The No Split Step Serve And Volleyer

First of all, greetings to all and my apologies for having gone AWOL for awhile.

Just general life business. I, of course, did manage to continue studying this exceptional game of tennis which keeps us all enthralled. Frankly, my interests have veered toward the technical, and I'll be sharing some of my thoughts with you on these subjects, as well as my traditional thoughts on competitive play at the club level and on the pro tour.

There are very few serve and volleyers at the club level but, occasionally, you come across one. Sometimes, the serves aren't even particularly good but the players just come charging in so fast that they are on top of the net to volley away winners.

Sometimes, these players seem so tough, regardless of how hard you hit the return, that you wonder how they lose to anyone.

The secret for most of these players is that they don't split step. They just keep charging in full bore to get the net. As long as they don't have to change direction too much, or god forbid, go backwards, they're fine.

Two quick examples of guys I've played.

One is a good senior player in the 50's with a slow kick serve to the backhand, very good foot speed, with average volleying skills. He recently started to serve and volley on his slow serve. He's fast enough and his serve is slow enough that he gets great position for his first volley.

Seems like an unbeatable strategy, right?

Well, if you play guy like this and can't win by using the traditional counters such as returning low or wide, try the lob on the return.

Think about it, the player is charging forward without splitting. Just let him keep charging and then lob over his head. When I tried this, it worked like a charm since he could never get on balance to hit a powerful overhead and actually missed many.

Now, you won't see this on the pro tour because there are very few serve and volleyers, and the ones that there are have great footwork and would destroy a lob return.

The second situation involved a big strong 25 year old with a huge serve. Because of his height and serve, I teased him that he was the Ivo Karlovic of the club.

He hit his huge serve and also came in without splitting, getting incredible net position. And, in this case, a practice match, I resisted trying the lob and kept trying to beat him with great returns.

But his serve was big enough that I couldn't direct the ball as well as I would like so I couldn't break him. Walked of the court after the loss, and thought about the match and playing the guy again.

I vowed that If I had to play him again, I would lob.


Until next time,


Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Countering The Club Serve And Volleyer guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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