "kicking him" out wide.

Do this correctly, and you will bamboozle him into switching his grip to backhand and shifting his weight onto his left foot thereby making it more difficult to cover the slider. At the last second, you actually make contact with the ball ("up and around") curving the ball towards your left (his right). Sometimes, this may require two grip changes from the opponent (from forehand to backhand and back to forehand again). If this happens, your opponent - even one with a monster forehand - may be tripped up by a serve that looks as if it's going to the backhand and then breaks to his forehand. This may just enough of an edge to create a huge opening in you opponent's side of the court which you can exploit with your groundstrokes. So peel the orange for juicier points.

Relaxing Under Pressure

Choking, tanking, tantrums, moping, whining, racket-slamming, screaming, official-berating, etc., if you've been around this sport for a while, particularly in the junior division trenches, you're likely to have seen it all. Where do these emotions come from? It seems that a child who is an angel one moment is liable to turn into a monster the second he's faced with a minor obstacle during a match. Does tennis make people crazy or are crazy people attracted to tennis? I don't know if there is an answer to this question and arguments can go both ways. However, if you don't have a sports psychologist on staff to assist you with your child's mental game, how do you break through the initial stages - when it seems that the whole world is collapsing around you no matter how hard you try - before the game itself breaks you?!

Again, as with all topics covered on our site, it doesn't seem that an easy solution is readily available. Sorry, folks, no DVDs, self-help books, magic pills, or imported snake-oil. When faced with certain situations that seem insurmountable, it helps to think of the game of tennis as a way of life rather than an end result. Everything you're feeling is not novel; people have gone through the same emotional stages for generations. In this regard, the best players know that there are some situations that they can control and a number of situations that are not within their realm of authority. Initially, the components of competition that are totally within your control are those dealing with your preparation. These are your practices, workouts, training, studying, attitude, emotions, effort, stretching, icing, practice matches, and all the other little things that come together to form a symphony of who you are as a player. Skip on one or more of these things ("hey, it's just stretching. No big deal;" or "I'll play sets tomorrow"; or "My serve's good enough. I don't need to practice it today") and the stress that you feel on court are the proverbial chickens coming home to roost. All of a sudden, you wish that you could go back in time to do all those drills that your coach asked - nay, BEGGED - you to do. But time travel is not within our grasp at this moment. Therefore, what would otherwise be a calm and confident performance turns into a masterpiece of inconsistency, paralysis, anger, nerves, dissatisfaction, anxiety, stress and, ultimately, acceptance.

Nevertheless, while you're contemplating hanging up the racket and enrolling in that Norse mythology class that you've always wanted to take, it's worth noting that all successful people are faced with pressure situations on a day-in and day-out basis. How do they cope and excel while lesser players fold? First of all, be they lawyers, doctors, accountants, professional athletes or world-class musicians, the "best of the best" start out by focusing on the process, not the result. They know that the results are natural products of a number of factors including: preparation + attitude + work + dedication + consistency + luck. A surgeon thinks about the steps she must follow - from anesthesia to closing up the patient. The thought that the patient might die on the operating table is not something that consumes the physician's every waking moment. Sure, it's something to keep in the back of the mind as a possibility but constantly fretting about everything that could go wrong would end up paralyzing the physician with fear. Same with an attorneys - they analyze the facts and the laws. They are not obsessed with how the judge might rule. These non-tennis professionals are aware that the result (win or loss) does not define them as human beings. How they deal with obstacles says more about them than their actual results. A loss is only a loss if they fail to bounce back and strive for a win. To use an analogy, the end result is like the canvas of a painting - it's something that remains in the background but the art-work, that is, the process, remains in the foreground.

Theory aside, if you are faced with a pressure situation during the match, here are some things on which you can focus in order to shift the emphasis from the result to the process and, hopefully, relieve some of your stress:

1. Have you won a point? Yes? Great; if you can win a point, you can win 4. 4 points won equal a game; 24 points amount to a set and 48 add up to a match. Therefore, if you won a point (and I'm assuming it wasn't a double fault by the opponent - in which case, you shouldn't be feeling too much pressure) you can win a match. Therefore, relax. As corny as it sounds, "you can do this". The key is to figure out the way to get there by focusing on the little bites not swallowing the whale in one piece. Even the best climbers need multiple, smallest steps to reach the top of the Himalayas. As a player, learn to put one foot in front of the other and follow in the footsteps of giants - one step, one point at a time. Strive to regain a 2:1 win-loss ratio for your points. Maintain this balance for a few games, and your opponent will eventually throw a couple more points your way. If you can win 2 points for every one that you lose, you will win the match - it's not magic, it's math.

2. Are you taking appropriate breaks between points/games? This is important. Too many times, a player who's facing the executioner's noose is all too willing to sprint to the gallows. The player races from point to point, ditching 2-3 returns straight into the net or tossing a few consecutive double faults for the benefit of the opponent. Following this path takes a great deal of pressure off the opponent since he sees that he's made you reach your boiling point. If you cleared the first obstacle (i.e., answered "yes" to #1 above), the second duty is to "stop the bleeding". Stop donating points to your opponent; stop giving him confidence. Instead, make him think about the trophy (i.e., the result). As outlined in the step above, you want to maintain a positive win-loss ratio with respect to the points. Don't allow your opponent to steamroll you off the court. Slow things down to a crawl and regain your composure.

3. Control the things that you can control and by this we mean: serves. Ultimately, your serve should be your primary weapon. It's the one shot where your opponent has little or no say in it. Focus on picking your spots and having a high first serve percentage. The key is to serve "smart". Depending on your skills, serving smart may mean mixing up the pace, placement or even spin. Read your opponent's stance and try to figure out if he is anticipating a certain serve. No need to bomb serves if the opponent is standing 10 feet behind the baseline. A deft angle will do just fine. Don't forget about the jam serve. In pressure situations, our brains seem to focus on the "openings" (i.e., the corners) while excluding a more obvious target - the body. Mix things up so that you can spend the greatest amount of your energy on breaking your opponent's serve not holding your own. Players such as Federer and Sampras are tough because they breeze through their service games and then marshal(ed) their assets to tearing down their opponents' serves. Learn from them by focusing on your serve and shot immediately following the serve.

4. Don't play a hero on the returns. As previously mentioned, aiming for the lines with the returns is usually a bad idea and it's even more so when you're playing key points under pressure. Drive your returns deep in the middle of the court in order to neutralize the opponent's initial advantage. Make her play every single point. Show her that you are not to going away without a fight. Force her to show you how much she wants that trophy. By putting constant pressure on your opponent's serve you will, hopefully, relieve some pressure off your serves. Think about all the times when you struggled to hold serve and didn't have the energy or focus to mount an offense in the following game on your opponent's serve. It's only natural for your mind to take a mini-break after having to concentrate for a significant period of time. Thus, in step #4, you are attempting to make holding your serve (step #3) easier by pressuring your opponent's service game.

5. Share the pressure. Remember that the term "competitor" means to "jointly seek". That means that you and your opponent are in this battle together. Shift some of the pressure onto the opponent by making him hit uncomfortable shots in pressure situations. For example, 4-4 and 30-30 - this is a great time to chip and charge on your opponent's second serve. Make a good play, and all of a sudden the opponent is facing break point. Lose the point - no big deal; the opponent still has to serve it out but now he's thinking about the last point and how lucky he was for coming up with a good play. At least he's not thinking about the point ahead!!! Making your opponent think about the past means that your opponent is not living in the present. Now, you're opponent will start to feel some pressure because you have become unpredictable and the situation uncontrollable. By dictating the tempo, first through well-timed breaks, second through surprise plays, the momentum will start to swing your way.

6. Don't give your opponent easy points. Scrape, moon ball, push, grind, hack, whatever it takes - make your opponent fight for every point. Move your feet! This is a similar concept to point #4, but there's no use in making your returns just to ditch an easy rally. Take pride in your defensive capabilities but this is not the time to aim for the ESPN highlight real. Go after your opponent's legs, lugs and heart. Make him question the wisdom of being there on the court. Remember that, unless you're an ATP-level player, your opponents are not world-beaters. With basic planning and execution, they are all very, very beatable. Part of the pressure that you are feeling is caused by the feeling of wanting to win without a fight...being unsure of whether you have what it takes. Forget it; embrace the contest. Tell yourself "there's no place I'd rather be right now than on this tennis court". Repeat it and believe it. The sport of tennis entails virtues such as patience, perseverance, passion, sacrifice and, most of all, "game." Game means your willingness to rise to the occasion and love the heat of battle. When your heart beats fastest, your breath is loudest...that's the aspect that you need to learn to enjoy the most.

7. Keep your eyes on the court. A lot of players are not comfortable being out on the court by themselves. Normally, mommy and daddy are out on the practice court "helping the coach" collect balls or encouraging the player to try harder. Unfortunately, when you're playing a match you're out there on your own. Looking at the sidelines and seeing mommy's face grimacing (or disappointment in her eyes) after you've missed a shot will only increase your anxiety and sense of helplessness. Therefore, stop looking for safe harbor in your parents' eyes. You will not find it there. The consolation can only be found on court. Accordingly, in between points, focus on your strings, the towel and the ball. Never ever look at anything beyond the fence. Even the best players envelop their head in a towel on the changeover in order to block out the prying eyes of the audience (as a side-note, a non-player asked me one time: "why do these guys always look at their strings between points? What's wrong with their strings?!" That is, even she noticed that the players' eyes are fixated on the string-bed and NOT wandering around the arena). If focusing on the court is good enough for them, it's good enough for you.

Lastly, remember that it's only one game. It's seems like it's the biggest cliche, but it's the truth. At the end of the day, we're not solving the world's problems - we're just hitting a little yellow ball across the net and trying to break a sweat in the process. Therefore, learn the most you can from the experience, experiment with all the shots and strategies that you have covered in practice and remember that this is all just a test. It's how you bounce back from your experience - be it a loss or a win - that says more about you as a person that the actual score.

Today Has No Bearing On Tomorrow

The day before the tournament:
Player: "Can you feed me one more ball?"
Coach: "Sure."

One more ball turns into 50 more balls. With each extra shot, the stress starts to build, striving for perfection. With the tournament just around the corner, everything has to be perfect. Any innocnent bystander can recognize the player is starting to overthink things, needing things to fall in place exactly how they imagined. The player hits 4 fantastic shots, then misses by one by a foot, "one more, one more." The missed shots were no big deal a week ago, but today, those irky "feeling" shots start to irratate the player.

Everyone starts to feel a little insecure the day before the tournament. Doubts start to creep in and its only natural. Don't give it any value, just be aware of it. The rookie player will keep asking for "one more coach, one more." The veteran player pays no attention to any poor play because they understand today has no bearing on tomorrow. A great practice doesn't guarantee a great tournament. Often times, it can be negative if one has the best week of practice leading up to the tournament (it doesn't have to be negative, unless you let expectations build).

Sometimes the best tournaments are the ones where players have had a lot of adversity leading up to the event. Why? Low expectations and not needing things to be perfect. Tennis is a game about fighting, clawing, scratching to get your points- so just taking things as they come can really help a player relax and let their game come out.

The winning and losing in tennis is not controllable (if it were, you would win every match). This is why stress builds because one can never be certain of the outcome. If the match is a 50/50 match in your favor, the stress level is high. The player who needs things to be perfect is often times the player who loses- they overplay, berate themselves, and make poor decisions throughout the match. Emotions are flying out of control because they want to escape the stress. They want to get off the court (ie: tanking).

The next time you ask for "one more ball," please catch yourself. If you miss the last ball, call it a day. The sooner you can make peace with this type of reaction to a miss, the better off you will be.

It's A Question of Motivation

Are you tired of seeing the same movie again?  You prepare for weeks, honing your forehands, backhands, and serves for the big tourney, getting up early in the morning for treadmill and bicycle workouts, monitoring what you are eating (by the way, the training is the easy part of tennis, anyone can do it), and at 3-4 down a break in your first match (against an equally skilled player), it all comes tumbling down.  You start to think, "Uh oh, here we go again..."

How many times have you seen this movie?  And the movie ends with the same ending everytime- mean spirited temper at yourself, at your opponent, at the entire world, ending in a quick 6-4, 6-2 loss.  You get off the court and you and your coach both agree you need to hit a lot more forehands because that's what broke down at the 3-3 game, thus deciding the first set.  

I assure you, THAT AIN'T IT.  

What's killing you is the poor thinking.  Everyone is liable to get tight, make a few errors at inopportune times, but what's inexcusable is allowing the same mistakes to continue.  A smart player will remember from practice or previous matches his forehand is susceptible to breaking down in these crucial situations, so intuitively, he will not ask so much of this shot.  And if he does miss his share of forehands, he certainly won't let his terrible forehand affect his emotions to the point where a break of serve turns into 4 more breaks of serve.  

Now, juniors, college players, and professionals are all guilty of thinking the worst and allowing a cloud of negativity to take over.  Players start making eye contact with the coach/parent/boyfriend/girlfriend after each lost point (never the winning points) to say as if, "I don't know what to do!  Can't you see how bad I'm playing."  (If you are the victim of the DIRTY EYE, leave the court or pull them off the court, its childish).  All these shenanigans get old after a few episodes...nobody likes to watch Star Wars Trilogy or Back to the Future 30x in a row!  It gets old seeing the same silly movie over and over again. 

Most players are unaware of how poorly they are acting and if they are aware, most will say they can't control it.  I disagree and here is why.  It is all a matter of motivation.  They have a choice in this and here's how I know.  The next time a player pulls the "poor me" or "f*%# m*" cards- tell them you will end their life with a bullet.  

Of course, this is all theory, but if you really think about it -if someone had a gun on the sidelines, ready to shoot you in the leg everytime you said or did something stupid emotionally, I promise you would stop. Controlling your emotions will not guarantee a win, but it greatly increases your odds of winning.  That's all you can ask for.