AMA: Baseline Role, Backhand Volley Fix, How to Beat 2-up, & More

This AMA episode covers a variety of topics, including net position, formations, and strategy frameworks. A few of the lessons are from a tight mixed doubles match that I recently played, while the others are from Tennis Tribe Members.

1. When is I-formation a bad idea?
2. Why I recently told my partner to stand in two different positions on my return points.
3. When should the baseline player change something? (including how to handle inactive partners at net)
4. Members only: My backhand volley pops up and floats every time. How do I fix it?
5. Members only: How and when to add new strokes to your game. In this case, a semi-western forehand.
6. Members only: What to do against two tall players who rush the net.
7. Members only: The deuce court returner has a great crosscourt forehand. What should we do?

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If you're interested and want to sign up for the Doubles Camp from September 3-4, you can email me: will@thetennistribe.com.

If you're not a Tennis Tribe member and want this full episode, learn more and sign up here.

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Transcript

AMA Setup And Seven Questions

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome to the show. This is going to be an AMA episode. It's been a little bit since I've released a podcast, and I wanted to answer some of your questions that I've gotten recently and also share some experience that I had in a recent mixed doubles match. It's been the first time that I've actually played a competitive match in a while. And I had several different uh lessons and questions from my doubles partner that I wanted to share here on the podcast. So we're going to answer seven questions here today. Um, starting out with my mixed match, uh, when is eye formation a bad idea? Uh also from that match, my partner asked me where she should be standing as the returner's partner, and I actually had two different answers for her. So I'll break down what those were and why I gave her those answers. Uh, a question from Tom about his role at the baseline. He's had people telling him that he needs to do more from the baseline, and I'm going to talk to you about how I replied to him. Uh, Christine asked about her backhand volley. She says it's always popping up. So if this is an issue for you, if your backhand volley kind of pops up, uh I'll talk about how I think about fixing that. Uh JW asked about adding a semi-western topspin forehand to his game. So I'm going to talk about that specifically and then also share how I think about adding new strokes to your game. Um, so that's more of a kind of technique perspective there. Uh then the last two, uh, Grace asked how to play against two tall net rushers. So players who play two up, who are both tall. Um, she and her partner were having trouble lobbying. So, what is my advice on that? And then last, a question from my Miami Doubles camp back in April. Uh, how do we counter a deuce court returner who is hitting really good sharp cross-court returns? So, I'm going to get to each of those. Those first um three are going to be free for everyone, and then the last four are going to be four members only. Uh, before I get to all of those, a couple of quick announcements. So, the U.S. Open rally trip, I've been sharing it in the newsletter and promoting it on Instagram. Um, we actually are almost sold out. We only have two rooms left. So if you're interested in that, I'll link to it in the show notes. Um, it's gonna be three nights at a four-star hotel in Manhattan. We're gonna go to the U.S. Open every day, we're gonna play tennis every morning. It is a ton of fun. Um, these trips are becoming more and more popular, and I'm gonna continue to do them every year for the foreseeable future uh at both Indian Wells and the U.S. Open. And we're even considering uh doing some other tournaments as well. So uh keep an eye out for that. And if you're interested in the U.S. Open trip over Labor Day weekend, uh check out the show notes and you can find the link there. I'll also be hosting a doubles camp just before that, uh, September 3rd and 4th. So that is going to open up very, very soon. If you're interested and want to sign up for that, you can email me, will at the tennis tribe.com, or just keep an eye on your inbox. I'll send out an email uh to the newsletter when I open up the registration for the doubles camp there. And then I'm gonna have more camps coming soon. Um

US Open Trip And Camp Updates

SPEAKER_00 3:31

the last few weeks have been pretty busy, but I'm going to be uh announcing a few more camps coming up this fall. Uh I'll definitely be in Miami in November for a camp uh that will be opening soon, and then a couple of others as well. So let's dive into this episode. Um, like I said, this past weekend I played a mixed doubles match. If you subscribe to the newsletter, you um saw one of my biggest takeaways or my biggest takeaway from the match and how my partner and I went on to win that match. Um I had to certainly make a lot of adjustments um in terms of my game style because I haven't been playing a lot, uh, and I talked about that in the the newsletter. But one thing that I noticed during the match is the opponents, um, there was uh this was a 9-0 match. So there was a 4-0 lady uh and it was actually a 4-5 guy. So we were playing an 8-5 team, but the 4-5 guy was very strong. Um, he said he played Division II formerly, and uh the 4-0 lady was having trouble holding her serve. We broke her the first two or three games, maybe, and they tried eye formation on me. So it got me thinking about when is eye formation a bad idea? I've done a lot of lessons in the past about when to use eye formation, but when should you not use it? So in this scenario, it was a bad idea. Um, and I kind of knew it before she did it. Uh, she served to me, the guy was in eye formation. I'd stepped forward, I took the return very early. I just used a continental grip and kind of chipped it down the line.

When Eye Formation Is A Bad Idea

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Um, and it ended up being a winner. She wasn't able to get over there in time. He wasn't able to get to his left. I was returning from the Deuce court in time because I took the ball so early. And why was this not effective? Um, the question that a lot of people will ask in this scenario is how good is the serve? Your serve has to be good enough for eye formation. So a lot of coaches you'll hear say, um, and I'll see arguments on um Facebook and Instagram comments about, you know, we never teach eye formation to 3-0 players because their serves aren't good enough. And I think that's the wrong question. How good is the serve is the wrong question because I think it's relative. So how good is the serve compared to the returner? That is what the question should be. So if I have an amazing serve for a 5-0 player in my 5-0 league, I formation is gonna work great. But if I'm facing an ATP player, then it doesn't matter how good my 5-0 serve is, I'm facing an ATP player relative to their return, my serve is gonna be very weak. So they're gonna have no issue taking it early, redirecting it down the line, and hitting it for a winner most of the time. So that was the case in this 9-0 mixed match. It was a 4-0 girl serving to a 5-0 guy. So that her serve relative to my return was very weak. So in that scenario, it was just too easy for me to step forward and redirect down the line. Um, what was smart of them is they only tried it once and then they didn't go back to it. But uh, that's how I want you to think about when to not use eye formation. If it's very easy for that returner to redirect down the line, it's gonna be very difficult for the server to get over there in time, and then also the server's partner um to shift over there and get the ball uh before it gets past them because that returner can take the ball so early. So that's how I think about high formation. Um, let's move on to the next question. Uh, where should I stand as the returner's partner? So my partner asked me this during the match. Um, the girl was serving. The guy had poached once so far. Um, this was probably late first set. Uh he had poached on one of my returns successfully. And she asked me, where should I stand when you're returning? And I told her a little bit behind the service line. And then we played the point out. Uh, I hit the return cross court. Uh the 4-0 lady, I think, hit it back to me. I came to the net and we ended up winning the point. And then we played my partner's return point and then came back to my side. And I actually told her, I changed my mind. I actually want you stepping inside the service line and starting closer to the middle of the service box and even closer to the middle uh center service line. Um so why did I change my mind on that? Again, this is similar, a similar answer to the previous question. So her serve relative to my return is not very strong. So most of the time, I'm going to be able to get the ball past the guy at the net. So, because of that, most of the time, I'd rather my partner be closer to the net, applying

Best Spot For Return Partner

SPEAKER_00 8:30

pressure on the 4-0 lady who's hitting her serve plus one ground stroke off of my return from the baseline. So if my partner starts from behind the service line, I hit the return past the server's partner. My partner has to get all the way to the net to apply that pressure. And a lot of times she'll end up hitting a volley from a little bit further back from the net and can't quite finish. Maybe she'll make some volley errors. So I'd rather just move her forward because that net player is not a huge threat because the serve is relatively weak compared to my return. A 4-0 lady serving to a 5-0 guy returning, it's going to be a little bit weaker. The server's partner is going to have trouble poaching on that. They're not going to get a whole lot of looks. So the guy did poach once or twice more, and my partner was in a bad spot in those scenarios on those specific points. But what happened more often is I got the return past the server's partner, and my partner was able to pinch the middle and poach off the server's next shot. So it allowed her to get a lot more involved, and we were able to force more errors and get more volleys for her. Um, she was a very good net player, um, which was great and helped me out a lot on my serve. Uh, but that switch um helped us win more of those return points and return games. But then I had a different answer for when the guy was serving. So when the guy was serving, um, he had a very good serve, especially for a 4-5 player. And the 4-0 lady at the net had really good volleys. So I was having to take the return against this guy from further back because he had a good serve. And I wasn't able to hit it super clean all the time. So the 4-0 lady was getting more volleys when the guy was serving. So, in that scenario, I wanted my partner to start a little bit behind the service line. If she had been a better baseline player than net player, I might have even pulled her all the way back to the baseline. In this scenario, she was actually a very good net player. Um, she's also good from the baseline, but when I was able to get the ball past the 4-0 lady, I still wanted her at the net applying pressure on that guy. But I wanted her to have some time for those returns that I couldn't get past the server's partner because this guy had a pretty good serve. So it was two different answers depending on who was serving. And this is going to be really common actually in mixed doubles when you have different skill levels, right? In this case, it was a really good 4-5 guy and then a 4-0 lady who was a strong 4-0 lady, but still the skill level was very different from her partner. And the serves were very different as well. So anytime you're playing some kind of combo or mixed doubles and the serves are very different, you might have to adjust your part, uh, your position in the returner's partner role. So that is um how I answered that question and thought about that for that match, um, which which we were uh fortunately able to go on and win um in a very tight third set tiebreaker. Uh next question. So Tom asked, um, he has people telling him lately that when he's on the baseline, he's not supposed to hit a million balls and that he should change something to throw the opponent off. He asked me, is that wrong? If a million balls are hit, they aren't doing enough at the net. Net player is meant to intercept or at least distract them into an error, right? Um, so this is a really good question. Uh, he is correct. The net player should be getting more involved if you're getting into extended baseline rallies. Um, but a lot of times at the club level, especially if you're playing with a new partner, you've never met them before, you're not gonna try to coach them into poaching more for the first time uh in their lives. A lot of times in that scenario, they're just not going to do their job. They're not going to move a lot at the net. Um, if they don't listen to this podcast, if they don't follow tennis drive, if they're not aggressive net players, um, then it's just not gonna change. So, what can you do in that scenario? So it depends on the matchup. If you're able to hit a million balls from the baseline with the opponent and they miss before you do, then just keep doing that.

Your Job From The Baseline

SPEAKER_00 12:59

But if the opponent is sustaining the rally, or if the opposing net player is aggressive and they are doing their job, then you do have to change something. And in that scenario, you've got several options, right? You can try to lob the opponent at the net and try to force the opposing baseline player to the opposite side. Hopefully, it's their weaker side. Uh, you can hit at the net player. So if they're not a strong net player, you can wait for the right ball, go at them. You can redirect early if they are an aggressive net player and try to beat them down the line to keep them home. Or uh one of my favorite options is get to the net. And of course, you can use a combination of these, right? You might lob down the line and then get to the net. But you do have to change something if it's a bad baseline matchup and your partner's not helping you. But Tom is right, the net player should be involved. So your role at the baseline, number one, I talk about this all the time, is do not miss. That's why I love the lob. It's a consistent, um, risk-free option from the baseline. So your number one job is do not miss. And then your number two job is to apply pressure to the opponent to allow your partner to get involved. And that means hitting with depth sometimes. Sometimes it means bringing the opponent forward if they like the baseline, if they like to lob, if they play a very defensive game style. Um, sometimes it means hitting high balls, sometimes it means hitting lower balls and getting them to run if they're not very fast. You have to figure out what works best to force errors from the opponent and allow your partner to get involved. But your again, your priority is not missing and really setting up your partner at the net. Your partner needs to be moving and getting involved. And if they aren't, then those are some of the options that you have from the back of the court. So, next we have four more questions. Um, we're gonna move into the members section of the podcast. If you're not a member, you can go to thetenistribe.com, um, click on memberships in the main menu, and you can sign up there. All level of memberships do get access to uh the full member podcast feed, including the answers uh to these four questions. So we're gonna talk about the backhand volley. It was popping up too much for Christine. How do I think about fixing that? Um, JW asking about adding a semi western topspin forehand to his game. And then after that, uh Grace asked about how to play two tall players who rush the net. And then Kim asked about how to counter a good deuce court returner who hits sharp cross court angles. So let's move on to the member section now.