Stacking on the return involves a lot of movement. The returning player needs to hit the return, and then run the diagonal to their spot at the no volley zone. All too often I have seen teams attempt to stack on the return, only to lose the rally because they were not able to properly cover the third.
In theory the serving team should serve out wide to make the returner cover as much ground as possible between the return and the fourth. Bonus points if they have to move horizontally as they are more likely to be blinded by their partner. Now in reality, does serving out wide against the side actually give you an advantage?
While the sample size is still pretty low, my answer is…. probably? At the very least its worth monitoring as more matches enter the pklmart database.
Additional notes:
- This does not consider any missed serves — so if you don’t feel confident in being able to place your serve out wide this strategy is unlikely to help you.
- This strategy will be more effective if your opponents are unable to hit deep returns, and/or they are slower movers.