¶ Intro / Opening
Hey everyone, if you're serious about improving your doubles game, I have some really exciting news for you all about my new online doubles academy.
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Check out the link in the show notes. On today's episode, we welcome back Nick Monroe, a former top 30 ATP doubles professional who's won four career titles on the ATP Tour and currently commentates on Tennis Channel as well as hosting second serve on T2.
On today's episode, we discuss why energy is so important in doubles, how he pre-plans returns, and the tactics he used when playing with great singles players like John Isner, Tommy Paul, and Francis Tiafo. So sit back, relax, and prepare to become a smarter tenant. All right, Nick, welcome to the pod.
Thanks for having me, John's. Um it's gonna be s exciting. You know, you're Duke Blue Devil, I'm a UNC Tar Heel. We go way back. We go way back to college tennis days.
Yeah, man, I uh I think you're the first of either that I've had. I I can't remember. I've been doing this for a couple of years, but definitely the first Tar heel. But uh I can forgive you. All my friends actually at home are UNC grads. Um all my Duke friends are team members, so uh I got a lot of love for UNC, but you were a you were a great singles player, a great doubles player um in college, and then obviously you had a long career on the tour playing doubles.
So I would love to know from you what you think the different skill sets are that you need to be successful at doubles, because not every good singles player, especially in college, was a good doubles player. So what skills did you possess and other players possess that kind of make them stand out on the double score?
Well yeah, thanks for that. No, look, I played on the tour for eighteen years. Uh my first nine years I focused on the singles, got up to about two fifty in the world on singles and I I was playing some doubles, but not really.
¶ Separating singles from doubles players
focused on it, you know, so I'd maybe win a challenger, win a future, but you know, I was mainly focused on the singles. And then I then I got to about thirty years old and I'm like, you know what? You know, let me see if if I can go the doubles route. And I done well in doubles in college, top five in the country, juniors.
Top five as well throughout. Um, and at 30 years old, I was like made the transition to doubles. And it was one of the things where number one, just trying to find a good partner. I got kind of lucky. Uh, you know, good story. I was at the airport in my first challenger that I was gonna start playing doubles in in Columbia. So I was flying, flew into Bogota and I see a guy, Simon Sadler, who I'd spoken to before, but didn't really know him all that well.
And I was like, hey man, you know, what are you doing? I was looking for a partner that week. And I was like, hey, do you want to play? And he's like, well, I'm gonna be playing with Travis Rettenmeyer, but actually I just got a text that he quit tennis. And Simon had just flown from Germany to Colombia. So as he lands.
Travis Rettenmeyer's like, hey dude, sorry, I think I'm quitting tennis. And I'm like, wait, what? You know, that that Travis Rettenmeyer is my junior partner. And uh so sure enough, the next day he's like, Let me just make sure he's not coming. So sure enough.
I found a partner just so didn't want to wait. Found a partner. Simon found somebody else. But then anyways, the next week we played with each other and we won the next the two challengers in a row and then we kept it going, took each other top fifty in about a year, year and a half.
Um, but the biggest thing, the biggest, you know, difference between singles and doubles that I found was number one, I love being on a team. Number you know, number one that it's a communication that you have to have with a partner. We clicked right away. uh as far as communication was concerned. And then also, you know, doubles is so much about a first serve, first volley, and then great energy. Right. So we always kind of focus on three main things would be the first serve and first volley.
Number two was a solid return and then focusing on that plus one shot.
And then the third one was just always having good energy. Um, I feel like, you know, energy is always a big thing. I'm with, you know, I work with the Brian brothers a lot with the US T A. We do a doubles camp for our top doubles guys and we focus a lot about energy, um, just because you can just win matches that way. So You know, so again, a lot of focus on the serve, uh serve and return, and then energy and communication is huge.
I it's a little bit of chicken and egg and I know my guys at Duke had a hard time buying in that like energy comes first and then kind of all the benefits of good play and what that can lead to comes second. A lot of people view it the other way. They're very energetic when they're playing well.
But then if they have some misreturns and the energy kind of lags. So what is it about just providing physical energy beforehand? How does that actually translate to better tennis on the court physically?
¶ The importance of energy
Well, I mean look, when you're bringing good energy, then your feet are moving quicker, right? So you know, you look at the Bryans, they're always bouncing around and so then they're ready for the ball at the net, they're ready for the next shot. And I think that's one thing that I always tried to do because I knew I played my best tennis when I was bouncing around. That meant my f my footwork was a lot quicker.
Um, and then when you're bringing that kind of energy, that also picks up your partner. And by the same token, you're the team on the other side of the net, they're like, wow. Look at these guys, they want it, you know, and it and it kind of, you know, it's kind of threatening to them, right? And and if they get a little tired or a little nervous and we're continuing to bring the energy, sometimes you just win matches based on that.
So a lot of it also was just about being a good partner. You know, even if you miss a shot, if you miss a return, it's easy to kind of get on yourself and oh no, what did I just do? No, no, no. It's about being a good partner, you know, being able to, hey, move on to the next point and say, Hey, my bad
Hey, we'll get this next one. You know, and a lot of it is being a good partner and and not letting maybe how you're playing kind of bog down the rest of the team. Um, it's so much about just keeping that energy and focus up because, you know, look in doubles. You know, on the pro tour, you probably played no ad scoring. So every point counts. Every point counts. I mean you can be at love forty, but next thing you know, you win the game, you know, on deciding points.
Then there's been times I was down in the third set breaker, you know, first to ten. I'd be down eight, two, eight, three, come back and win. There was also times and I was up eight, two, eight, three, and then we lost, you know, but it's like We have to take those things as they come, but it's just, you know, continue to bring energy week in and week out, and then good things can happen.
You mentioned the timing and the luck of kind of finding Simon as a partner. You talk about being a good partner. Like what is the best elements of being a good partner for someone and what makes a good team? Is it
physical games that match, I need a good server and I'm good at the net, or we both return well. Is it that mixture of personality and energy? Like what is the balance between, hey, we're a good team just because our game styles match, even though personality wise we're like north and south pole. Or is that kind of personality and energy vibe more important?
¶ What makes a great team
Well look, I kind of I found two different ways to win matches, let's say, throughout the tour. You know, I'd like to find for myself when I was playing with a doubles partner, a doubles player, I liked someone who had the same mindset as me and that meant
I like to be on the quarter lot. I like to be out there for, you know, four hours of practice and, you know, working on everything, whether you know, the stick volleys, the serves, the returns and kind of getting those hours in together because that brings camaraderie as a team.
Um, so I felt like with Simon, he loved being on the court. So we were together in that mindset of Hey, we know we need to work, we both wanna be top fifty, then we wanna be top forty. And we were pushing each other and having the same goals, I think is the biggest thing for a team.
Um, so that was when I was playing with a doubles player. When I was playing with a singles player, obviously me being the doubles player and playing with a singles player, like a Jack Sock, Donald Young, Tommy Paul, Francis Tiafo, John Isner, Sam Query, all guys that I played with.
It was interesting because they obviously are singles players. So let's take for instance a jack sock. On the ad side, that's where he returns best. And then he would look to take his second ball forehand and he can really hurt you with that. So then as a doubles player, I would say, okay. Jack, if you're gonna stay back when we're both when I'm returning, I would hit my return, run into the net as fast as I can, and I would use what I do well, which is being at the net.
And making players have to beat me from there and then let Jack stay at the baseline and find his forehand and just rifle from there. So you have to kind of find what's best for you as a doubles player and and finding kind of what team works best.
'Cause for me I like to kind of play the finesse shots, the lobs and feel the ball around. But then I but then I mesh well with a guy who could play really big, like a Nisner, like a Sok, uh, like a Tommy Paul. They can play big off of that forehand so that then I would clean up with the net. So You know, it's finding two different ways to win matches, um, as a devil's player. And a lot of people would ask me, like, man, how did you play with so many different guys? And
And find ways to win. And again, that's what it is. It's finding, okay, if I'm the doubles player, I need to be at the net, the singles player at the baseline, let them rip, let them do what they do, and then be ready to clean up if you are the doubles player.
You mentioned you're a hard worker and this was one of the questions'cause like I would see you post on Instagram and you're like practicing with your shirt off and you have like twenty four abs. Like I don't even know how it's possible. So you're always in great shape, but
You know, I know you have practices where you're either just playing points or you show up in a new city and you're just getting a feel for the courts. And then you have practices where you're trying to improve. And so you said you actually practiced for a very long time, but I'd love to know
Kind of how those practices where improvement was the foundation? Like what did that look like? Was it ball feed with a coach? Was it live ball drills specifically working on one shot? Was it two things in a practice? Was it 10 things? Like how did you kind of structure those practices?
¶ What a practice looks like
Well, one thing, you know, look, I help the USTA as a as a national coach. And one thing I try to tell our young players is the biggest thing is. Control what you can control. So for me, I wanted to walk on the court and look across the net and know I worked harder than you to be ready for this moment, to be ready for that map.
So whether that meant, you know, yesterday I hit thirty extra minutes of serves or I ran those four hundreds two days ago and I that I know you didn't run or I you know, so for me it was about Controlling what I could control, which was the amount of time on the gym, amount of time on the court, getting those reps in and being ready mentally for that. If I lost the match,
So be it. But that I knew I worked hard to be there and in that moment. So that's why I wasn't I was never really nervous in big matches because I knew I'd done everything I could to be ready for that moment. Um, so again, going back to your question, I mean, a lot of it for me was I would do a lot of of serving by myself because so many people think, oh, you need a coach or you need this, you need that.
No no there's a basket of balls uh that your coach might have or that's that's at the club. You can go get that basket for thirty minutes, go hit targets of of serves, you know, and and what I would do was to each side, deuce and ad side, I would go Anywhere from five to eight first serves to each spot, so T body wide. On the do side and the ad side, it's like free throws. How many can you make out of five? How many can you make out of eight?
So go eight first serves down the T, eight first serves body, eight first serves wide, do the same on the ad side, then go eight second serves. And it take uh if you do eight all the way through, it takes you about 45 minutes to get to get done with that.
But we if you do that, you'll start to realize, oh shoot, on the ad side out wide, I only made two out of eight on the first serve. Or I made so then you know where you need to focus. Cause a lot of people, they go out and serve and they're just hitting serves mindless.
They're not thinking about even what they're doing, right? So a lot of it is think about like free throws. How many can you make in a row? How many can you make out of eight? Um, and so then when you get in a moment in a match where it's a pressure situation, you you just step up to the line, you're like,
I know I can make this. I just I just did it yesterday for forty five minutes or the day before for forty five minutes and you hit those spots. So what it looked like for me was was, you know, I I did a lot of things by myself, uh, whether that serves, whether that's also I remember one time I was playing with John Isner in Miami and I was coming late from a tournament and it was like on a Saturday, you know, tournament starting Monday.
And I had no one to practice with. It was like seven PM. I was calling Miami Open. They had no one there for me and I was like, okay, I showed up at the courts, went went there, got a bucket of balls, went took the balls. There by myself, hit some serves about 30 minutes. But then I also what I used to do at juniors, I'd put the racket on the back of the fence.
Toss the ball, take a couple shuffles, and hit the ball, right? So hit some forehands, some backhands crossed, line, hit lobs, you know, because that's a shot that we don't practice very much, the lobs. And I felt like that was a shot that I used a lot. But everything in tennis is muscle memory, right? So you don't need somebody across the net to be able to help you to hit your forehand and your backhand.
You can h put your racket on the fence, toss the ball a couple of shuffles, bang, hit the shot. Go back, do it again. That takes discipline to do that, right? Of course every player wants a coach and wants a trainer and wants a Yeah, that's good to have if you have the money to do it, but you also can go work on things yourself, muscle memory-wise. So again, you have to find it within yourself, what are your goals? What do you want, and push yourself to do that?
How much did you use analytics?'Cause one thing, you know, I used to video every match for players at Duke. And like you said, they might serve sixty percent, but their wide serve was thirty percent and their T serve was ninety. And so you're like, well, you know, you have overall a good serve percentage, but you're gonna have to figure out how to use that, right? So did you were you keenly aware
Whether it was, hey, I'm missing returns, but I know they're forehands and I know they're forehands off lefty kickers instead of righty slices, or how specific or granular did you get so you can kind of target those things in a practice?
¶ Analytics
Yeah, I mean right now look analytics is a big thing. I mean USTA helps a lot of the American players. They have analytics that you know, if you're an American player, you can reach out and they'll send it to you. Uh when I was playing
Yeah, I didn't we didn't really have many analytics companies or you needed to pay for that to help you out. So I was big on going to watch matches. I would always go watch matches. I would see where they were serving in big moments because, you know, even as a junior my dad
used to put it put it the camera up on the fence and would videotape the players that I was gonna be playing in the fourteen and unders, the sixteen and unders. So we got used I got used to watching the VHS in the hotel room and and scouting these players. So then when I got on tour, It was no big thing for me to to to show up, go watch these matches, watch these guys that I was gonna be playing against and look at where they served in big moments. Uh in the I formation, does it look like
that they stand right in the middle of the of the box, you know, close to net or on they more on the left side, the right side. So then okay, then that tells me okay, it maybe you return here because there's more space. So I always looked at how close they were to net, where they were standing eye formation.
Um, you know, can the bump lob be be used because they're so close to the net? You know, after the serve. Do they take one step forward after the serve as a net as a net player? Can you use that bump blob? So um again, if you don't have the access to analytics, which I think
If you do.
Amazing. Make sure you use that because there's so many numbers now. I mean, that we can see everything. Um, but if you don't have that, go watch the matches. You know, in all then juniors I had a everyone knows, I had a notebook of ever pretty much every single player. So every changeover, I was looking at my notebook. I had
Everything written out, what you do in big moments, what you do, what's your game plan, but then also how I'm going to counter that. And then at the end of every match, I would write the three things I did well and the three things I needed to improve. Because then, you know, a lot of times we finish a match, we finish a practice.
The next day you show up at practice, you forgot what you didn't do well yesterday, right? And you're you're hoping your coach remembers. But that should be on you. You should be like, Hey, remember yesterday, John, like at my forehand cross wasn't great. Can we work on that a little bit more? Or the volleys, I need to work on that a little bit more. So
Having a journal, writing the three things you did well, three things you need to improve every single day, you're gonna improve quicker than just hoping your coach remembers everything. Because obviously the coach is probably writing it down too, but you need to be held held held accountable yourself. So yes, if you have access to analytics, 100% use it. If you don't, make sure you're going to watch the matches and controlling what you can control.
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One of the things that people probably admire when they watch a player like you play is you just find yourself in the correct spot, right? You're anticipating where you should be. You're covering the big spaces, you're making opponents hit the small spaces. A lot of that is anticipation and preparation, like you said, knowing your opponent's tendencies, watching video.
I I'm curious, I know you do both, but was a majority of your anticipation before the point started? Like, hey, I know my partner's gonna serve wide, I know their tendency is to go here, so I'm gonna position myself that way. Or was it more reacting live in the point to body language or what they were doing? Which w how did that anticipation happen?
¶ How he anticipates
Well look, if you're service partner, what I would what I was always thinking, let's say whoever I'm playing with, they're the server, I'm service partner at the net. If we're hitting a slice serve and it's coming into somebody's body, it's using that spin to understand, okay, if it's slicing into the body, they can pretty much normally only hit it this direction. Excuse me, if it's a kick and it gets up high and they're moving to the left, they're probably gonna go that way.
So it's okay, which spin makes a makes a player return a certain way, right? Whether that's a spin serve or the kick serve, because the there's different directions. It's easier to hit a return off of a specific serve. So that's number one. Number two, as a net player, my mindset, and I think that was probably one of my best assets or best strengths was servers partner because
I always just wanted the ball. When you're a net player, your goal should be even if I'm coming out of eye formation and going left, I'm not just saying, oh, I'll go left, you go right. Yes, I'm going left, but if it comes in the middle or if even like there's a way I can get it, I'm gonna go get it.
So as a net player, you always have to want the ball. So many people just say, Oh, I'm gonna go left. So then they go left and they don't even think about if it comes in the middle like, oh, that was yours. No, no, that's also mine. Like go left but be ready, right? And so it's always just kind of um wanting the ball at all times. And Lynn, if you always want want the ball throughout the match
Then once it gets to a tight moment, you've been wanting it all mapped. So again, now now you're gonna be ready for it. As opposed to like you're kind of like unsure or whatever. And then now it's a tight moment. Now you're gonna be even more unsure, you know? So it's all as a net player, always make sure you want the ball. Um and then as a returner, I always felt like
When people played I formation against me, I was returning down the line 90% of the time. Because guess what? When people when people come out of the iFormation, so many players just kind of they pop up and just cover the middle of the court. And so it's like, okay, you're gonna cover the middle of the court, then I'm gonna go down the line, make you get there. So I had to
very specific with what I was doing and I would decide beforehand. You know, sometimes I'd be like, okay, if they serve my forehand, I'm gonna go cross. If they serve my backhand, I'm gonna go line. So I made decisions beforehand where I was going to return because if you try to wait till the last minute and see where they're going to go or move, then that's when you don't get a good hit.
So it's really making the decision beforehand, forehand here, backhand there, and then you're going to hit a better shot as opposed to waiting to the last minute.
I'm curious what you're gonna say on this one when in regards to like when you chose to just play regular formation and stay or I formation and kind of go to the conservative spot. But one thing I'll ask in my camps all the time is I'll say
How often do your opponents hit because most people play standard formation, right? In USTA adult doubles or even junior doubles, they just play regular. And so I say, well, how many of those returns or ground strokes go cross-quirt from your opponent? And they go, I don't know, like 80, 85%. And I go, cool. How often do you post? And they're like, uh I don't know, like five or ten percent, right? So when you stayed
You want the ball. So whenever you guys called a play for you to stay, was that because you were convinced based on the serve spin or the patterns that had been happening that they were going to return down the line to you? Because you want the ball every time. So I'm assuming if you stayed, you kind of anticipated that return going line.
Yeah, even if I was staying, I always I always faked. I always tell people, if you're gonna be staying, don't just stand there, right? At least kind of try to take the eye off the ball of the opponent, right? So give a jab step and then hold and be ready for that ball coming, you know. I always loved playing singles players and doubles because a lot of singles players, number one, they don't work on that reactive volley at the net.
So when you play a singles player at the top of the game, we would make sure that we would return line early because a lot of singles players they kind of backed off the net. They're not They're better on the move, singles players, right? When they're not as good when they're stagnant. So if I was playing with a Francis Tiafo, a Tommy Ball, Taylor Fritz, I always tried to put them in the eye formation because I knew their natural tendency
In a normal formation, they would kind of be on their heels. But if they're in an I formation, now they can be athletic with what they do because they're used to being athletic as a singles player. So you want the singles players to be athletic and moving. Um, if you have them in a in a normal formation, a lot of times, okay, get them moved, get them poaching, right? Get them poaching early because
That's what I would do against a singles player. I would return line early, make them know that hey, I'm coming to you. You know, like you guys aren't natural. natural voleurs as a singles player because they don't work on those quick reflexes like the doubles player does. So I would feel I would say that, you know, for juniors or college or pro,
If you're playing against singles guys, return line early. Make them make them feel that volley that volley is coming at'em, you know, and that's the biggest thing. And then what I would say is let's say you get in the cross board rallies like so say Francis is rallying cross or whoever's rallying across
We always kind of a rule of thumb, move on the first ball. If you don't move on the sec on the first ball, move on the second ball. Because guess what? What happens a lot of times you get in matches and you haven't you don't move at all, right? And you're letting three, four balls going cross. Number one.
You're playing a top singles guy, they're gonna get in a rhythm and they're just gonna be able to go wherever they want. So on the first or second ball, your opponent doesn't have a rhythm, right? It's much harder for them to take it down the line when they don't have rhythm. So that's why you move on the first or second ball. Um, that would be the key. And then later on in the match, okay, then maybe later on you actually just fake and stay because you move so much.
Now they're gonna panic and try to go line at you and now you're ready. Right. So move first, second ball early, but then later on, maybe you say, you know what, hey, I'm not gonna actually move. I'm gonna just use a couple fakes and and they're gonna panic because I've been moving so much.
But what you don't want to do is not move at all in the beginning and then try to move later because you don't have those reps. You don't have the timing. So I always say it's better to move early, even if you lose the game. Even if you lose the game by moving first second ball, don't think oh
God, I knew I should have stayed. No, no, that's fine. That's fine if you lost the game. Hey, they were serving. Like it's fine. They're supposed to hold. Show show them you're gonna do something. Show them that you're gonna be athletic, you're gonna move, and then later on you can figure out what you want to do.
I'd love to know all the way up to the pro tour if this kind of held up. So that is definitely one thing I preach is is proaching early, early in points, early in the match. And then one other time I I really significantly want you to cover the middle is on big points because most people are tentative. So I was watching uh Duke play the Citadel this last weekend and this guy from the Citadel at fifteen or thirty fifteen, he's returning. He hits a winner down the line in the alley.
So it's 30 all. Okay. Then Duke won a point. They're up forty-thirty. This guy returned down the line in the alley. Now it's no ad. Right. So two winners in a row. And I was with another coach. I said, Where do you think he's going to go with this return? Because he's hit two in a row in the alley. And the guy goes, I think he's going to return down the middle like a little chicken.
And he hit right down the middle and the and the Duke guy poached and hit a volley, even though he had just been successful twice. So is that something that you found even at that level? Or when you get to the pro tour, are there a fair amount of risk taking on big points?
¶ Big points and small spots
No, I think uh look, the biggest thing is any level, pro, junior, college, make players find small spots, right? So sure he hit two good ones in the alley and found that small space. But then when it came to an important moment, He doesn't want to go for that small space, right? So you're exactly right. Make sure that you keep taking the middle of the court. I mean again, I go back to the Bryans a lot because I was able to play against him a couple of times, graduals with him a lot.
And they preach it all the time. Make players have to find the small space in the court. So that's why again you you pinch the middle, you make guys kind of go for a short angle. Okay, you're gonna go for that short angle on deciding point? Probably not. You're gonna go for the more conservative shot and then we're there. So it's okay if you lose some points and they find the small space or they find the short angle.
We can't let that affect, okay, now I gotta wait, I gotta do something different now. No, no, no. Just keep doing the same thing. And over the course of time, you're gonna win more matches. You might have a match where they find find the spots throughout the whole match. Fine. But over the course of time you're gonna win more matches than not.
Winning big points is huge and you're kind of alluding to how you kind of think through things anyway, but would you get to a big point? Some people think that you're supposed to, you know, take a little bit off your first serve, make a first serve, make sure you make the return, be solid.
Some people say you just keep playing the same way, right? Like that's what got you there. And you just kind of take the percentages as they come. There's no strategy that wins 100% of the points. How did you approach big points? Because in doubles with no ad, the matches can swing so quickly, right? So how did you approach those big situations?
In big situations, I mean the biggest thing we always talk about is first serve, first volley. So sure. Sometimes I would take a little bit off the first serve and say, hey, I'm going to slide it into the body here on the deuce side. If because it's a slider, be ready to cover your line, but I'm going to make the first volley. So sometimes you take a little bit off, make that first serve.
Okay. Put the pressure on your opponent. Make them have to come up with something because guess what? If you have to the second serve and it's a sighting point, now all of a sudden they feel a little bit better. They kind of know it's going to be a kicker, you know. So basically it's it's just making the first serves when it matters.
And then again, when it comes to returns, I'll go back to it again. If you decide beforehand where you're going to hit the return, that takes a lot of pressure off of you, right? You're not really so much worried about where's the net guy? Are they going to move? Are they not going to move? What are they going to do?
It doesn't matter. Guess what? I'm already gonna decide beforehand. If I get a four-hand cross backhand line, that way you're gonna hit a better shot. And if they happen to not move and they happen to be there and knock off the bolly,
So be it. But you but if you hit a good shot, you're gonna have a better tendency to win more of those points than trying to wait to the last minute. And then that's when you hit those balls that just float through the middle of the court is when you're trying to see what they're gonna do. And then you don't get the racket head speed through through the through the through the uh shot. So just pick your spot beforehand, and then over time you're gonna win more points as well.
You mentioned that you coach with the USTA, you spend a lot of time on tennis channel T2, you're watching a ton of tennis. What is something you've learned being on the outside now? Like you don't have the emotion of being a player, right? So you can just kind of observe it from the outside. What have you learned over the last year or two that maybe you wish you had known as a player or you just were unaware of because you were so in the moment, but now you can see it through a different lens?
¶ What he's learned over the last year
Um, I mean I guess something that I've learned, kind of known, but it's even more so on the bigger scale of things, is let's say on the men's side, you watch Carlos Alcaraz, you watch Yannick Center, you watch these guys. Um It's getting even more so the fact that you have to have an all court game, right? Yeah, uh Carlos Alcaraz is using the drop shot. He's using a short slice, he's bringing guys in, he's even sometimes
hitting from the baseline, hitting a normal shot from the baseline and then just running forward, kind of kamikaze and saying, Hey, I dare you to pass me from here. And so he's been work so he works on those volleys that are kind of in between the service line and the baseline. So that then he makes that volley and makes you come up again.
Tennis isn't w which I know and I mean my dad we would always start at the net with every practice we started at the net and worked our way back. Um so it would be volleys at the net, volleys halfway between the net and the service line, volleys at the service line, volleys between the service line and baseline, and then volleys from the baseline.
So we always start the net before we even hit one ground stroke. So, you know, now a lot of juniors, they just go straight to the baseline and they just work on baseline, baseline, baseline, and they just hit volleys down the middle of the court for four minutes, and then that's their volley practice. So the volley practice really needs to pick up for for juniors, college pros as well, because t in order to have an all-four game, you need to trust your transition game.
And that's what we're seeing now amongst the top of the game is even Ionic Center talks about it. He's like, I have to improve. So now we're seeing him. come into the net a little bit more, use a servant bolly, use a short drop shot, short slice, whatever. So you realize that you have to kind of have more than just side to side movement. Um and yeah, I mean that that that's the biggest thing.
You were a great vollier and you're advocating for more volley practice, which is exactly correct. I mean, most people will like warm up their volley for two minutes and that's it, right? And then you're like, oh, you're gonna be great at volleys in like ten years if you keep that pace up.
Do you have a simple fundamental that your dad taught you, that Sam Paul taught you, that you knew along the way, that you just kind of always relied on? We're like, hey, this is my my one major thought on either forehand or backhand box.
¶ Volley tips
The biggest thing is work on stepping into the volley. I watch a you know we even with the USCA kids that we have, they're volleying down the middle of the court and they're not moving their feet. They're just feet are stagnant and then they're just hitting the ball from here.
And sometimes the racket's getting behind them. So number one, always the racket needs to be in front of you. Don't let the vault don't let your racket ever go past your body. And in order to do that, a lot of times you're gonna I wanna step into the volley more. So I would say number one on the volley. Make sure you're trying to move your feet to where you're stepping into the volley more.
That way, if you do get a little nervous or tight and it comes at you and you're used to stepping in and practice, you're gonna move forward more, right? By stepping into the volley, your natural instinct is gonna be to move forward more. But one thing I would say that I did, and again kind of go I mention it a little bit was
Work on those awkward volleys. So everyone works on the so work on the volley where you're on top of the net. Work on the volley where you're in between the net and the service line. Work on the volley from the service line. Then when you work on that volley that's between the service line and baseline, it's even more of a
It's even more of a deal where you need to step into that volley because guess what? Rally down the middle of the court, both of you guys in between the service line and the baseline, stick the volley at each other, make each other have to keep it in the air.
in between that service line and baseline. So you're having to step into the volley. Then you can move back to the baseline and hit volleys to each other from the baseline. Then you really have to step into the volley and you got to stick it right. That way once you're going baseline to baseline.
it becomes more natural than once you move back in towards the net that you're like, oh wait, I gotta stick into this volley. I gotta stick it. I gotta stick it. So a lot of the volleys, you know, people just don't They don't stick the volley, right? People just kind of make it, you know. So again, step into the volley, that's gonna help your mindset being aggressive and moving forward a little.
It sounds like that would give you just an overall better feel because like most people, if they're very close to the net in doubles and you hit, let's say, to the opposing net player, that's like a fifteen foot shot. The one you're describing from the middle of that backcourt to the middle of the backcourt, that's like a sixty foot volley. Right. So like if you don't use your legs there, I mean it's literally you're trying to hit it four times as far as you would hit a normal.
Yeah, and a lot of times that that happens, right? And doubles. Sometimes you hit a serve and maybe you don't get in fast enough and you're having to hit a volley from there. So but we don't practice it, right? We just hope that it's there and doubles all of a sudden. But no, if you practice that cross-court from uh mid-court to mid-court to to your uh to your partner, work on keeping that ball in the air as many times as you can because then you have to step into it.
Then another drill that we do after we've done that in the air, then we'll do one where, okay, I'll feed it and we come in at each other and play a game to five where it's reflex, reflex, and we're coming in, coming in, coming in. And you can't go around each other. You have to go through each other.
So that then also works on you have to step into the volley because you're just actually trying to go through that person and not working on the little dinker. I want you to go through, through, through, through so that you get used to stepping in the volley and having that having that uh position coming forward. So again, it's work on the awkward shots. Work on the shots that that feel uncomfortable, your continental grip, you know, slice forehand, slice backhand, because nowadays also
In tennis, you have to have the defense. You have to be able to take defense and get back into offense, right? I see a lot of players, if they're not on offense and they get stuck on the run and defense, they just kind of float a ball in the middle of the court and now they're in trouble, right? So work on those continental grip shots where you have to hit a forehand slice to stay in it and a backhand slice to stay in it.
We finish every episode with your best advice for the four oh player. You've given us a ton of stuff. I've already learned like three or four things I've never heard of, which I love. So I'm going to give you the option. You can give me something new today that you haven't mentioned, or you can double down and stress something you've already mentioned. But your best advice for the 4-0 adult doubles play?
What I would say is practice your surf. I mean a lot of people they wait'til they have a partner out there to g to oh I I John, do you want to go hit some serves today or do you want to go play today? Hey, you can go do it by yourself. Go to the courts, go to your club, get a basket of balls. Go put up three targets on each side, the deuce and the ad.
And hey, hit five first serves to each target, five second serves to each target, and do that on both sides. And again, it's like free throws. See how many you make out of five. And then that way, then when you get in pressure moment. in doubles, you will have known that you've hit that target. I remember um This was this was probably two thousand eighteen, Andy Murray at Wimbledon. Um Andy Murray was practicing. He practiced for about two and a half hours and I was at the same time.
And then I came back out that afternoon and I was coming out to hit serves. I didn't have a coach with me. I was doing my own stuff. So I'd come back out to hit serves. I remember walking back out there and I see Andy Murray on one of the back practice sports at Wimbledon hitting serfs by himself.
He didn't take his coach, he didn't take his fitness coach, physio, you know he's got a whole team with him. But he came out, he had his target set up, and he just hit serves for thirty to forty minutes by himself, muscle memory working on the rhythm. And again These are champions, right? That there's no there's no uh secret to why they served well in big moments because they trusted that situation because they had done it in practice and the muscle memory was there.
This episode's actually gonna come out uh four days from now, April twentieth, Monday, and I'd like to know your prediction. Do the UN C men's tennis team, the Tar Heels, do they make the N C double A tournament?'Cause we'll find out by Monday.
I'm saying we're making the tournament. I mean, come on, we got our whole team back. We're we're missing a couple of components due to injury uh most of the year and now everyone's injured right now. Uh so I really hope we have a good run in the ACT tournament and then we'll be making the tournament. So my prediction is you know it, buddy. We are we are there.
I'll I'll be rooting for you guys. Like I said, I I grew up playing with Stan Paul at UNC. I l I love the Tar Heels. I mean I know you guys are supposed to be rivals, but you guys are always great, great teams. So I'll be rooting for you.
One thing I I mean I gotta plug you and see. I know you went to Duke, but I gotta plug you and see. I mean one thing that Sam Paul uh was so good at is is we're all so close even still. I graduate in O four. Our team is very close. And and if you play for Sam Paul, he really keeps the team together. Uh Triff Phillips is there as our assistant coach right now, such a team guy as well. So
you know, I know there's other college teams that hey, you ask them, hey, do you still keep in touch with anyone? And they're like, no, never, you know, or they don't speak to anyone who was on their team. Um we really had a team a team bond and still do. And so we're I'm I'm very close with with the guys on the team now as well. So Uh I wanna see my boys do well, that's for sure.
Well, I love it. Um, you've been awesome today. You've given us so much. You're on T2 all the time. You're on Tennis Channel all the time. We can see you on there. We know you're a busy man, but we thank you for making time for us.
John, thanks for having me and let's do it again. Anytime. Let's do it again.
All right, I want to thank Nick for coming on the show today. He was one of the hardest workers on tour for over a decade, and he earned every result along the way. He shared a lot of useful tips you can add to your doubles game, but the one I found the most interesting was how he put his singles partners in motion to get them more athletic and less static. Absolutely genius.
So if you play with someone who tends to get stuck in the mud or feels uncomfortable, call some plays that require them to be more of an athlete and see how that goes. I'm certainly going to be trying this with a few of my USCA team players who feel uncomfortable at the net. Just a reminder to check out the link in the show notes for my online doubles academy. I'm really excited about connecting on a personal level with all the players in the community.
As always, thanks again for listening. I hope you just improved to tennis without even hitting a ball.