TACTICS WHEN SERVING IN PADDLE
In the 1980 ’ s , you would be hard pressed to find a tennis coach to tell you that it is OK to serve and stay back on the baseline . The two professional models at the time were John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova . These two number 1 player in the world always served and went to the net . Serving and volleying was how you played tennis .
Yet , that model was very related to the early game of tennis being played exclusively on grass . As more and more hard courts were built , so appeared players like Steffi Graf and Ivan Lendl . These players served big and stayed back to crush forehands . Suddenly , “ acceptable ” tactics changed .
I bet most of you learned paddle and were told “ After you serve , you must run to the net with your partner ”. This was not only a standard , but a litmus test . inexperienced at best . No one wanted that partner !
A player that served and stayed back was
I feel paddle is going through a similar revolution that tennis went through . I just love watching the streams of the national paddle tournaments . In addition to the advent of the underhand serve , you are seeing another massive change . Servers are staying back off their serve .
Why ? Much like the appearance of the underhand serve , the return game has gotten so big . It is difficult for even the best servers to survive the first volley off the return . You are seeing lots of “ what if ” formations from advanced teams when they are serving .
WHAT IF FORMATIONS
Think of this as a quarterback option . A “ what if ” formation gives the server the option to go to net OR stay back after their serve . In football , the quarterback has the option to keep the ball or pitch it . In paddle , some people call this a “ floating ” formation .
Here is a summary of the play . The server will stay back unless : 1 . My partner at the net intercepts the return of serve . When this happens , the server has time to sneak in without touching the return . 2 . The return is weak allowing the server to go forward easily . 3 . The server can let a big return go off the wire and transition off a wire drive .