Dartagnan64
G.O.A.T.
So I've long been a strong proponent of the male player taking the ad side in mixed (providing he's the stronger player and both players are righties). It plays to his FH strength and gives him a chance to control the ad points which usually are the bigger pressure points. But last night I played social mixed with a group that was in the 3.5-4.0 range. 4 Teams rotating sets so we could play everyone over 2 hours.
I noticed that 3 teams played the woman in deuce and 1 team had her in ad. The team with the woman in ad really put us on our heels trying to hold my partner's serve. Teams with the woman in deuce were far easier to get a hold with.
Here's what I observed. The male returner in deuce could strike my partner's serve with enough pace and placement to avoid me easily. The female returner in ad was hard to poach because its a BH poach (less reach) and it was harder, if i did get a BH volley on it, to put that away. With women in deuce I can be a net monster with FH volleys (better reach and I can hit more firmly), so those points become more automatic.
Now admittedly it was a bit easier to hold my own serve with the woman in ad, but I didn't have much trouble holding my serve either way. I find mixed is really a lot about breaking the opponents female serve and trying to come up with a few holds for your female partner. So this positioning seems to help with breaking the females serve.
I'm not sure it will change how I play with my partner since she is a very good deuce court player with a wicked CC FH return. But I do think when I come up against that positioning scenario I'm going to have to think about trying some Australian to get that FH volley advantage back. Or really get better at my high BH volley putaways which are pretty tragic.
I noticed that 3 teams played the woman in deuce and 1 team had her in ad. The team with the woman in ad really put us on our heels trying to hold my partner's serve. Teams with the woman in deuce were far easier to get a hold with.
Here's what I observed. The male returner in deuce could strike my partner's serve with enough pace and placement to avoid me easily. The female returner in ad was hard to poach because its a BH poach (less reach) and it was harder, if i did get a BH volley on it, to put that away. With women in deuce I can be a net monster with FH volleys (better reach and I can hit more firmly), so those points become more automatic.
Now admittedly it was a bit easier to hold my own serve with the woman in ad, but I didn't have much trouble holding my serve either way. I find mixed is really a lot about breaking the opponents female serve and trying to come up with a few holds for your female partner. So this positioning seems to help with breaking the females serve.
I'm not sure it will change how I play with my partner since she is a very good deuce court player with a wicked CC FH return. But I do think when I come up against that positioning scenario I'm going to have to think about trying some Australian to get that FH volley advantage back. Or really get better at my high BH volley putaways which are pretty tragic.