Steve Smith Interview: What Happened to the Serve & Volley? Grip & Technique, and Tennis Stories from a Coaching Legend
Steve Smith is more than a coach. He’s a coach’s coach. He’s a teacher. He’s also a student. Steve has worked in the tennis profession for nearly 50 years and has more tennis knowledge in his left pinky than I have in my entire body.
In this conversation, we discuss where the serve and volley went, why doubles has lost popularity over the last 30-40 years, and why your volleys are floating instead of penetrating through the court. We talk doubles strategy and technique, but mostly I let Steve tell his stories and absorb his wealth of knowledge.
You’ll likely find 3-5 small pieces of advice in the form of stories, tips, or quotes that will stick with you and help you become a better player or coach.
25 Winning Doubles Tactics Guaranteed to Help You Play Smarter
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Show Notes from this Podcast
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- Steve’s website is Great Base Tennis
- Some of the people mentioned in this episode
- Steve works with Andy Fitzell at Great Base Tennis
- Dave Eddy
- Vic Braden is Great Base Tennis’ #1 mentor
- Bud Collins’ (and Rod Laver’s) Book – Tennis Digest*
- Dennis Van De Mer
- Jamie Murray
- Louis Cayer ran the action method
- The Bryan Brothers
- Chad Berryhill – Coach at St Leo University
- Simon Earnshaw – Head Coach at NC State
- Federer & Wawrinka won doubles at the 2008 Olympics
- Steve worked with Craig Tiley and a group of players from Texas to improve and cut body fat before nationals
- Austin Krajicek recently made the doubles finals in Cinicinnati with Steve Johnson
- Dick Gould – former coach at Stanford with 17 national titles
- Steve Denton hired Steve Smith to teach him how to coach
- Steve’s son Connor played at Florida State and Ohio State
- Steve wanted Raven Klaasen to coach Kevin Anderson
- Steve worked with Jeff Coetzee when he was younger (Our interview with Jeff Coetzee)
- Andy Roddick played 5 sets at Wimbledon and did not serve & volley
- Steve offered to help Tennys Sandgren improve his volleys
- Ashton Krueger “isn’t going to the net as much as she used to”
- Steve played tennis and hockey at Oswego State
- Ghost Doubles – Drill where you play crosscourt points vs your partner
- The triangle in doubles
- PTR & USPTA are two organizations that certify tennis coaches
- NTRP system
- UTR tennis is creating more youth vs adult matches
- Steve wrote for
- Videos of Steve discussing finding the best grips for different strokes
