Doubles Only Tennis Podcast

The Most Important Volley in Doubles: Lessons on the Serve +1

• Will Boucek • Episode 199

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I recently released a 3-part doubles lesson on the most important volley in doubles... the Serve +1 volley. You can watch all 3 lessons below.

This episode covers the serve +1 volley in even more detail, including my response to several Facebook and Instagram comments on the lessons. You'll learn how to practice the serve +1 volley, the different types of this volley, and several rules to follow to make it easier.

Master this shot and everyone will want to be your doubles partner because they'll hold their serve so much more easily!

Don't forget to join me for Episode 200 LIVE! Sign up here.

Watch all 3 lessons on the Serve +1 Volley below.

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Importance of Serve Plus One Volley

Speaker 1

Welcome to episode number 199 of the Doubles Only Tennis Podcast . That's right , next week will be episode 200 . In this episode 199 , we're going to cover the most important volley in doubles . So if you follow me on Instagram , we recently released a three-part series on the most important volley in doubles . It's also on our YouTube and Facebook channels and there are three short video lessons on what I call the serve plus one volley , and I wanted to do a podcast episode on it , not only because it is so important , but also because there were a ton of comments and a lot of reaction to these videos , and a few of you pointed out some kind of exceptions to some of the rules that I created and different things like that . So I'm going to cover the rules here today with you . If you haven't seen the videos , I'd recommend you go back and watch those , either before or after you listen to this episode and then it will all make sense . But I'm going to dive into it a little bit deeper than I do in the videos to cover some of the exceptions to the rules that I created and help you with that .

Speaker 1

Serve Plus One volley . A couple of quick announcements before I get to it Number one . We just reached 10,000 followers on Instagram . So thank you all for the support and for helping to grow the Instagram channel . If you've liked the video , if you've shared any of our content in the past , you definitely helped support that growth . I'm hoping that we're going to be able to really take this momentum and do even better , going into the end of this year and then going into next year as well . I'm looking into getting some more support for our social media channels so that we can start to post even more content , because it is going pretty well so far . So thank you all for that support . 10k is really a cool milestone to hit .

Speaker 1

Like I said , next week will be episode 200 of the podcast , which is crazy to think about . I remember when I started this back in 2020 , had a few pro players and coaches on , then released the original kind of four or five part double series . I think it was a four part series . I haven't looked at it in a while and we've had so many amazing guests , amazing strategy episodes since then . The podcast continues to grow pretty much every single month . It has grown steadily for the last three or four years , so it's been a ton of fun . It's amazing to be at episode 200 .

Speaker 1

And to celebrate I want to do a live episode . So we're going to try out an Ask Me Anything episode next Tuesday night . It's going to be at 7.30 pm Central Time night . It's going to be at 7.30 pm Central Time . So that is Tuesday , october 8th , at 7.30 pm Central Time . So that is 8.30 Eastern 5.30 Pacific Time .

Speaker 1

If you're in another country I'm not sure You'll have to look at the time zones , but hopefully you can join us and if you can't , you can email me your questions and I'll try to answer them on the episode as well . So you can email me will at the tennis tribecom and then in the subject line just put episode 200 or something like that and I'll try to answer those for you in the episode . But it's going to be again a live episode that I'm going to include a link in the show notes of this episode . Where to be again a live episode . That I'm going to include a link in the show notes of this episode where you can sign up and you'll actually get a link where you can join and watch live and ask your questions live . So it should be a ton of fun to dive into strategy with everyone and just kind of celebrate the 200th episode . I think it's going to be a lot of fun .

Speaker 1

Episode 201 is going to be a very , very special guest , somebody I've been trying to get on the podcast for a long , long time , so keep an eye out for that . We'll maybe announce it next week on the episode 200 , who that guest is , but it's a name that you've for sure heard of . And then the last thing later on in October I'm shooting for the last week of October we're going to launch our new membership . So that is going to include a bunch of different things . I'm still working on kind of the membership tiers . There's going to be several different options for you . We're going to include premium podcast episodes going forward . There's going to be several different options for you . We're going to include premium podcast episodes going forward . There's going to be a premium newsletter . There's going to be premium video lessons . There's going to be live webinars every month . Just tons and tons more content . I think it's going to be a little more sustainable for me to continue to release content to a premium tier of members every month , and then I'll still have regular free episodes of the podcast . The free newsletter will still be going on and then free video content as well . But for those of you who want to dive a little deeper , want to support the show , want even more kind of higher end content , more in-depth strategy content , I hope that you'll be able to sign up and I'll have more announcements on that later this month .

Speaker 1

So let's go ahead and dive into the Surf Plus One Volley . So one of the questions I got in these lessons is what is the Surf Plus One ? This person I don't remember who it was , but they were on Instagram and they said I see S plus one or serve plus one all the time . I don't know what it means , so it's actually pretty simple . Once you understand this um , you have , uh , each shot in the rally . Um is the serve , the serve , uh , the return , and then the serve plus one and then the return plus one . So the serve plus one is the third shot in the rally . So serve , return , serve plus one , return plus one , serve plus two , return plus two , serve plus three , return plus three . You don't hear as much about the plus twos and plus threes because most points in doubles , like we've talked about recently , end in four shots or less . So the plus one shots are super , super important .

Speaker 1

I talked about this with Jonathan Stokey on the Stokey 6 episode recently , and avoiding serve plus one and return plus one errors is one of his Stokey 6 errors to avoid and it will improve your game dramatically . So that is the serve plus one , and the serve plus one volley is , in my opinion and the data kind of backs this up the most important volley in doubles , because it is the first chance any player has on the court to hit a volley , and in doubles , we know volleys are very important , probably more so than singles . So it's the first chance that the net player has access to touch the ball , so you're in the server's partner's position . One of the reasons I think it's so important is because most of us at the club level are not very good at this shot . We don't practice it enough and we're not in the right position for this shot as well . So I want to talk about the three rules that I went over a couple of comments from Instagram and Facebook , and then hopefully you'll have a good understanding of how to go out and improve your serve plus one

Serve Plus One Volley Strategies

Speaker 1

going forward .

Speaker 1

So the first thing I wanted to mention is there are different types of serve plus one volleys . So you can imagine your partner serving at the baseline . You're up at the net , maybe you're in regular formation , maybe you're in I formation , australian , it doesn't really matter and they hit the return and you move to a specific position , or maybe you stay still and the return comes at you . What do you need to be doing with this volley ? Now , again , there's different types , so I like to break it down into offensive and defensive and when you think about that , it's really going to depend a lot on the strength of the serve . So , generally , when it is a first serve , you're going to have a more offensive approach to your serve plus one volley . You're usually going to have a little bit weaker return . It's going to be a little bit maybe slower ball . Sometimes , a lot of times , it's going to be higher above the net . You're going to be able to do a little bit more with this serve plus one volley and hopefully angle it off for a winner or put the ball away somehow , and you can take a more aggressive position on that first serve as well .

Speaker 1

Now , second serves , it can be a little different . So this is going to vary based on your skill level . So , obviously , if your partner has a very weak second serve , you're probably in a more defensive position . So in that case you're going to be backing up a little more . You're going to be hitting more defensive kind of reaction volleys . You're not going to be able to put the ball away or angle the ball off the court for a winner or force a lot of errors . You're really just trying to kind of stay in the point because you're on defense , since your partner does have a weak second serve . So before I get to the rules , the number one thing that I want you to take away from this episode is to practice this shot . There's two things you want to practice with the serve plus one volley . Number one is your reaction time .

Speaker 1

So a lot of us are very uncomfortable at the net because we don't practice our reaction times at the net . A lot of times we are when we're practicing volleys . We have our partner back at the baseline . We're at the net and we're volleying back to them and in that case they're volleying from well behind the baseline . A lot of times they're hitting , you know , pretty easy balls right at us . We're trying to get into a rhythm . They're not necessarily trying to hit winners or dip the ball at our feet or trying to keep the ball away from us . They're actually trying to keep the ball in play , which is a very , very easy volley to hit when the opponent doesn't actually want to make us miss the volley . But obviously in a match that's not realistic , right ? They're going to be trying to hit the return in a way that makes for a difficult volley for us or avoid us altogether . So we might be a little bit stretched or we might be hitting the ball from below the height of the net or sometimes , if the opponent returns and really connects with their return , it's going to have a lot of pace . So we have to get used to that reaction timing .

Speaker 1

So that's the first thing you'll be practicing by practicing the serve plus one volley , and the second thing is the angles . So , like I just said , a lot of times when we're practicing volleys we're volleying back to our opponent at the baseline , because maybe we only have a can of balls and we're just volleying back and forth to warm up our volleys . If you can practicing your put away volleys , the only way kind of reasonable way to do this is you have to have a lot of tennis balls so you can have a hopper or a basket or a ball machine , but you've got to have , you know , 20 plus tennis balls where somebody can feed balls to you and you practice angling them off the court . So you should be doing this with your coach . If you do private lessons , y'all should be doing this in your clinics . If you have a clinic with four or six of you , I do it with all of my students when they're practicing their volleys and it helps a ton . Even if you can only do this for five or 10 minutes twice a week , it's going to help you improve that serve plus one volley a lot . So those are the two things we want to be practicing . And again , if the only time we're practicing volleys is hitting them back to our partner at the baseline , then when we get into a match and we make a good cross or the return comes right at us , we're probably going to volley it back to the player at the baseline . We're not going to put it off the court because we haven't practiced that shot . So you've got to practice the serve plus one volley .

Speaker 1

That is the most important takeaway from this episode . So let's dive into the rules . So rule number one was to volley across your body . It's something I've taught before . It's something that I haven't mentioned , probably in a while , since this past week coming out with these lessons . What does this mean ? So , across your body .

Speaker 1

If you're a right-handed player , imagine you have a forehand volley . The ball is coming at you , maybe it's a little bit to your right , so it's going to be to your forehand side and you're going to volley it to your left . That is what I mean by across your body . So you're going to take the racket , you're going to make contact , maybe out in front , just to your right , and then you're going to kind of follow through to your left , across your body . So the ball is going to come from your right side and you're going to hit it across your body to the left side . Your backhand volley is going to be the opposite it body to the left side . Your backhand volley is going to be the opposite

Natural Volleys and Net Positioning

Speaker 1

. It's going to be on your left side and you're going to aim off to your right .

Speaker 1

Now , why do I have this rule ? There's a few reasons . Number one it's just a more natural volley , especially if you have a continental grip , which is typically what you're going to be taught if you have a good coach who's teaching you how to volley and proper volley techniques . So , um , it's just a more natural volley . When you watch players try to hit inside out volleys , um , it's a little bit less comfortable , uh , and a lot of times they make a lot more errors because it's less natural . They'll pop the ball up more because it's less natural . Um , so volleying across your body is generally just an easier , more natural volley .

Speaker 1

The second reason I like this rule is the ball actually gets through the court a lot faster . So , because it's a more natural volley , you're going to make cleaner contact more often than if you're trying to hit an inside out volley . And by making cleaner contact , you're going to hit a cleaner ball . The ball is going to move through the court faster . You're going to . You're going to hit a cleaner ball . The ball is going to move through the court faster . You're going to be more likely to hit a winner and force errors . So , even if the opponent is right there on top of the net with you , if you're trying to hit an inside out , say backhand , volley at the opponent like a lot of coaches teach a lot of times you'll miss that ball because it's just so awkward and not natural .

Speaker 1

This is something I teach on the court . I may even have some video lessons out there on it , but I promise you , if you start practicing hitting these volleys across your body , it's going to make you miss a lot fewer volleys . And our number one goal in doubles is to not miss , because most points end in an error and we do not want to be the one committing the error . We don't want to be giving away free points at the net , so volleying across your body is rule number one . Now somebody pointed out on Facebook that there was in this first video lesson . The player in the video was was in the ad court , so their partner was serving to the deuce court . The return comes down the line at their forehand volley and they take the forehand volley across their body to the left and it's the short sideline . So if you're standing in the ad court and you're hitting that forehand volley across your left , you don't have a lot of court to work with . And the person on Facebook commented and said you know there's no way you should be teaching club level players this . They'll miss it wide every time and you know it depends on your skill set and how often you're practicing this Now for most of my students that I teach .

Speaker 1

I teach them this volley so they're not missing this wide because they've been practicing it so much . And if you practice it it's actually not that hard of a volley . It's actually pretty easy to not miss wide and to angle it off the court to your left , behind the returner , and they have no chance to get it . If you're having trouble following this , definitely go back and check out the video lessons . I'll actually link to them , the YouTube versions in the show notes , so that you can see them . But that's one thing to keep in mind . But again , if you're not practicing this , it is going to be difficult and you might miss these wide . But even if you're a 3-0 player , you're not confident in that . If you practice these , I promise these are much more natural and easy for you .

Speaker 1

The second exception to this volley across your body rule is really there's two more . So the main one is if you're kind of stretched out . So if you're hitting a stretch volley , it's going to be very difficult to catch that ball out in front , so you're going to have to hit it kind of inside out . So if my partner's serving you the deuce court , I move to my right to poach . The return's really wide and I'm on the full stretch , I'm reaching out with my forehand volley . That's going to be difficult to get my racket head around the ball and hit it back to my left . So instead in that case , if it's a little bit further out , you might have to hit it past the opposing net player or at the opposing net player's feet , and that's a good play . That's a good play a lot of the time . What I'm trying to avoid with this rule is when players you know again to stick with that serving to the deuce court .

Speaker 1

When players move to their right , their partner serves to the deuce court , they move to the right to pick off a return and the ball's kind of more of a body volley . So the ball kind of comes into their body a little bit to the right side and they're taught to hit it at the opposing net player and you're kind of jammed with that forehand volley and trying to hit it to your right . It's just a very difficult volley . Unless you have very quick , explosive footwork , really good agility . To get your body out of the way and hit that volley to your right is so , so difficult . So when the ball is , say , within the width of your shoulders maybe an extra six to 12 inches of your shoulder width it's going to be easier to catch that volley out in front and get around the ball and hit it to your left for your forehand volley if you're right-handed . So that's the one that I see so many mistakes , and I actually see it even more often on the ad side with players' backhand volleys .

Speaker 1

The backhand volley is a little different than the forehand volley . I'm not going to get into the details of that . That might be something in the future we cover in some premium content once the membership is launched . But the backhand volley from the ad court is where I see a lot of players try to hit it inside out at the net player and they end up floating it up for the net player or they sail it long or they miss it in the net . And that's one where , if they could take back to the right behind the returner , it's going to be a lot more natural and a lot easier volley You're going to miss less often , it's going to get through the court quicker . But again , you have to practice this . You can't just go out and do it and have success 100% of the time . This is something you definitely have to practice .

Speaker 1

Rule number two is about positioning and momentum . So you want to have some forward momentum on this serve plus one volley , even if your partner has a weak second serve . In that case , you still want to be leaning forward just a little bit . You don't have to take a huge split step forward , but you want to be kind of holding your ground on the balls of your feet , leaning forward a little bit . If you're on your heels , you're going to have a lot more difficult time reacting to a hard hit ball at you . When your partner has a first serve , you should be getting plenty of forward momentum . So this varies by player . When I study players on the pro tour , some of them take a huge step forward . Others just take a subtle kind of split step forward and they're leaning forward with their body . But regardless , all of the best volleyers have some forward momentum .

Speaker 1

And then the second thing is making contact with the ball very close to the net . So this is something that many of us are very uncomfortable with being super close to the net and again , this is why you have to practice this to improve your reactions . Being close to the net allows you to . This is why you have to practice this to improve your reactions . Being close to the net allows you to hit better angles . It allows you to hit the ball at a higher point . So if you back up and you're , say , halfway between the service line and the net , that ball is going to cross the net and it's going to start dropping and you're going to be hitting a volley down from near your knees , maybe even your ankles , and you're not going to be able to hit a good angle from back there . So , especially on the first serve , you've got to be moving forward and be really close to the net . Ideally , you're making contact within a foot or two of the net as soon as the ball crosses , because it's going to be a lot easier . You're going to help your partner out a lot . So those are the two big things for rule two .

Speaker 1

One thing to keep in mind is your partner doesn't need to cover the lob if you're playing very close to the nut . Again , with all this stuff , I would just make the opponent adjust . A lot of times I'll play this way and they'll never lob me and they never figure it out and we win the match . I've played some teams who figure it out pretty quickly and they start lobbing me and then I adjust , maybe I fake poach towards the middle and then I move back a little bit for an overhead , or I have to communicate with my partner and determine , you know , based on their agility and speed and comfort level from the baseline all these different things you know are we okay with them covering the lob on a regular basis ? If I am getting lobbed and I am playing close to the net , you know you have to decide kind of what is worth it and what's not . So , rule number three this is one that is one of my favorite rules that I've maybe created over the years . I'm sure I've learned this from other

Window Coverage in Volley Strategies

Speaker 1

people as well .

Speaker 1

But uh , rule number three is to cover a window and not not to go get the ball . Um , don't go get the ball , instead go get a window , and if the ball comes through that window it's yours . If it's outside of that window , it's not yours . So let me kind of rephrase that and and um make sense of this . So what a lot of players do when they're the server's partner is , if they're poaching , they're going to move across and then the return is going to come and , no matter where the return goes , they think they need to go get the ball , and what that does is that forces you to , in a lot of cases , go for the ball when it's actually probably not yours and you're going to be stabbing at some volleys that are a little bit further away from you , you're going to be missing volleys , you're going to be floating the ball up and turning what should be an offensive play on maybe a first serve , into a defensive play .

Speaker 1

So instead , what I want you to think about when you are the server's partner at the net is where is this return most likely to go through ? Pick out like a six foot wide window , or maybe an eight foot wide window , if you have a big wingspan , and then three or four feet above the net , depending on your height and pick out that window before the serve is even hit and say I think the return is most likely to go through here . So what I'm going to do as soon as the serve is hit , it lands , I see the opponent turning to their forehand or back inside . Whatever it is , I'm going to go to the middle of that window and if the ball comes through that window , I'm just hitting a normal reaction volley . If it doesn't , then I'm going to let the ball go and it's my partner's ball and they're either going to play the point out or if it's a winner , then the return's too good and we need to make an adjustment . But we're not going to stab at a volley or reach for a volley . That's outside of that window . And if you can start to get into that mindset and start to study which windows , which areas of the court , which area over the net the return is typically going through , you can just start going to that spot early and the return is most likely to go there . So you'll get beat on one , but you'll get two or three that come through that window and you'll be able to put those away and finish the point off . So you really have to think about that .

Speaker 1

Cover a window , don't go to the ball at all costs . In the video for this one is actually a good example of that kind of stretch inside out volley . So again , I'm going to link to it in the show notes and you can check that out . But the player in the video who made the US Open finals , tim Poots . He is shifting to his right and he's really stretching for a forehand volley and he angles it off to his right so he doesn't go across his body on that one and a few people pointed that out on Instagram and Facebook and I use that one for a reason . I wanted people to notice that and kind of try to call me out on that .

Speaker 1

And one of the players on the pro tour to watch who's really good about covering a window and not really stretching for off balance volleys or trying to hit a difficult backhand volley from below the height of the net is Katarina Siniakova . If you watch her she moves a lot at the net but she'll leave a lot of balls that you think like maybe she could have taken that , but she knows that she would have hit a very defensive , difficult volley in some of these scenarios , putting their team on defense and her partner at the baseline has more time to react , to hit a ground stroke and really keep the point at neutral or stay on offense . So that's somebody to watch for , this rule three concept of covering a particular window rather than going to get the ball at all costs . So hopefully that helps you with these serve plus one volleys .

Speaker 1

Again , the biggest takeaway here is to practice this shot . You've got to practice improving your reactions and improving your angles . It's going to not only make you more comfortable at the net , but people are going to love playing with you because they're going to be able to hold their serve so much more easily . I mean , they're going to love all the help that they get from you at the net . So go out and practice this shot and then in the show notes I'm going to include links to all three videos , as well as a place where you can sign up and join us for episode 200 . And if you can't join us , definitely email me if you have any strategy , questions on anything , or even questions about the pro tour or whatever . I'll answer anything in episode 200 . So I hope to see you all then . Thanks for listening and I will talk to you soon .