Doubles Signals That Win Points

0:08Carolyn:Hi, this is Carolyn. I'm here with Aaron. And this is part two of our episode with Rachel and McKenzie to discuss double strategy. In part one, they told us what they normally do when they serve the ball. So if you missed that, we hope you go back and check it out. But here's part two. I know you guys have talked a lot about serving and signals and strategy. Do you guys do anything when you receive the serve?

0:31Rachel:Absolutely. And particularly Kenzie on deuce will say, I'm going down the line here. And I know, okay, I'm going to back up. I'm going to back up to the T. I'm going to be ready for that volley to come right at me with their backhand.

0:45McKenzie:Yeah, we'll go. I'll go, okay, watch your T. Because if she gets a racket on it, it's going to be your backhand. It's going to drop short, you know, and I'm going to go down. So sometimes I'll just say from the baseline, if I kind of see where that server's partner lines up, I'll go watch your tea. So we do make a play. And then we have a don't say our secret play. Okay. Tell us, tell me, please, please. We have two secret plays. One is Rachel is an incredible lobber.

1:09McKenzie:Are you going to tell your secret play? We do. We say secret play. And then Rachel, go ahead. When I'm on deuce, I love to lob the net player because then the deuce player on the opposite

1:22Rachel:side has to run across the baseline and hit a running backhand. So Ken's knows she's come to the middle of the court, taken over the middle, and she's ready to crack it with her forehand. And it works 95% of the time.

1:38McKenzie:Yeah. So we'll go secret play. And that's our secret play. So now I have to change the name. Well, we did have some name. Oh yeah. So longer secret play. And then we'll go return of save poach. Sometimes we'll go, I'll go, okay, poach on my return, and I'll send a really wide, I'll try at least. I mean, this is all, you know, hypothetical, a wide return. And then Rachel will go across and hit a nice put-away poach. And I think the the biggest thing on that is as rec players at our level, we protect the alleys way too much.

2:12McKenzie:Like make them hit 100%. Yes, make them hit that low percentage shot. Yeah. Take up the middle. Yeah. We say that a lot. We because we love to go down the middle and we'll say, let's take the middle away and make them hit hit hit the alley. And then if they hit it, great, great shot. And if they hit it three times, then we go, okay, we got to cover that. But until they can do that like regularly, we just we are more worried about the percentage of covering that middle and being able to shorten the points.

2:38McKenzie:Absolutely. Because when you get in that long, and Jane did say this the longer you let that point go, it becomes anybody's anybody's point. Anybody's point. Yeah. Because you're out of position, you scrambled, and suddenly

2:51Rachel:it's just who's going to make that error first. And we don't like, I don't like that feeling of not controlling the point.

2:57Erin:Yeah. Gigi Fernandez told us that too.

2:59Rachel:Yeah.

3:00Erin:She said people cover their alley way too much. She said, give it to them. And then if they burn you, exactly what you guys said. If they burn you two or three times, then make a then then change your plan. But I think that's really smart. Carolyn unfortunately had a partner a couple of years ago that kept saying, watch your alley, watch your alley. Because she didn't want her to, you know, Carolyn moves a bunch at the net, which I a little too much.

3:19Carolyn:But yeah, you know Carolyn. You're great at the net.

3:22Erin:But it's super effective because again, at our level, you know, when you just like I've asked her, she's wearing pink today. I know our listeners can't see it, but when we used to practice a lot of singles against each other, I would be like, please don't wear red, or please don't wear pink because she moves so much that I focus, you know. I mean, I'm a you know, low level 4-0. So I'm watching the the movement of her instead of doing all the things that I'm supposed to be doing.

3:45Erin:So I think you guys are smart. That's a great strategy to have. I think, you know, like you know, Mackenzie, if you're gonna hit wide and you you can tell Rachel to go. And if she, if if she gets burned, then she gets burned. Yeah, not a big deal.

3:56Rachel:Yeah. Well, to your point, Aaron, that's one thing that I have told a pro that I loved is he he taught a whole clinic on how to be impactful as the non-hitting player. And so exactly what you're saying is because at our level, we are we're watching that person up at the net and just moving or covering their favorite shot. Like a lot of times I'll go, I know that this girl loves, she loves that down the line. So I might stand there because I know that that's your favorite return.

4:20Rachel:And then you take that favorite shot away. But just to like, and Carolyn, that's something that you did so well in that that match was you were so impactful when you weren't the the hitting player. And I think that that's something that we don't see enough of at our level as well.

4:33Carolyn:Yeah. Have you guys played with other people where they say, no, I don't want to do signals? Yes. Because I I definitely I'm I'm a person where I want a plan. I want signals. I don't care if I don't execute the plan, but I just want to plan. But I've played with a lot of people that I think it messes up their chi or their flow if we try to do that. So I never want to push it. How has that experience been for you with other people?

5:00Rachel:Recently, yeah, I had a match with wonderful. She's a great player, and she just said, I said, Why don't we try using some basic signals? She's got a phenomenal serve. And she goes, No, that's too much for me to think about. I just can't, I can't think about all that. Yes. And for me, it actually I struggled with that, just not knowing where this big serve was gonna go. I think once you kind of get used to it, and like I said, you're always gonna track the ball.

5:28Rachel:But once you're used to kind of knowing where it's gonna be, it's a level of comfort. You know, if you play with a consistent partner, and I I love to play with kins, there's a level of comfort there, and also in terms of what balls to leave. So when I'm up at the net, I know okay, this is a ball for me not to take. Even though I said I was gonna poach on this ball, it's Kinsey's forehand. She's gonna come in and crack that. So maybe. Yeah, right into the net.

5:59Rachel:It's going somewhere. You know what I'm saying? So it's it's about knowing what balls to go for and also which ones to leave. Well, and I do agree, like it is like again, just it keeps us kind of playing together. So when you are playing with someone new, when we don't get a chance to play together for whatever reason, and we say, okay, hey, like, where are you gonna go on this surf? And that person kind of shuts you down. For me personally, it makes me feel like go inside myself, and I don't feel like I can swing free or communicate with them, and I don't play my best.

6:30Rachel:And that's something that I'm trying to work on is to be able to play with people who don't really want to talk. And so far it has not gone well. So it is a work in progress.

6:43Carolyn:That's right, but it is true, you need to practice this. And so, like this year I played with all different doubles partners. So we never really had a time to practice, and it was more my schedule than anyone's, where I just never could practice and only showed up for USTA matches, which by the way is not a good strategy. Do not only play in USTA matches when you come back to tennis. But I think it's true, like you go, you can practice. Do you take lessons together working on this?

7:08Carolyn:We do.

7:10Rachel:Yes, yes. In fact, we had a great lesson yesterday. We showed up. This was sick. It's normally my singles lesson, but then Rachel's been joining me. And then our pro had her partner for their upcoming match. Yeah, like a four or five match today. And they're like, Well, you just practiced with us. And during that, we we ran through some signals and some points. And that's another just great time to practice, just trying it, trying a strategy. And again, Rachel says, Maybe we miss our serve, maybe we're going up the T, but I mean, who knows where that baby's going, goes out wide, but she still knows to track it down.

7:42Rachel:And and so I think running running those plays really over and over again is something that we've been working on for a long time. Yes. Oh, absolutely.

7:52Carolyn:You mentioned that you've seen you you have teaching pros where you play at your club and you've gone to the camp with Jane that we mentioned earlier. Have you gone anywhere else, like any other camps where you've been taught this? Because you guys really do have a strategy. I mean, I haven't played anyone else this season. Have you, Aaron, where they're doing signals and poaching. Have do you play a lot of people that do that, Aaron?

8:17Erin:I don't play a lot of people that do it, but we do teach it at our club that McKenzie's part of too now. So yeah, I mean, and not at all levels, but we should be doing it even more so than we do now. But I mean, you guys are doing it consistently because you're consistent partners, but we all need to do it a little more for sure.

8:33Rachel:Yeah. But yeah, I think if you do travel for clinics or take them outside of our club does teach it, Aaron, I agree, but most don't. And but when you travel, it does seem like the more resort clubs do focus on that because they're not going to fix your forehand in a weekend, but they can give you a couple positioning cues or a couple of strategic points that that you'll take with you forever that could win you that tie break or maybe the two cents so you don't even go to a tie break.

8:59Rachel:And that little kind of intangible or like 5% edge, I do think is huge. So if people are listening that haven't done a trip with their team or even like, you know, their their eight group that they that they play with regularly, like I would encourage them to do a travel clinic to a resort because they are gonna focus more on that type of thing versus your home club that maybe is really trying to fix your technique.

9:23Erin:I'm sure since you guys have played enough and maybe have a crazy situation together, but our listeners love to hear people's craziest situation on the court. Mackenzie, do you want to start with that one?

9:33Rachel:So this is one of our favorite moments, I think. I don't know, I guess it was it was crazy to us for sure. It wasn't like a funny crazy. It was just one of the first big things we've done together, which was play the Elite Eight two years ago at RRC. And Rachel wasn't a member. I had just joined, so nobody knew us. And you know, it's such a great community there, and everyone's friendly and they all know each other, and we were like definitely the outsiders.

9:58Rachel:Yeah. And we came in and we played against two really great opponents and lost the first set horribly. Like it was one of our worst sets. Did we get a game? And honestly, Rachel made you can't see her face, but she made this face the whole time in the first set. And I thought walking over and be like, Come on, we got this, and she'd be like, just not really reserve in the head. Yes. It was like not responsive. And I had to be like, Are you okay? So anyway, we lost the first set, and then we were down one four in the second set.

10:31Rachel:And I looked over at her, and this is like really we can only start with playing maybe. We played a few matches together at this point, right? Yeah, this was our first tournament. Yeah, right. So I go and I look her straight in the eye, and I was like, they don't win another game. I win this, and she was like, another game. Yep. I basically just brought out a very competitive side of me. And she was like, Okay, okay, so we actually win two games in a row.

10:57Rachel:We switched over to the other side. Yep, so it's they're serving four three. And I felt like I was gonna I looked at her and I go, I think I'm gonna be sick. Like, I was so anxious. And she was like, We got this, we got all the time in the world. And I was like, okay, I didn't really say anything. And then they won their game, and then it was like we were down four or five or something, and Rachel's like, We got this. I am not worried. I was like, you should be worried because if we lose I didn't even know I didn't even know that there was one point, no clue.

11:28Rachel:I was like, we got this. Then what happened? And then we came all the way back and we won that set. And then the tie break, we just I think I said not another point in the tie break. I think we were done the tie break, and that's when I walked in the cruise. But I we won the whole thing. Like it's beneficial for one partner to kind of and Kence and I do this, and I don't know why we have we've asked ourselves this so many times. Why can't we both be dialed in at the same time?

11:58Rachel:It's like one of us is out on left field and the other one's super dialed in. And so we can carry each other and we kind of help each other through that, and then we flip. It's the other yang though. And Rachel's been saying recently it's like the yin and the yang, and it's like, yes, it's unfortunate we can't seem to usually dial in at the same time, but also we never both fall apart at the same time, I would say. And so it's like I know that if I'm having a moment, Rachel is just gonna turn up that level and like refocus me, and vice versa.

12:26Rachel:And it happened just on Tuesday. It's I mean, it's happened so many times just this season, and we keep saying Rachel keeps going, it's like this yin and yang. And it's like really interesting that we don't fall apart both at the same time. So, yes, unfortunately, we never seem to like play our best at the same time, but we also never let the other person just completely go away. And one of us is always pretty calm. Sometimes I'll go, I just I'm sorry, I just took a nap for two games, and it's pretty but you'll keep us in for like just enough that then we can still kind of start playing both really well and come back and win.

12:59Rachel:That's usually what happens. One of us takes a nap for two games. And I think that happens when we get nervous and we say we gotta bring back the fun. One of us that is we gotta bring back the fun. Like we'll get tight, we stop talking, we stop with the plays, we get nervous, and then we have to remind each other we're out here having fun. I mean, just the uh a member guest the other day was a really tight match in the final, the finals match. And I went back to the bass line and we just like sang a silly little song.

13:28Rachel:Like she sang this ridiculous song. I sang just the two of us, if anybody wants to look that up. She did this little dance just going, just the two of us, and she's like snapping her fingers. And it totally released the tension. And we won every game after that. Yes. Bing bang boom. Yes, yeah, that was a good reset. That was a fun moment. I needed that.

13:50Carolyn:Thanks again to McKenzie and Rachel for coming on the podcast. We have one more episode where they discuss their most memorable moments, a few annoying situations that have happened to them on the court, and even a trick McKenzie does during a tie break that can help you relax. And I think it works. We hope you check out our website, which is secondserv podcast.com. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon.