Without a doubt, our biggest weapon is our service. Our only problem is that we tend to fade a little bit towards the end of the day, (which is when it really counts). Obviously a solid fitness campaign will help with this, but there are several other areas we can improve and/or modify to help ourselves out, and make the whole thing a lot easier.
1. Developing the float serve. In beach volleyball (especially mens), the good old float serve is underated. We will finish all training sessions with simple, “hit the spot” float serving practice. By developing an agressive float serve we can put teams under more pressure without using up all our energy jump serving. This will be very useful in earlier rounds against teams we can beat without hitting aces. it will also help when we are serving down wind and not jump serving.
2. We will both document our pre service routines, for float and jump serve. This will help us to produce a more consistent result. It will also help us calm our minds, and to focus on the right things at “crunch time.”
3. Develop our 100% serve. Sometimes in a game, there is “crunch point” where a serve must go in. Every player should have at least one 100% serve. A good, agressive serve that never misses. In our case we will both need a 100% float and a 100% jump serve. A description of this serve should also be documented, and we must be able to produce it on demand, at any time in a match or training.