Serve and Volley: Implementation Drills

[johnyandell]

Let's get your thoughts on Kyle LaCroix's latest, "Serve and Volley: Implementation Drills"

[klacr]

Now to the drills:

1.Soft catch drill

You're soft catch drill. I like it. I think I will use this drill at the net for ball after ball after ball. I don't do this, and I haven't though about why just yet, however, it would be great for a young one like mine that loves to play a lot. Its pretty easy on the body, and I think I can use it to set up motor skills.

Nice job.

a.

Questions:

1.

However, why don't you then have the player "throw" the ball back over the net for a winning shot after they catch it? Slice it, snap it, throw it, bounce it, whatever, how come they just stop?

2.

It looks like you (the coach) is giving a very easy ball to the athlete? Or, do you change this? Hard, soft, high, low, speed, off-speed, at the feet etc. I only see one shot in the video. What's your game for feeding the balls? Do you adjust the height of the ball coming at the player? I do all our drills from anywhere from 1 (you are doing this one at 2 or 3 feet) to 20 feet.

3.

I think I am going to blindfold my kid, and have her catch balls. What position should I place the racket in on the forehand and backhand to do this in your opinion? I will then have her hit it over the net by feel, bounce it, play with it.

Get her feeling the ball, yah, this will be interesting, and it might build some very cool connections.

Alternatives add on's to this drill set:

Obviously a blindfold.

I am thinking of doing this and getting the young one to put it an inch over the net as she throws it (or directs it) and see how deep and low she can get it. Of course as usual I will have her use every grip under the sun (as we always do) to figure out what she likes and does, and why it works, and doesn't work!

I think then I will put her on the ground with a mat (shoes off), doing various stances (ground based, squats, yoga, abdominal, MMA, off balance, seated and off the cuff poses while sitting, standing, squatting and whatever) and catching and then hitting the call.

I also will try this right and the net, and backpedal quick, catch, step forward, release and so on and so forth. I do so much backpedaling work!

This drill has so much potential for us the other end of the world here in Ukraine.

Hockeyscout,

thanks for reading the article. I'm glad you have comments for it.

All of these drills can be adjusted and progressed if you feel like it. There is no law saying you must follow them as is. Progress upon these drills and create new ones. Also, next month's article will feature more advanced drills, trust me! John and I did not want to overwhelm the reader with too many drills in one article. The difficulty level on the drills will progress.

Please keep in mind that these drills were shot in a video format to provide the reader with a basic understanding of what the drill entails. Yes, I could have gotten players to do many more things in the videos but for the purpose of editing and making it clear and concise for the reader, Things must be done a certain way.

For the serve and soft catch, I can make the difficulty of the caught ball as hard as I need to. As a coach, plan accordingly to the level of your student. But again, for purpose of video, I'm trying to show you the general idea. The video would not work if the player was screwing up. Thank goodness for editing. And yes, you can make the player do whatever they want after the soft catch. Throw the ball, hit the ball, I don't care as long as it ties into the framework of a well struck serve and softer hands on the catch.

2.

Serve and Volley Tango

I like the previous drill, however, I am lost to the benefit of this drill. Please don't interprerut this as being disrespectful, I am just explaining what I see, and always thinking of how every stroke will translate into an end goal ten years down the line. Maybe when you hear me out you might agree (or not).

What I see here is a girl standing and waiting for the ball to drop, and then she's kind of out of options. The girl is first off hitting the ball right to the guy (I hate that, I teach if you want to hit the ball to someone then you'd better hit it right through them, get it in their feet so they are forced to pop the ball up to you, spin it heavy, and -or, the best alternative make them scared to stand in front of you, and send them home crying to their mommy). This girls shots are feet over the net and not much of a threat, our idea of a good shot is one that hits the top of the net and bounces in. or is something that's going to challenge that other player and totally put them out of court position, or best, not even being able to get to the ball under any circumstances. I will explain more in the alternatives. With this all said, I need to do more of this game, however, just modified at a more engaged professional level.


3.

4 Corner Box

1.

My only question, why do you let the player take it so late? Isn't this shot a transitional shot?

Aleratives add on's to this drill set:

I like it, I like it. This is NFL stuff, 3 and 4 cone drills, so we're on this stuff like you're drinking water in the Florida sun. We live off this, we call it the four cone drill. We put in a center mark (something you don't have her - maybe yours is imaginary) and transition the footwork and hips a bit differently from next to next to next, however, this is a staple.

I haven't set this up for a volley, however I like this, kind of try and replicate an area Pete Sampras excelled in. For me I would not let the athlete take it so late, and I would do say three balls and make it a complete transition drill of one thing leading to the next, to next, to next.


I will tell you what we have done. I put my daughter at center court. I then take the bottom of the net out (lift it up), stand on the other side of the net, and I feed her heavy baseball style ground balls with my racket (I put the racket to the ground and hit to her underhanded) under the net. She needs to flow to the ball (move to the ball), and not wait and - or take it off the back foot. I can adjust the pace as needed, and I do, as it throws off the rhythm and causes a ton of confusion. I can also set the ball machine to slam her ground balls as well as needed. I can do this as part of the four cone drill or just feed ball after ball after ball.

I like the down the line approach. Great! Well thought out.

Great article, some promising leads here which should keep us busy for the next month.

This is what tennis coaching is about for me, meet a coach, have someone watch for five minutes and then discuss things, say thanks, leave, come back in a month and go to the next.

However, for me it's inexpensive to watch someone practice, take what they
do, adapt it, talk to them a bit, see their approach, and go forward with what we thing will work for our team, and or, meet with a professional, hand pick what we need, and press forward with what we do.

The way we work anyways we'd drive a coach like Kyle LaCroix mental

Better he only deal with the worldsworsttennismentorwhoknowsnothingaboutgripsan dwillhaveashortshelflikewithcoaches once a month!

You know, I think it's possible in one month we could drive 30 tennis coaches insane! 28 in Febuary. Off month.


Best regards
worldsworsttennismentorwhoknowsnothingaboutgripsan dwillhaveashortshelflikewithcoaches

This serve and volley tango drill is for the benefit of control. Both the players in this video are very skilled but again, for the purpose of video is does no good to show them hitting winners against each other. I want the players in this drill to be under control in such a way that they can hit a premeditated direction and keep it going. I often find the players get a little too crazy up at net and begin to lose that sense of calmness which will allow for softer hands and a calmer mind. Also, this drill can be a challenge for many students when you time it and set a goal. Students become that much more willing and competitive to keep the ball in play. This is a drill where you are being cooperative. If you have the skills to keep a ball in play then down the road you will have the confidence to execute a volley from any position on court. The leader of this drill gets to call out where the players are hitting from.

Here's an idea, have them hit for a fixed time limit or number of shots and then turn the point live so they can blast it as hard as they want to. Don't really care, the idea is to give the players a mentality of picking their target and staying with it. You must be careful in claiming a drill is cooperative but then make it competitive.

For the 4 corner volleys, yes indeed I'm rushing my players. You can feed the ball at your own pace or however you feel. For me, these players were skilled enough to compete against players that have big returns and so yes, they will be rushed. Also, the video does not show the beginning of the drill where my first feed was progressively easier and each feed got quicker. It's a tough drill and a tough situation to be in. They can handle it. I'm assuming they will be in tough positions when they actually play a match. If they can survive me then they can survive a match. A stress test if you will.

I appreciate all your comments and I encourage you to take these drills, use them, improve them and report back to us. I'm not claiming to be a tennis Deity so all my drills can be challenged in their purpose and changed to the coaches liking

Coaches in Ukraine would not drive me mental. Remember, I teach tennis in Boca Raton, Florida. This South Florida town has legitimately turned coaches nuts...I'm still operating and living the dream. Hope I answered a few questions. I will return to this thread when I have some more time.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[klacr]

While winning is certainly the aim in any match, and I can see that you want to ingrain a point winning mindset, I see that rhythm and control is also a skill which needs to be acquired.

Kyle's drills target the latter, which are a prerequisite for your approach. I have often done his serve and tango drill, which trains reflexes and touch. If I go for an all out point winning mentality, which seems to me as a hectic alternative, I am losing the important basis of rhythm and control needed to be developed.

A hectic, terminate the point at all times mentality, also takes the enjoyment out of a rhythmic, controlled training which also gets you into a type of Zen state. But then I like drills like hitting groundstrokes cross court and down the line back and forth for rhythm, which I guess, you probably don't. My partner and I hit progressively harder, but try to keep the ball in play.

I am sure that at some later point, Kyle will show some point killing drills, but I find his drills very enjoyable.

Phil,

Thanks for the post. Yes, The drills will become much more difficult next month. It's important to win points yes, but I often find that when people have that mentality of winning, they tend to sacrifice technique and they lead to bad habits which digs them a deeper hole. There are numerous competitive games you can play and you can turn any of these drills in the next two months into more competitive scenarios. Sometimes, in order to excel at hitting the ball, you need to learn to love the ball. Be gentle with it. Understand their are many more ways to win at tennis that hit the stuffing out of it. Brains over brawn. But if you have brawn, well, more power to you, but you still must harness it.

Before my time on this place called Earth is up Phil, I will visit Switzerland and we can do the serve and volley tango on the red clay courts as well as the rest of my drills that will be featured in this series.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[gzhpcu]

Before my time on this place called Earth is up Phil, I will visit Switzerland and we can do the serve and volley tango on the red clay courts as well as the rest of my drills that will be featured in this series.

That would be great Kyle!

[stroke]

That would be great Kyle!

Kyle, if you and Phil need a 3rd..........

[gzhpcu]

Guys, my club is waiting...

[hockeyscout]

Real nice insights Kyle.

Nice.
You know you a breath of fresh air Kyle.

Great job, and I like how your patient enough to explain it to us tennis dummies like me who are basically having some fun and flying by the seat of their pants!

Can you (or the others here) explain how things must be done in a certain way when you are editing these videos?

I think you and John should overwhelm us.

One thought, I actually want to see YOUR player screw up, and get the idea of how you solve issues as they come up in terms terms of progression.

Sports coaching is like making sausage. Its ugly. You'd never want to eat sausage if you saw how it was made. Its the reason why Agassi and Graf's kids never played tennis! Its a tough gig. For me, I'd rather learn how the sausage is made! Anyhow, I love the sausage they sell on the grill in Prague, best in the world! Their end result in the Czech is rather exceptional. So, naturally in tennis I'd like to see how the end result was achieved.

The idea of idea hitting it 1-3 times, and then turning it "live" is a reasonable idea. I have got to think on that one.

I will tell you one area I don't care for in traditional tennis training, if you practice hitting the ball to the other person, you will get very good at hitting the ball to the other person. I come from a sport I guess where you shoot to score, as is most sport, no one directs the ball at the goalie. I used to play hit the goal posts when I practiced (I loved the sound of the TING), and it'd drive the coaches nuts, because in a game, guess what, I'd hit the frigging goal post!

So, reading between the lines, if I want to continue on this pathway I will need to make sure no one "goes crazy", and we always stay in control of finding a solution to get the ball to a place where the opponent simply can't get it, or will make an error if they do manage to get to it.

I do this type of consistency work, however, its much different in it's approach from ours which is respect the ball, be smart, and always think of a way to win or set up to win (like chess, moves ahead).

I determined early in tennis coaches wanted to rally because they generally disliked picking up balls. I hated doing this as well. My daughter kept making me buy ball after ball as she'd learn words and math by me writing on balls! So, I had a lot of balls, and we could focus on hitting top grade shots because their was always another one!

Anyways, we have about 2000 balls, so it's like a circus show, and we can go all offense all the time which is fun.

For us rallies are boring! Hitting a creative winner through unusual means is cool. So, we lucked (or didn't, we will see) into a perfect storm (or maybe not), who knows when their are no results right!

Catching the balls could be real interesting for us, and it doesn't take much effort to do it, and we've got the balls to practice this a lot more than anyone else would ever bother to do this!

I will have to show you all how we pick up our balls, it takes us one minute to pick up all our balls thanks to a bit of Russian ingenuity from one of the old guys who cleans the courts who used to get worried we'd never vacate a court on time!

I got three big tarps, the balls all land on them, the ones that we miss we simply push them into the tarp, and then boom, pick them up in three lifts and dump into the carts!

I am going to set up a better system soon, I plan to attach heavy net to the back fence, then I will just pick the net up, and roll all the balls into the cart, drop the net back done, and that is that. The tarp is a bit tricky with wind, lifting it and all the rest.

Lastly, I don't like the idea of rallying as I believe it doesn't instill the traits I want to install, which is high paced, pressure tennis of getting behind the ball, leaning into the ball, attacking, changing pace, destroying short balls, hit smart angles, slice, one hand, two hand, come in, cut off angles, be smart, finish and win. Basically the kitchen sink.

I've also got an athlete who is HUGE, and I figure she'll be 6'6" at 17 or 18 and big like the old man, so getting into a rally if you're that size is going to be a major issue, so I kind of want a player who uses that size, weight and offensive reach to force offense, and heavy deep balls on smaller girls.

I love the one drill where the ball comes in low you did Kyle, if you're a big person you'd better spend a hell of a lot of time dealing with balls on the rise, and practicing that! If you have that reach, and can get to a ball quick, the ball will come back so fast to opponent just because of that 10 inch extra reach you have into the court (or more, depending on how well you get behind the ball, throw that front shoulder into the court, step into the ball with the front foot like classic tennis and flow into the shot). The good thing, if your big the ball comes into a nice big strike zone, and the net is a HELL of a lot lower for you! That transitional shot into the volley sure isn't practiced enough, and it was neat to see you addressed that in your progression.

That's great for hand - eye - foot with kids.

Nice stuff here anyways Kyle, I am really thinking, so it's given me something to play with the throw confusion into our practice settings.

Can't wait to see the next to this, and seeing how I can adapt it to my unique tennis (armagedon) situation.

[johnyandell]

Phil,

I too hope to walk through that gate, with our Swiss compatriot Giancarlo Andreani in tow as well...

John

[klacr]

Hockeyscout,

Nice comments. Thank you.

As to the subtleties of shooting video for this article at my club, it gave me new found respect for what John does on a consistent basis for all the other articles on this site. I'm a bit of a technophobe so the filming and editing was a whole new world. You may want to see students mess up in the videos, but you may be the minority and quite frankly, the articles do not have room for that. Perhaps one day in the future John will put together a bloopers reel...or maybe not.

As to your comments about hitting the ball back to your opponent and how you disagree with it, I do to. During competition. But what about the match warm-up? Tennis is a gentleman's game and to be honest, there has to be a bit of cooperation between two parties. I normally use the serve and volley tango as a warm-up for my players, before live points begin, Another point is that I'm also teaching at a private club in which I do this drill for my members, members who have plunked down Million+ dollars for a home and paying big money each month in club fees, not everyone is gung ho on blasting it and taking people's heads off. For my competitive players and juniors, I do the serve and volley tango as a test, see if the leader can breakdown the follower by moving him all over the court and making him volley from an uncomfortable position. Its a good mental exercise and makes the players think about where they prefer to hit volleys from. Plus, after 45 seconds of serve and volley tango, you'll be feeling it in the legs.


Phil,

That's a beautiful club. And yes, I'm serious. You are a great contributor to this forum so it would be a pleasure. I'm sincere in my comments. I have added "Tennis with gzhcpu" on my bucket list. If I don't have time this year, I will make plans for next year. It is a mission.

And Yes, Stroke can join as well.

Same goes for John and Giancarlo, although I'm just trying get those two to visit me in Boca Raton.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[gzhpcu]

Phil,

That's a beautiful club. And yes, I'm serious. You are a great contributor to this forum so it would be a pleasure. I'm sincere in my comments. I have added "Tennis with gzhcpu" on my bucket list. If I don't have time this year, I will make plans for next year. It is a mission.

And Yes, Stroke can join as well.

Same goes for John and Giancarlo, although I'm just trying get those two to visit me in Boca Raton.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

That would be great! (In the meantime, I'll work more on my volleys since it seems you are lining up a doubles...

[don_budge]

Practical Food for Thought...Serve and Volley drills

Let's get your thoughts on Kyle LaCroix's latest, "Serve and Volley: Implementation Drills"

Thanks klacr for some real practical food for thought. A huge part of the challenge of accomplishing serve and volley tactics is organization. The organization must be so thoroughly rehearsed, thought out and practiced in order that the most of spontaneous of acrobatic responses come naturally. A logical process requires definitive objectives...particularly at the onset of the learning process. I think it is difficult to truly understand what a difficult process this is unless you have some experience in this particular activity. tennis_chiro has written of this arduous task in the past. It's no cake walk and not something that will be learned by accident.

How to begin to train a tennis student to go down such a long and arduous road must begin...at the beginning. It is always the best place to start.

The drills that you have described here are rather simple, practical and easy to understand from both the perspective of your student and your teacher. Of course any good tennis coach knows how to ramp it up a notch as your student progresses.

[klacr]

Thanks klacr for some real practical food for thought. A huge part of the challenge of accomplishing serve and volley tactics is organization. The organization must be so thoroughly rehearsed, thought out and practiced in order that the most of spontaneous of acrobatic responses come naturally. A logical process requires definitive objectives...particularly at the onset of the learning process. I think it is difficult to truly understand what a difficult process this is unless you have some experience in this particular activity. tennis_chiro has written of this arduous task in the past. It's no cake walk and not something that will be learned by accident.

How to begin to train a tennis student to go down such a long and arduous road must begin...at the beginning. It is always the best place to start.

The drills that you have described here are rather simple, practical and easy to understand from both the perspective of your student and your teacher. Of course any good tennis coach knows how to ramp it up a notch as your student progresses.

Thanks for reading and your input don_budge. Organization is crucial for any sort of endeavor. So many players practice their serve and they practice their volleys. But so few if any truly practice serve and volley.

Get ready for next month's, drills become a bit more advanced and intense for a true serve and volley animal. .

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[gzhpcu]

What are your thoughts on the serve stance to play serve and volley? I would think the forward motion from the pinpoint stance is better, coupled with a toss well into the court...

[klacr]

What are your thoughts on the serve stance to play serve and volley? I would think the forward motion from the pinpoint stance is better, coupled with a toss well into the court...

Phil,

Opening up a can of worms with the polariazing "Pinpoint or platform stance" question. Very fair question though. Certainly arguments and examples can be made for both. When playing, I personally use a pinpoint stance and although I'd like to say it undoubtedly benefits the serve and volleyer my reasoning for implementing it in my game was from watching the likes of Krajicek, Edberg and Stich . Did I mention Krajicek. What a service specimen he is huh?

John has done some great articles on the stances. Here are two of my favorites.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...nt_stance.html

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/..._12_01_06.html

Having worked with many players and having observed service motions ad nauseum from this site and others simply out of natural curiosity it's impossible for me to say that one stance trumps the other. Since I use the pinpoint I'm afraid I would be a bit bias in my answer. Although I have begun to use the platform in my teachings and hitting with a few of my more advanced players just to make things interesting in my own game I really cant tell a huge difference. In order for us to find the correct answer we would probably have to erase the muscle memory of numerous players and have them learn both the platform and pinpoint and measure and record results from there.

Serve and volleyers have come from both stances. Sampras, Taylor Dent and Henman with a platform. Edberg, Rafter, Krajicek with a pinpoint. What would be interesting is to ponder what Sampras would be with a pinpoint or what Edberg would be with a platform. But we'll never know.

I'd love to hear John chime in on your question Phil but I'd be surprised if he sided with one stance as an undisputed serve and volley king over the other given the amount of players he's filmed and styles he's seen.

My advice to you Phil if you are looking to add serve and volley into your game is that when it comes to serve stance just take after me...become 6'6" and 210 lbs and any serving seems a bit easier. Good luck with that.

All kidding aside, great question Phil and thanks for contributing to the thread.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stotty]

Stich

I wouldn't say Michael Stich uses a pinpoint stance as the back foot doesn't move up to meet the front foot; it moves to a position alongside the front foot. Stich has a kind of crossover style which strictly speaking is neither platform nor pinpoint. It certainly doesn't have the drive up of a pinpoint...and he lands on right foot, not the left as most servers do.

I like Stich's serve a lot. It's one of my favourites. It's a really interesting serve.