Happy Wednesday and welcome to the last offseason newsletter before the start of the 2024 Spikeball Tour Series season!

It is currently snowing where I am and I refuse to play any more games inside, so I may or may not have spent the last few hours aimlessly ranking roundnet teams on a tier list. You can do the same here, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you need to be productive today.

The Agenda:

👌 The three types of tosses in roundnet
💏 Team switches
👊 Quick Hits

All aboard.

😎 Toss like a boss

Tosses are incredibly important because it’s the foundation of building up your serve repertoire. Start by focusing on your “golden zones 🤩” which is the optimal place to hit the ball on both the right and left side. It is paramount to define your golden zone to develop a consistent toss.

Types of Tosses

↕️ Vertical Toss. This toss starts 4 inches below the golden zone and the ball is tossed straight up (serve must be tossed at least 4 inches per the rules). The vertical serve toss is the go to for many top players because of the consistency it allows for.

↔️ Lateral Toss. This toss happens when you start the ball 4 inches closer to your body and throw it horizontally to your golden zone. This toss was mastered by Rogue last year and allows for a quicker trigger time while serving. You’ll see high level players faking back and forth if they’re able to serve with both hands and the lateral toss allows them to get the serve off quicker because they’re loading and tossing at the same time. The biggest con to this serve is inconsistency of timing.

👻 Phantom/Same-Hand Lateral Toss. This toss, as described in the name, is when you serve with the same hand you toss the ball with. This toss is quick and can confuse the defense, but has the same cons as the lateral toss.

It is no secret that serving is the most important aspect of today’s game and that’s why as you grow your skills, you need to understand which toss suits you best, and which one you can rely on when it matters most.

For our more visual learners, we have the full video breakdown below.

🤠 New Partners

Players and teams are always switching in roundnet as top players seek their ideal partner to make a run at this year's Championship. Combine that with the added pressure of players trying to make their respective World Championship squads, and this year is no different here—many notable names have announced that they switched teams for 2024.

Men

As of now, these top teams are staying together:

• Kingdom Come

• Insystem

• Rogue

• Eisenträger/Siemer

• Assistive Touch

• Spotless

• Bot House

• F/M (reuniting for the 2024 season)

Now for the interesting part.

Critical Hit has been separated with the announcement of Vinny’s new team, Cold Sweep. He’ll be pairing up with Max Prince, who previously competed at a high level with his brother Samuel.

The other half of Critical Hit, Justin Barr is now playing with Will Picone under the team Tilted. This means Bad Combo is no longer together after a frustrating yet overall solid season.

The breakout star of U.S Regionals, Connor Nelson makes up ½ of J.A.R.V.I.S with Josh Fragiacomo.

A big European storyline with the creation of VIBIN’ comprised of:

• Robin Florinda, the French Champion who came 5th at Worlds in 2022. His old Team, Pour Combien, also came 2nd at ETS London.

• Levi Verdelea, who had good showings at Toulouse last year in Premier and Mixed. He comes from a well known team Hustling Brothers, where he played with his brother.

They will see their first ETS event together this weekend in Barcelona.

Can this new team give E/S a run this year? We’ll find out.

Finally we have a new team out of the Livonia camp—Orthodox, comprised of Jack Buschart and Clifford Leveque.

Jack was the 7th for Livonia’s ASL squad, came 5th in premier at The Championship, and 4th in Chicago. Clifford has had a few partners at the Premier level. His best finish at an STS event is 5th in Chicago—one place behind his new partner.

Women

We rounded up the top teams from last year:  

• TWINZ are staying together as they strive for the four-peat

• Kayla Wu Fleming is reuniting with her old partner Kalin Morgan—team THUS Parabatai has returned

• tiramisu will be back

• angst has separated, leaving Sarah Allen looking for a partner.

The biggest change comes from world #1 Laura Kunzelmann joining Inès Paysan from Puces & Dives as team Nova, and the new duo is already a force to be reckoned with, winning the 3rd Mallorca Open a few weeks ago. She’s also partnering with Siemer in Mixed. Good luck to everyone else… 

Katie Pierson played with Carolin Marquart in Mallorca, and we are unsure if Royalty will continue this year. 

Let us know which team you’re the most excited about and if we missed any new teams!

👊 Quick Hits

🎾 Reigning U.S. Open Champion Coco Gauff loves roundnet

🇩🇰 Danish TV covers the Nordic Roundnet Championship #mainstream

🦘 SR Common Men win 2024 Australian Nationals

⚜️ Quebec gets a Challenger event