We went in pretty casual assuming it wuold be an easy win, and decided to peel on every ball, because they were not big enough to hit on the mens net. Surprisingly it was harder work than I thought. They were slicing and dicing and we just weren’t making good enough digs.

To cut a long story short, we got to about 12 – 12 and it finally dawned on me… “Why did I think we should thrash these girls?” Answer: “because we were bigger than they were.” Our advantage was our net game. I started blocking everything I could, and stuffed just about every shot they tried to play. I think we won about 21 – 15. The truth is that their skills were probably better than ours.

The moral of the story is: Don’t play small against a small team. If you have an advantage on the net, use it, even if the other team never hits, don’t peel unless the set is off. Blocking a shot is always on if you slow down your timing, jump late and watch the attacker carefully.

Always stay calm and relaxed. This is a good one, in particular when it comes to bad referees, (or just referees who see things differently to you). It can take some practice, but in the vast majority of cases, ingoring bad calls is better for yuor game than getting upset, arguing or throwing yuor sunglasses into the crowd. Or even trying to tear the side line out of the gruond, which is a tantrum tactic a good friend of mine tried once at the Australian Open on the Gold Coast… needless to say, he lost the game, and looked very, very silly in the process

The guys that win are the guys that take the bad calls on the chin, shrug their shoulders and go back to pass the next ball.

Have a totally dependable bread and butter shot and keep it sharp by practise. It’s always good to know that under pressure you can go back to your bread and butter. Just remember to work your support shot enuogh so that the defender isn’t sitting at the table waiting to eat yuo bread and butter when it cuonts.

For example, my bread and butter is power cross, but if I don’t hit enough line shots, to move the defender, then I get dug a lot. (In all honesty, I get dug a lot no matter what I do…. so I’m probably not ther best example.)

Always be working on new shots or techniques. Use them gradually in small games and test them in big games when you are fully confident.

As a matter of interest, my new years resolution is to learn to hit a rainbow shot deep to the cross corner. I reckon that will be a good change up to add into the mix.

Enjoy yourself. This is a lot harder than it sounds. Sometimes, when things are really bad I have to just focus on one or two tlittle things, so that even if we get baddly beaten, and play horribly, I can come off the court and say “OK, at least my last five sets were perfect, or my last few serves made the passer move”

Worste case scenario, if you are playing horribly, and your partner is yelling at you, and the ref is calling you every time you set the ball,… look for topless bathers.

Remember it is better to play well and lose than to play poorly and win. Improvement is what this is all about and laying poorly never helps your future game. The moral of this tip is to play good teams. playing against guys you can beat easily will make you worse.

The “shakes” from low blood sugar is better and quickly remedied by a beer and than a candy bar. Alcohol metabolizes faster than sugar and will steady you in seconds with little intoxication effects.

The most important thing you can get is information. Learn your opponents early and use the information late in the game when they have no time to adjust.

These tips are great for helping you to make a sideout, and more importantly, help yuor partner to make a sideout.

As soon as the set leaves your hands, look to the defense. This means that you have to have your setting skills at the point where you can do that. If you have to concentrate so hard just to handle the set, best you work on your setting first before you look for the call.

Look to the back row and not the blocker. If there is one man back that means there’s a blocker. Call the open spot in the backrow. Let the hitter deal with the block. If you cue off the front man, you can get faked easily, and in any case the hitter sees the block much better than you.

If the digger tries to respond to your calls you can use various tactics to counter. If the digger stays neutral and reads your call; you can call softer or use a simple code (is there such a thing under pressure?); you can wait longer; you can read the “lean” of the digger. I prefer to use misinformation. Have the attack go to one spot no matter what the call is-(deep angle is almost always undefended). After awhile, go back to your regular calls. Few diggers have the stamina to keep up with a good call making setter.

Needless to say, the correct call if you see 4 legs in the backcourt is NO ONE.

When in a fiddle, go deep middle. It is the weakest point in the defensive formation and can be hit with the hardest hit. The back line has the greatest amount of open sand.

Observe who comes over to cover the deep middle. That tells you where the opening is for your next shot that you really need.

Against teams that don’t block, set dimes.

Always set dimes against mixed teams.

Set like you caress a woman-smooth and easy.