Serve and Volley: Tactical Components

The basic serve and volley concept sounds straightforward. Hit a serve then come in and hit a volley. If it were only that easy.

If it was you would see serve and volley played much more widely at all levels. In reality every player must master a series interrelated components to put winning serve and volley points together.

In the first two articles we have looked at the serve and volley mentality (Click Here). and also what inspired me personally to become a serve and volley player. (Click Here.) Now let’s turn to these tactical components themselves.

The first tactical component is mastering four serving locations. The second is learning the volley placements that correspond to these locations.

The third is the forward or closing movement that ties serve locations and volley placements together, and how this closing movement should be adapted to levels of play.

All 3 components are equally important for serve and volley as an overall game style, or as an intermittent tactic to be played on certain points throughout a given match.

Location

The quality of your serve is judged notby how hard you hit it, but by when you hit it where. For serve and…