Doubles Only Tennis Podcast

Return Deep Dive: The Best Targets, Backhands, Lobs, Handling Power, Spin, Variety, & More

• Will Boucek • Episode 286

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0:00 | 22:44

This is another AMA episode where I focus on the return of serve. Perhaps the most important shot in doubles, and certainly the least practiced.

I break down why the return of serve is misunderstood and how I think about practicing and implementing effective returns. I also dig into consistency, targets, patterns, deuce vs ad court, and tactics for the return. 

  • Why returns and groundstrokes are not the same thing.
  • One common mistake that you should fix to reduce return errors.
  • The two biggest return priorities.
  • Crosscourt vs down-the-line vs lob returns.
  • What to look for to determine your best return options.
  • Members Only: How to handle variety - fast, slow, spin, flat, and weak 2nd serves.
  • Members Only: How to cut your return errors from the deuce court.
  • Members Only: A practice plan for improving your returns.

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SPEAKER_00

Hey everyone, welcome to the show. Today we're gonna do a deep dive on returns. This is a topic I have not covered in a while. Um, I've definitely talked about it on the podcast before, but it has certainly been a long time. And I'm gonna answer some of your questions surrounding returns. So most of these are member-related questions. Um, so this is going to be a member uh AMA podcast similar to last week. I actually had a um WTA player scheduled for an interview, and she had to bail because her Wi-Fi at her hotel was um a little bit shaky. So I'm gonna try to set that up soon. So hopefully y'all can uh hear from her as well. But let's dive into returns. Um, so what I'm gonna cover is six different topics related to returns. Uh, number one, I'm gonna talk about just kind of my general philosophy with returns when it comes to doubles. So I'm gonna talk about uh how to improve your returns, some of the keys to uh focus on for your returns, uh, and a lot more. And then after that, I'm gonna talk about consistency. So one play uh one of the questions is around um being a more consistent returner and cutting down

Why Returns Deserve A Deep Dive

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on errors and being a more reliable returner. After that, we'll talk about backhand returns from both the deuce and the ad court. And then we'll dive into the member section where I'll talk about handling variety. So flat serves, spin serves, kick serves, uh, weak serves. So a lot of you probably faced weak second serves. What should we do with those? Um, how do we handle the guys' serve in mixed doubles if you're not used to a really powerful flat serve? What should you do about that? Um, so I'm gonna talk about all of those topics. I'm gonna talk about how to cut down on your return errors. And then at the end, I'm gonna give the members a practice plan for your returns. Um, it is going to be uh a specific plan with dedicated time to working on your returns, whether it's from the Deuce or Adcourt, um, and where I like to set up my targets. Uh, before we dive into all these questions, a couple of quick announcements. So I've just opened up registration for several doubles camps. Um, the first one is in DFW, so it's in Fort Worth near Dallas, not too far from where I live. Uh, it's gonna be the same location that we had it in April, um, which was a huge success. So uh I'm gonna do that again August 15th and 16th. I'm gonna link to it in the show notes so you can check it out there. Um, but if you live in the DFW area or if you want to fly in, um, in April, we had most, I think six of the eight people fly in from uh New York and Phoenix and Seattle, uh, all over the country. We're gonna spend eight hours on court together. We're gonna do an hour strategy presentation. Uh, we're gonna have lunch together. I'm gonna try to set up a happy hour as well so that everybody can meet and it should be a ton of fun. You're gonna learn a lot. Uh we're gonna play tennis, but we're more importantly gonna change your doubles game. We're gonna change uh the tactics you use and your mindset on the court and give you some specific drills to continue to level up and improve. So um, with all of these camps, the things I'm

Camps And How To Join

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really focused on most is results. Um I consistently get emails after camps uh from people who tell me, you know, we've faced a team that had beaten us the last four times and we happen to win using some of your tactics. So uh that is the thing that I'm looking for out of these camps. I want you to beat players and teams that you're not currently beating today. Um, we're going to be in New York as well. So I'm gonna go to the uh US Open this year, and we're gonna have a camp September 3rd and 4th with add-in, like I've done the last three years. So I'll link to that as well. Um, it's also eight hours on the court, one hour strategy presentation, and lunch included. Uh, and then of course the rally trip September 4th through 7th over Labor Day weekend. Um, that is a full tennis experience. We're gonna play tennis every morning, uh, your hotels included in the cost of the trip. And then we're going to go to the U.S. Open as a group together, and you'll be able to sit next to me while I analyze the doubles matches for you. We have happy hour setup, a few meals, guest speakers, and a lot more. Uh, it's a ton of fun if you want a kind of all-inclusive planned for you tennis experience at the U.S. Open. And then the last one will be in Miami. Registration's not open for that yet. It's going to be on November 14th and 15th. And then I'll actually, I think we're planning a junior clinic on the 13th, the day before that. Um, but TBD on all of that. So if you have any questions about any of those, you can always reach out to me, will at the tennistrive.com. But let's dive into returns. So the first question is from Mike. Uh, it was a very general one. He said, I want to get better at returning serve. So I wanted to start with his question, and I'm actually going to end with his question as well, because this is a very general one. So it's an easy way for me to just talk about my general philosophy on returns and then create a practice plan, which I'll share with you at the end. So the return of serve, it is the most underpracticed shot in tennis, singles or doubles. Um, if you think about when you go play a USTA match or a club match, most of the time, if you watch the courts, they rally from the baseline, they go to the net, they take some volleys, they hit a few overheads, and then they go and serve. They never hit any returns, right? Zero returns during the match warm-up. In private lessons, a lot of times coaches will have you work on serves at the end for maybe five or ten minutes, but mostly you're working on forehands and backhands and maybe some volleys, but you rarely work on return of serve. Uh in clinics and drills, you're rarely hitting returns of serve. So it's the most underpracticed shot, and it's arguably the most important shot. It might be more important than the serve. Um, I'm not

Return Philosophy And Simple Mechanics

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going to dive into that debate right now, but uh there is a very good argument for that. Um, it's at least the second most important shot in doubles. So one of the things you have to understand when we're talking about the return, though, is it's not the same as a ground stroke, especially at the higher levels. At the lower levels where the pace is slower, it can be very similar to a groundstroke or an approach shot if you have a weak second serve that you're attacking. But at the higher levels, the faster the pace, the return of serve is not the same as a ground stroke. So, me, for example, I prefer my forehand groundstroke, but my backhand return is actually better. I'm better at blocking the ball back with my backhand. It's a bit more stable, it's a bit more consistent. So the return and the ground stroke are not the same thing. So if you're hitting a lot of forehands and backhands, or if you're talking about your forehand is a weakness or your backhand is a weakness, you generally want to be more specific than that. What type of forehand, what type of backhand? Is it a return? Is it a groundstroke? And so on. Um, the pace is the thing that makes the return different, right? The pace of the serve, especially at the higher levels, is faster and has a different angle than the pace of a groundstroke coming at you. So that's why the return has to be different than a groundstroke. So we're trying to block it back. We keep a short backswing. One of the biggest mistakes I'll talk about throughout this podcast is players who take big backswings on their returns. That creates a lot of complication and creates room for error. So you want it to be really simple. Um, there's lots of different types of returns you can hit. There's a normal kind of drive return that you're hitting uh generally back cross-court to the server. You can also hit a slice return. A lot of players like to chip and charge. Those players generally move forward and take the ball early. So they're inside the baseline, taking the ball off of or on the rise after the serve is hit. You can hit a lob return. It's one of my favorite tactics. I use it all the time. Uh, you can also go down the line, which you can do with a lob. You can drive the ball down the line. Um, there's lots of different targets you can pick out. I'll talk about those throughout this episode. Some of my favorite targets that I like to set up in practice as well as where I'm thinking about hitting my returns in matches. But the key with this is to work on it, right? Create a plan and practice your returns. They're not going to get better by you just listening to this podcast, right? You've got to take the information I'm giving you and go out to the court and implement it and actually hit a bunch of returns. So that's the key with this. Um, when I had uh Dan Kiernan on the podcast, the coach of Gabby Dobrowski, he said that the pros that his teams generally spend around 50% of their practices on serves and returns. 50%. That is such a high number. It's way higher than I practice my serves and returns. Um, but if you're shooting to improve as much as you can, you should probably be close to that number. Now I think practicing serves and returns is a little bit boring, and I'm not playing for money. So I want them to be good, but I'm not trying to become the absolute best tennis player that I can at the expense of having fun, right? Um, but if you're totally dedicated to improving, then you should probably be close to 50% on serves and returns. So uh let's move on to Jen's question. Jen said, uh, I would like to be able to consistently return serve and set up my partner. I try a variety of things when I return, lob the net player, uh drop uh drop shot the server, hit up the line, deep cross court return, but I feel like I should probably just be picking one of these sorts of returns and rely on it and get really good at it. I would like to be reliable. I'm often playing an ad, especially when my partner uh with my partner who I play with most often. Okay, so Jen is an ad court returner, she wants to be more consistent. So if I had to pick one of these types of returns to get good at, I would just pick the solid cross-court return. That could be with depth, it could be a little bit lower over the net, um, but just a solid cross-court return. Now, the reason I would pick this, and I wouldn't pick this necessarily at the highest levels of doubles. Um they kind of have to have all of them, but that's not the first one I would pick for the highest level. But the reason I would pick this for the lower level is is twofold. One, most players of the club

Consistency Through Cross-Court And Lobs

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level do not poach very often. So by just getting a solid cross-court return, you're getting the ball back to the server, which is our second priority as the returner. Priority number one is do not miss the return. Priority number two is avoid the net player. So by getting a solid cross-court return, they're not poaching that often, so you're gonna get it back to the server most of the time. So that is uh really a key to being a good returner. And then number two, if they do poach, they're often not very good at it, right? Poaching is a skill that most club players are not that good at. So if you hit a solid cross-court return and they poach, off of a good return, it's gonna be a pretty difficult volley. They probably won't put it away. Maybe they'll pop it up to your partner and your partner can finish the point off. Maybe they'll make a volley error. But most club players are not able to poach and consistently put the ball away. So that's why I say I think a solid cross-court return is probably the best one I would pick. Now, if I can pick a second one, because I want you to have more than one, it would be a solid cross-court return and then a lob return. The lob return will get you a long way, especially against good servers, especially against first serves, especially against aggressive net players who do finish the volleys pretty well. Um, that's going to go a long way in combination with that solid cross-court return. So those are the two I would focus on, Jen. Um, since you're an ad court player, you can focus on really taking that backhand cross-court. I'm assuming you're right-handed. Um, you can hit your backhand cross-court and try to take it early if you can. This is something I like to do a lot. So even if the player poaches from the ad court, if I can take my backhand return from inside the baseline and hit it early and take it across my body cross court, even if the player poaches, they often can't get there in time or they're reaching for a volley and they miss it. Um, your forehand, you can generally go either direction with from the ad court. A lot of players have a good inside in forehand. Um, it's great to be able to go all four directions: backhand cross court, backhand line, forehand cross-court, forehand line. Um, but those are the places I would start. Really work on that solid backhand cross-court return and then the forehand. Um, work on taking it through the middle of the court or cross court, uh, and then down the line as kind of a third option. And then if you're gonna lob from the ad court, lobbing down the line can be risky because the net player is right-handed, um, or assuming the net player is right-handed, they're gonna have an overhead. So you want to focus on the server's partner's depth. How close to the net are they standing? If they're standing close to the net, you can lob them down the line. If they're standing further back from the net, there's no reason to use the lob return because if they hit a volley from further back from the net, they're not gonna be able to angle it off anyways. They won't be able to put it away as easily. So you can keep that return low. And if they poach or if you hit your backhand a little late and it goes down the line at them, they're further back from the net. So they're not gonna be able to do as much with that volley. Um, so noticing that server's partner's depth is huge in choosing your return tactic. Um, so that's how I would think about creating that reliability, that consistency uh from the ad court for you, Jen. So, next, a question from Doug. Doug wants to improve his backhand returns uh both from the deuce and ad court. So this is uh a really interesting topic because a lot of players, um myself included, say they have a good backhand return, right? But from deuce and ad, it's two completely different uh types of returns. So I was recently watching a YouTube video uh by Vic Braden that um Andy Fitzel, who I had on the podcast a few months ago, uh sent to me. And I believe I linked to it in the show notes of that episode, so you can go back and find that uh as well if you'd like. But it's a it's an old video from Vic Braden, who's one of the best um coaches, tennis coaches of all time. And he is speaking in front of a lot of uh a bunch of mixed players. So it's a bunch of couples and men and women, and he's talking about mixed doubles, and he talks about how um a lot of times the guy will say, I'll take the ad court because it's the harder return side. And then Vic goes on to kind of make fun of the guy because in reality the deuce court is actually the harder return side, because the backhand return from the deuce side is very difficult to get cross court, right? You're

Backhand Returns From Deuce Vs Ad

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hitting it inside out, whereas the backhand return from the ad side is easy to hit cross court because you're hitting it across your body. Again, this is assuming you're right-handed. So uh the backhand from the deuce is much harder. Typically, it's easier to take that backhand return across your body and go down the line. So that's why me as the net player, when I'm the uh server's partner, if my partner is serving T on the deuce side, I'm often faking or staying because I think that backhand return is most likely to come down the line at me. So working on that backhand return cross-court uh is something you have to really practice. It's an inside out return, and you really need great footwork. You have to get your body out of the way and get turned really well to get that ball cross-court back to the server, back to where it came from. Otherwise, if you don't have great footwork, if you can't turn out of the way of the ball and create a little bit of space, you're gonna almost have to take it across your body, which is down the line at the net player, assuming they're using regular formation. So another good option for you, Doug, in the deuce court is to use the chip lob with that backhand return. If you can take it early, the net player won't have as much time to back up for an overhead. And then if they're right-handed, you can get it down the line, around the singles line is where I would aim, maybe, uh maybe just inside the singles line. And you can get it over their backhand side. So even if it's a little short, they have a high backhand overhead, which they're not going to be able to do a whole lot with. But taking it early gets it over their head quicker. And by taking it early, I mean stepping well inside the baseline and taking it as close to the service line as you can. Um, so that chip lob with your backhand from the deuce court is a great shot to have. It's something I use a lot, especially if I see that server's partner playing really close to the net. Um, in the ad court, again, it's much easier to hit your backhand return. So I return from the ad court probably a little bit more often than the deuce court, and I love my backhand return from the ad court because I can just lean on the ball and rip it across my bot body, back cross court, back to the server. If the net player poaches, it's a difficult volley, and I can get them on defense. So again, taking it early is helpful if you can do that. Keeping your back swing short, split stepping forward, and hitting it back in the direction that it came from. That's the simplest return target. Go back to the server, back to the direction it came from. Changing direction in tennis is a skill that uh requires a little bit better technique. It's much easier to block a ball back to where it came from. So you want to take it early, hit it back to the server, and you can lob from the ad court as well. Um, generally, it's gonna be better, assuming the net player is right-handed, to lob it back cross-court or through the middle of the court. If you lob it down the line against a right-handed player and that lob is short, they're gonna have an easy overhead. But again, the depth of the server's partner is gonna tell us everything. If they are very close to the net, you can still lob it down the line. But the big thing for you, Doug, is to practice tons of these backhand returns. And I'm gonna get into some practice patterns that you can do here in a second. Uh, I know you're a tennis tribe member, so you'll be able to listen to the rest of that episode, this episode. Um, so that's the big takeaway here. Um, for those of you who are listening to the free version of the podcast, you've got to start practicing more returns. And hopefully, a lot of what I've said so far has given you some ideas on your positioning in terms of stepping forward, trying to take the return early, and then also studying the server's partner to come up with your return tactics. So you've got to start practicing these more often. So, next let's dive into the member section of the podcast where I'm going to answer Sandra's question about returning against a variety of serves, including spin serves, flat serves, kick serves, uh, the guy in mixed doubles and weak serves, uh, Mike's question about cutting down on return errors, and then also a practice plan.