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Strategy Episode: Serve Team Adjustments & Maximizing Practice Time: Podcast 031

Will Boucek · December 16, 2021

Find out how one adjustment on my serve helped me beat a player I always struggled to win against. I’ll show you my thought process behind each decision I made that lead me to this new, winning serve strategy.

Then I’ll discuss another match I played recently where I cracked my racquet. My partner and I got demolished 6-0, 6-2. In this case, I had been on vacation for two weeks previously and only had one week to prepare. Needless to say, I didn’t prepare properly. I’ll talk about what went wrong, and what I would do differently next time.

Cracked tennis racquet
My racquet after it was violently banged on the court for not cooperating.

Interview Notes from this Podcast

*To help support The Tennis Tribe & provide more free content like this, we may earn a percentage of purchases through the links below. See our affiliate page for more info.

  • Previous strategy episode: 3 Doubles Strategy Stories from Real Matches
  • Learn the variables to adjust in episode 14: Creating a Gameplan & Making In-Match Adjustments
  • Interview with Jorge Capestany
    • The Cuban Davis Cup Drill maximizes touches from the net & baseline.
  • The Romanian Davis Cup Drill helps with volleys.
  • Interview with Steve Smith
  • The Shadow Doubles Drill will help you win the crosscourt battle in doubles.

About Will Boucek

Will Boucek is the Founder & CEO of The Tennis Tribe. He has played and coached tennis for over two decades. Will is a strategy analyst for ATP & WTA tour players and coaches. He also tests the latest tennis racquets, shoes, & other gear from Wilson, Babolat, Head, Prince, and other tennis brands. He currently lives in Fort Worth, Texas where he plays USTA leagues & tournaments.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. SamS says

    October 1, 2021 at 6:35 pm

    Great content. Thanks.

    Reply
    • Will Boucek says

      October 6, 2021 at 7:38 pm

      Thanks Sam! hope it helps you on the court 😉

      Reply
  2. Mason says

    October 4, 2021 at 3:57 pm

    Will,

    Thanks for the latest podcast. I was especially interested in your serve adjustments to the returner who crowded the box, as it reminded me of a match I played this weekend. However, I was the box crowder on the receiving end of someone who served a high, deep bouncer into my body.

    Like your opponent, I like to crowd the box, take the serve early, and return deep. My initial approach, as the deuce returner, was to shuffle left and hit a high forehand crosscourt. Unfortunately for me, my opponent’s serve, in addition to bouncing high, also seemed to slide right, which I did not expect – I do not even know what one calls such a serve. I repeatedly found myself reaching to return which resulted in a very ugly collection of miss hits and frame shots. Ugh!

    I thought, maybe I could try to take the ball even earlier. Nope – I whiffed.

    My only option was to retreat to the baseline, and I did. I surrendered space and time, but at least I was able to put the ball back in play. We still lost, but 6-4 in the second, instead of 6-1 in the first.

    I suppose mine is more of a return adjustment story, but one that validates your serve adjustment – It is truly difficult to crowd a deep high bouncing serve.

    Reply
    • Will Boucek says

      October 6, 2021 at 7:36 pm

      Great points Mason and it sounds like you made the right adjustments. When facing players who have a big kick serve, you’ll always have to either step in or step back. No way to know which is best without testing each one out 🙂

      Thanks for the comment!

      Reply

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