And here's the follow up post...
The corollaries.
First, a lot of players assume that if you're going to play S&V, the server is always the one who hits the first volley. The optimum strategy, and the ultimate S&V, is for your partner to serve and for you, at the net, to hit the first volley. You're closer, you have more open court and angles to work with, as opposed to your partner, who has to thread a first volley into the right spot, hitting it, usually from the service line. So poaching, or faking the poach, is key. Dave Hodge told me that his college partner at Baylor was so quick and aggressive, and they worked the poach or fake on every point, that Dave usually only had to hit 2 or 3 first volleys per match.
Take this back a step, and you're the server. Your job is to hit a serve that will elicit a return to where your partner is, or is moving. To take your above example, in the ad court, I serve a kicker wide to the righty's backhand and move in. Early on in the match, maybe you only want to fake the poach. But after you've served one game, look for patterns in the return off this serve. You'll usually see one of several types of returns, and you can adjust your strategy accordingly:
- Returner sees the wide serve, hits a heavy topspin ball that's going to go in...but will clear the net by a couple of feet. Ball usually goes cross-court. Your strategy: Definitely poach. A heavy ball up around the shoulders is a perfect putaway opportunity for the net person who poaches. It will, however, dip down lower at the service line, making a difficult first volley for the server.
- Returner sees the wide serve, hits a smart, low, sliced, angled fluff ball cross court. Also poach. This is a tough return for anyone to handle, but because the net person is closer, he's likely to catch the ball higher in the air and can get more of an angle or otherwise find the open court. This return is going to land on the server's shoelaces...don't make the server hit this one.
- Returner sees the wide serve, tries to beat it with a heavy DTL shot. Definitely stay. The returner has decided to go with a low percentage, winner or nothing approach, just hold your ground, and be prepared to knock off the return.
That's the simple case. We're beginning to talk 4.5 and above, where savvy doubles returners can come up with all three of the above returns. Now what? Well, you've now got to vary your serves somewhat to find something else that produces the return you want, for example:
- Wide slice serve to the forehand. In the deuce court, this is kind of the mirror image of a wide kick in the ad court. Some returners eat this one alive, but a surprising number, including those who think they have a huge forehand, get beat with this serve. As in, I have a huge return as long as somebody gives me one down the pipe. If it's wide, sliced, and moving away, I tend to golf it up...to the net man. Or, my response is to whale the ball down the line...which, again, usually goes to the net man. Or, I'm smart enough to roll the ball, with heavy topspin, cross-court. Another opportunity to poach, because it's going to cross the net relatively high. In general, any time you see a team that insists on heavy, topspin returns, that's a signal that it's time to poach.
- The slice down the T in the ad court can also work surprisingly well. For example, if you've set the returner up with a series of kick serves out wide, the slice down the T is a surprise, an can produce an ace, a service winner, or a weak floater up the middle...another great poaching opportunity.
- Often, however, the best option against a good returner is a heavy serve right at the body. It's a difficult ball to deal with at all, and it's not easy to do something useful with a body serve. A lot of the time, it'll produce a floater...yet another opportunity to poach.
So on to corollary number 2. The above discussions are all about how to hold serve easily in doubles. That's the building block. If you and your partner are holding serve at love or 15 every game, you've already done all the heavy lifting. Now all you need is one break a set to win the match. When you're in the driver's seat like this, I think your returning strategy ought to be as follows:
- On the first two points of the game, make sure you get the return back, even if you have to fluff it over the net, and make the other team play. Make them work for it, even if they win the game, don't hand them easy winners off their serve.
- Learn as you go. In other words, early on in the set, focus on holding your service games, making the other team play on your return games, and find out what kind of returns help you set up and win points. It's kind of the reverse of the above discussion. As in "Okay, they're going to kick wide to the backhand and poach, I need to keep the return down, look for the next ball, and lob over their heads. Let's get 'em off the net, and take it ourselves."
- Back to the two first points discussion. If you get to 0-30, take some chances and try to force the issue. As in, I've been returning wide and low, the net man sees that, I'm going to belt one right at him and see what happens. If you get to 0-40, take some big chances. You have the momentum, if you see a serve you like, hammer the return cross court. If you lose the point, they're still under the gun at 15-40, and you can drop back to a more conservative return. Same deal at 15-30. Go back to a tried and true return, get it back, make them play, and try to claw your way to 15-40, where you can take chances and try for a quick break.
So those are some thoughts about where to go from the stuff you're learning...sound good?
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