Fall 2022 Mailbag

Questions from you, answered by me

Every 3 months or so I put together questions that come in via Substack comment, email, or text message and post my responses here. I have a few other mailbag posts that you might want to check out as well.

From Trevor, in the comments section of this post:

We have been experimenting a ton with the flat drop serve in our gym. Calling the serve shallow is a nice idea, do you have any other feedback advice or constraints to apply to help the athletes get that “touch” on the ball or the “pulling the string” effect? That nasty serve from Larson is just a great example. Definitely showing my athletes that today in training

Something I like is to "Goldilocks" the contact and follow-through.

Goldilocks Method: Serving

So do a rep where you kind of "pop" the contact with a very abbreviated follow-through, almost no follow-through. Then do one with a full follow-through. And maybe a midpoint one as well. Cycle through that a few times and sometimes players gain some insight on how to modulate contact and power to get the right amount of touch.