Training Tips and Techniques for Fully Enjoying the King & Queen Experience: The Art of Serving the Weaker Player

By Guest Blogger, Bill Bowen

Since it’s inception in 1862, the rules of the King and Queen haven’t changed much from the rest of doubles volleyball save for three rules: You cannot pick on the weaker player, the ungodly rule of not allowing hand sets over the net, and that Todd always gets the best draw (I’ll save the latter two for future discussion). But just three rules to remember that are slightly different from the other volleyball tournament rules we play by throughout the year.

In today’s column, we’re going to look closely at strategies for the serving-the-weaker-player rule. Since this “rule” isn’t enforced, there’s no “do-over” or no penalty invoked when the weaker player is served, this is usually a good rule to exploit. There’s even the gray area sometimes of who exactly is the weaker player between Romeo and his female partners. Seriousness aside, the “pick on the weaker player rule” is simply a nicety that has cost many the better team from winning literally a couple of games over the years.

So let’s take a look at how we can take advantage of this rule while at the same time, making it look good enough to get your opponents to by you rounds of drinks at the Stink & Drink.

Tip 1: Always jump serve on game point. Nothing says “whoops” like a well timed, game point jump serve--especially if you haven’t done one the whole game. I use this method a lot usually in conjunction with tip 7 below.

Tip 2: Move to the side of the court where the stronger player is waiting to receive, pretend that you are trying to serve straight across the net to the stronger player, and then cut the serve at the opposite angle toward the weaker player. This has always been an effective strategy for me because it gives the illusion, by moving to the stronger player’s side of the court, that you are trying your hardest to serve the stronger player. I have usually been able to get away with this two or three times in a row before you may want to then resort to…

Tip 3: Serve underhanded. When you go to the underhand serve, you now appear to clearly be trying to better control your serve, all while purposefully still missing your target. This is an especially effective disguise on windy days, and again makes it appear more to your opponent that you really are trying to serve the stronger player.

Tip 4: Serve underhanded and high. After serving the weaker player underhanded a few times, try and serve the next one high enough to allow the stronger player time to get under it, even if it’s on his partner’s side of the court. By allowing the stronger opponent to receive that one serve, you buy yourself the chance to repeat steps 1-3 for another complete cycle.

Tip 5: Groan a lot. Immediately after making contact with any serve that is moving toward the weaker player, make a slight groaning sound to insinuate that you did not intend the serve to go in it’s current direction knowing all the while that you did. Sometimes this groan may be offensive to the weaker player when they hear it, because they may not feel that they are that much weaker than their partner, but mainly the groan is for the stronger player you are not serving to hear.

Tip 6: Pretend you don’t know the courtesy rule. I use this one a lot in the all-men’s games where courtesy still applies but few people are aware of it. Very rarely in regular men’s and women’s tournaments do you have say, an open player playing with a B player. But the teaming up of different levels of players happens almost every game at the k&q. You may have one match against an open player and a B player, where you are at least an A player playing with at least another A player or better. Just keep serving the B player with as many serves in a row as possible until the stronger player mentions the courtesy rule. Then simply say, “I didn’t know there was courtesy in the mens [/women’s] games too?”, in your most innocent voice possible. Again, you’ll need to do a good acting job on this both verbally and with body language and posture. Usually by the time the stronger player mentions it, you’re up by 5 or 6, the stronger player is a total head-case, and you can cruise to victory from there.

Tip 7. Apologize while the serve is in the air. Again this is all acting, but the “I’m really sorry. I can’t control it that well” vocal inflection is 98% of the effectiveness of the play. You can’t get away with this one every time, but once in a while, it’s a great tool.

Some other quick pointers for serving the weaker partner discreetly: 1) Serve as hard as possible on every serve. 2) Blame the errant serve on the toss or the wind. 3) Always have a half-finished bottle of beer next to the court to make it appear you’ve been drinking all day—even if you just poured out the half a bottle (can’t tell you how many times this has worked too). 4) Claim to be deaf in one ear. 5) Claim to have puked in the match just before the one you are playing.

That’s all for this week. Look for more King and Queen tips in next week’s article “What Happened to All the Single Chicks?”

Dollar Bill