Return & Volley Strategy

[Jason Peery]

Would love to get your thoughts on return & volleying. I’m a strong 4.0 who just recently was moved up but have found myself beating 4.0s pretty easily and a lot of 4.5s. I have plenty of weaknesses in my game, in fact, in every warmup, I can guarantee that my opponent thinks they will beat me. My groundstrokes aren’t consistent, but I have a solid serve that I place and very well, which helps me with my biggest strength, which are my hands. I come to net on just about every serve, and consistently hold serve. My tennis coach is convinced I should come to net on every return of serve, as it takes time away from the server and forces the server to hit a great shot when I am at the net, where I’m most comfortable. I also have a solid overhead and run/anticipate well, so I’m not worried about lobs. I know I will get passed a lot, but not on more points than I win usually. Still, I don’t need to break every time to win, just here and there, and the pressure seems to wear out opponents, physically and mentally. I get frustrated when I hit a weak return and get passed, but a weak return is going to get teed off on regardless, I figure why not make them tee off with me charging the net? Would love to hear your thoughts, tips, warnings, or ideas/details about how to make it work. Thank you so much!

 

[Jannick]

There's a few approaches you can take.

Take the ball on the rise
This is what Roger Federer does alot.
If you hit a ball on the rise you take away time from the opponent. This is a hard technique though, especially on serve, so focus is key.

Chip and charge
Years ago there were players primarily focused on this technique only. Chip and charge focuses on hitting a slice ball deep into the court and moving forward (forehand or backhand slice both possible), this gives you a lot of time to close into the net and your opponent has to take a huge cut under the ball to keep it dipping inside the court.

Very important when hitting an approach of a return is to place it well. Off of a good serve it's very hard to hit a winner and that shouldn't be your goal. So don't try to aim for corners too much.
If you aim for a corner with a very solid aggresive return you could pressure the opponent forcing an error, but there is a large chance the approach isn't perfect (especially off a return). Which gives the opponent alot of angles.

A rule of thumb here is to hit a return down the middle and place it deep, the deep part is very important. If your opponent has a weaker backhand this can also be a very solid target.
For me the approach that works best is at the body to the backhand side of my opponent. This is a very hard ball to angle taking alot of options away from the opponent.



TLDR,
Don't try to hit a winner, don't give your opponent unnecessary angles (hit the approachball trough the middle or to the backhandside), keep it deep.
Chip and charge or hit on the rise if you're comfortable with these techniques.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Doing C&C off of the opponent's 1st serve can be problematic, depending on how strong the serve is. If I C&C, I usually wait for the 2nd.

I usually try and keep it low, deep, and either DTL or middle [the former minimizes how far I have to move to get into neutral position and the latter minimizes the angles my opponent has to work with].

This works very well against certain players who don't like being pressured [pushers, for example].

This works very poorly against certain players who like a target.

I only found a few at 4.0 that could counter it effectively. I have found many at 4.5.

 

[tennis tom]

Hi Roger, it's truly an honor to have you post at this board and ask for advice, that's what we're here for. As an aging player it's good to use the s&v strategy to end the points earlier saving wear and tear on the knees. It's good you started using coaches, Stefan Edberg was one of the best s&v'ers--always listen to your coach. Since you've been working with him your volleying is much improved and you can finish off all but the top three with it. S&V'ing puts a lot of pressure on your opponents to pass successfully. Since, as you may know, 80% of tennis points are won on opponent errors, not on winners. I think you are under-rating yourself though, around here you would be a 5.0 minimally, maybe higher. Keep up the good work practicing your new S&V strategy, opponents seeing your face constantly up at the net will be intimidated, I know I would be. It's not too late to learn new skills, Pete was a great serve/volleyer, watch some of his videos, I have boxes of him on VHS.

 

[pastashop42]

Hi Roger, it's truly an honor to have you post at this board and ask for advice, that's what we're here for. As an aging player it's good to use the s&v strategy to end the points earlier saving wear and tear on the knees. It's good you started using coaches, Stefan Edberg was one of the best s&v'ers--always listen to your coach. Since you've been working with him your volleying is much improved and you can finish off all but the top three with it. S&V'ing puts a lot of pressure on your opponents to pass successfully. Since, as you may know, 80% of tennis points are won on opponent errors, not on winners. I think you are under-rating yourself though, around here you would be a 5.0 minimally, maybe higher. Keep up the good work practicing your new S&V strategy, opponents seeing your face constantly up at the net will be intimidated, I know I would be. It's not too late to learn new skills, Pete was a great serve/volleyer, watch some of his videos, I have boxes of him on VHS.

Post of the day!

 

[r2473]

Would love to get your thoughts on return & volleying. I’m a strong 4.0 who just recently was moved up but have found myself beating 4.0s pretty easily and a lot of 4.5s. I have plenty of weaknesses in my game, in fact, in every warmup, I can guarantee that my opponent thinks they will beat me. My groundstrokes aren’t consistent, but I have a solid serve that I place and very well, which helps me with my biggest strength, which are my hands. I come to net on just about every serve, and consistently hold serve. My tennis coach is convinced I should come to net on every return of serve, as it takes time away from the server and forces the server to hit a great shot when I am at the net, where I’m most comfortable. I also have a solid overhead and run/anticipate well, so I’m not worried about lobs. I know I will get passed a lot, but not on more points than I win usually. Still, I don’t need to break every time to win, just here and there, and the pressure seems to wear out opponents, physically and mentally. I get frustrated when I hit a weak return and get passed, but a weak return is going to get teed off on regardless, I figure why not make them tee off with me charging the net? Would love to hear your thoughts, tips, warnings, or ideas/details about how to make it work. Thank you so much!

Try floating the ball back. High and deep. Either to the backhand if it’s weak or just in the middle of the court.

1. You won’t miss returns. No free points.

2. You’ll have time to get into net

3. Most players have trouble with no pace balls

Of course you have to mix it up some. But I’ve found this to work against a lot of guys

I’m often amazed how bad most players suck if you just give them a chance to suck. The float return gives opponents the chance to really suck. And the bonus is, when players miss nothing balls or you volley their shot away, they get really frustrated and start sucking even worse

 

[MathGeek]

Try floating the ball back. High and deep. Either to the backhand if it’s weak or just in the middle of the court.

1. You won’t miss returns. No free points.

2. You’ll have time to get into net

3. Most players have trouble with no pace balls

Of course you have to mix it up some. But I’ve found this to work against a lot of guys

I’m often amazed how bad most players suck if you just give them a chance to suck. The float return gives opponents the chance to really suck. And the bonus is, when players miss nothing balls or you volley their shot away, they get really frustrated and start sucking even worse

When I do this, they just lob it back over my head and I have to retreat and chase it down.

Going to the net needs a good approach shot.

The element of surprise can make mediocre approach shots work OK, but when they see it coming ...

 

[r2473]

When I do this, they just lob it back over my head and I have to retreat and chase it down.

Going to the net needs a good approach shot.

The element of surprise can make mediocre approach shots work OK, but when they see it coming ...

Don’t get so close to net. Make the lob harder. Smaller space to hit into

Even if you suck at overheads, just visually seeing that smaller court space will cause most guys to try to hit a better lob than they need to or try for the pass

If I approach the net, I go for high percentage on my end and see what my does. If he handles soft approaches, I’ll try something different. But I don’t go for too much unless I need to

 

[travlerajm]

If your groundies suck, but your volleys are awesome, then you can get more out of your return by treating the return as a volley.

I had a crappy forehand, but a very good forehand volley. When I committed to using the blocked volley stroke on every forehand return, my return game success went way up. The key is not to use it to approach, but to use it as a safe neutralizing shot that you can get deep in the court every single time.

Also, once you are in a neutral raIly, I highly recommend using a deep topspin moonball as your go-to approach shot. It is safe with minimal risk. Once you see your opponent take that first step backward ( meaning he will not play your moonball on the rise), that’s your cue to charge inside the service line. It will be hard for him to hurt you with either a pass or a lob from 10 ft behind the baseline.

 

[Cashman]

Approaching the net on return is a pretty viable strategy. If I see a player with a fairly weak second serve (and at your level there should be a few), I will start attacking it consistently. Don't be afraid to experiment with 'standing up' - you will initially feel very uncomfortable in no-man's land, but if they aren't putting a ton of heat on it then you may find that cutting off the angles actually makes returning easier.

Attacking the first serve is harder, but it just takes practice - a lot of people have trouble balancing an aggressive body position (for forward movement) with a restrained approach shot. A really good backhand slice will go a long way with this sort of strategy. You will need to reconcile yourself to giving away a lot of service winners, but if you're doing that already then you don't have much to lose.

In terms of positioning your approach shot, aside from ensuring it's deep you will get pretty varied advice. Personally, my only real rule of thumb is that I don't go cross-court. Some people think a cross-court approach can work if it's well executed, but I always seem to get burnt - it just gives me too much ground to cover, and opens up too many passing options (especially on the forehand).

If you can track it down, try and have a look at some footage of Connors playing chip and charge - he was a very canny tactician and the way he structures his approaches is worth paying attention to. I'd particularly recommend his match versus Agassi from USO '89 (especially the fifth set where he was attacking pretty much every serve, first or second).

 

[IowaGuy]

Not the best video quality, but you can get some good ideas from how aggressive Sampras was on getting to net on many returns of serve (2nd serve).

 

[IowaGuy]

Also worth studying some Edberg footage - he had great chip & charge along with some topspin returns of serve to get to net ASAP.

 

[heninfan99]

yes chip & charge, best tactic

 

[Dartagnan64]

It's funny in doubles I Return and Volley far more than I Serve and Volley. Why? Because for some reason it gets lobbed less. A lot of players at my level will just lob every return over the net guy if you S&V too much. And they are pretty good at it. Its far easier for me to give them the idea they can hit a regular stroke off my serve and then screw up leading to an easy volley for my partner. If I return and volley, they are the server, so they think they are in a good position to take control and they aren't in defensive lob mode. So I get in on my return and usually get a solid volley opportunity.

My advice for the return and volley strategy is to either hit a low slice to the FH or a loopy moon ball to the BH side and follow those types of shots in. Don't come in on a bad return. Wait for the next shot to hit the slice or looper.