I have been watching some outdoor rb and noticed that there was no lob serves being served. Is it just too easy to crush so nobody does it or is it a rule that you have to put some speed on a serve?

With no backwall...what a lob serve does is allow the returning team the opportunity to dictate pressure...putting the serving team instantly on defense...being force to ensure the ball doesn't pass them.

Although a soft serve is sometimes used to change pace making the returning team a just position on the court to return. Rarely...or somewhat occasionally...depends on the players and the match ups.

Exactly. Most outdoor players have excellent overhead strokes, so the lob serve is attacked very aggresively.

If I get an indoor player who will move back and try to shoot from 60 ft, maybe I'll throw in some lobs and dare him to hit something we cant get. But, for the most part a lob serve wont work against experienced outdoor bangers who will blast it out of the air with confidence.

I beg to differ, not sure if you all remember but one of Kevin Booths favorite serves is the backhand lob serve and it is very effective, because it makes people very anxious and they tend to over hit any either skip it or hit it out, yeah sometimes they roll it but 2 points before the roll it out is worth it. I will say this, the lob is more effective at Marina due to the size of the courts, and one of my favorite serves is the high two wall lob that pushes people really far back and forces them to hit a perfect shot in the far corner which is usually not perfect and leaves an easy kill shot.

So with most doing drive serves do you feel you run out of energy alot faster or do you see guys who run out of energy quicker because of driving serving most of the time or the sun getting to them or what not. seems like it's imperative to be in better shape than playing indoors because of the lack of walls and the temperatures, especially in places like So Cal and Florida.

As far as being in shape, it helps to be in shape whether your playing indoors or out, the main difference when you play outdoors especially in the summer is staying hydrated, because you will sweat like crazy (Florida is even worse), and if your not careful you will cramp up real bad and just run out of gas from lack of hydration. As far as the serve it just depends on making sure you can get your serve in, and also knowing what your opponent does and doesn't like to hit. When you play a hard hitter like Scott Davis for instance, if he hits his drive serve and he's on it's more luck that you do anything with it because you can't take it off the back wall, you have to hit it as it comes at you like a photon torpedo, but you can get lucky sometimes and just frame it or hit a lucky kill, or if your really lucky it will be short or wide or long, hahaha!

406 you are forgetting overhead serves! That is the most common outdoors.

Overheads go without saying, that is the most consistent and for indoor players coming outdoors the hardest to get used to. Sorry about the brain lapse there Vic.

So Chris, when are you going to play an outdoor tourney? It is a whole new experience! But a blast!

I've just been going down to the court we have here a couple times this summer and playing a little, just trying things out. One of these days I'll attend a WOR event but not sure when.