Mastering Doubles - Being Lobbed (One Up One Back Scenario)

When you and your partner are in a one up one back situation, being lobbed such that you and your partner must switch is not something either of you look forward to.  There are two schools of thought as to how to handle this situation.  The first school of thought, and the tactic used by the vast majority majority of recreational players is to have the net player simply switch to the other service box while their partner retrieves the lob.  This movement is certainly the simplest movement your team can make, and does fulfill the requirement that you cover both sides of the court.

However, as I have discussed before, tactics are about limiting risks as much as it is being aggressive.  Their are enormous risks to switching in the manner suggested above.  Illustrated, this is the scenario:







After the movement described above we have this situation



In this scenario, B1 attacks the net after the lob, which is the correct tactical play.  Now team B is positioned two up versus team A, which is one up one back.  Player A1 is in a compromised position because his partner, A2 is likely to lob the ball back or send a groundstroke to the net players that is above the net.  A2's lob could be short enough for either player on team B to hit an overhead, and if they play correct tactics, should place the overhead to A1's side of the court; if A2's groundstroke is not at team B's feet, they should attack the volley to A1's side of the court.  A1, due to his or her positioning has the least amount of time to react and will only be able to play a reactive defensive shot with limited choices.  The only options that allow A1 to get offensively involved in the point is for A2 to hit a lob that goes over Team B's heads and makes them ditch the net, or for A2 to hit a ball cross court at player B2's feet.  Any other option results in A1 being target practice for team B. The risks the position offers  far outweighs the unlikely possibility of a reactive volley or half volley winner after being targeted, or the low probability of getting the ball at the feet of B2 or lobbing over the heads of team B resulting in a switch.  So this positioning in this scenario gets an F.

The correct choice in this scenario is for player A1 to ditch the net.  See the illustration below:  



Now Team A has eliminated the risk of a short lob or a high volley to team B.  Player A1 plays slightly forward of the baseline, in case team B tries a drop shot or short angle to his or her side.  However. Team A can further limit that risk by A2 choosing to lob player B1 or B2, thus limiting the return back.  This positioning, coupled with a limitation of a lob return back to Team B leaves Team A to deal with only one remaining risk - the short lob that results in an overhead.  But that risk has been limited also due to the positioning of both players at the baseline - A2 and A1 have the maximum amount of time to react to the ball.  This movement by team A and player A1 is therefore the correct tactical move..

There is a scenario where the first switch discussed - player A1 moving to the other service box could be useful.  If Player B1 after they lob, stays back at the baseline.  We therefore would have:

.

Now Team A's only risks involve player A2 playing the next shot anywhere where B2 can be aggressive.  In other words a short lob or a high volley. However there are many suitable options.for A2.  He or she can play a lob back to B1, or simply play a ball up the line to B1. So in this case, since B1 is being passive, A1 and team A can feel safe with A2 just playing a neutral or defensive ball back to B1.  A1's position does not hurt the team.

Now you know how to handle being lobbed in every scenario where the lob goes over the net player's head.  The next post will tackle where to move at the net based on the location of the previous shot.

Mastering Doubles - Being lobbed (Two up scenario)

There are two events that require movement on a lob if your team is lobbed.  One when you and your partner at both at the net, and one where one of you is at the net and the other is at the baseline.  This post will examine the former.  The next post will examine the latter.

When you and your partner are both at the net, the player who is lagging behind (the player cross court from the ball)  is responsible for all lobs.  If you are positioning yourself correctly you should never be next to your partner.  One will always be forward of the other.  The player down the line from the ball should always be in an aggressive forward position, while the player cross court from the ball should always lag slightly behind.  Our first scenario shows team A playing the ball to Player B1.  It is not relevant if B1 is at the net or not, nor if player B2 is at the net or not.  See the illustration below.






 
 In the above illustration, player A2 is cross court from the ball, which has been played to player B1.  A1 has moved closer to the net because they are down the line from the ball.  B1 will now lob player A1.  The next  illustration will show the proper movement for all players.

 
 Both teams are now playing next to each other, and team B has taken the net from team A.  A2 and A1 have crossed in an X in order to properly retrieve the lob and position themselves for the next ball.  Note A1 is slightly in front of te baseline.  Player B1 positions themselves closer to the net since they are down the line from the ball, while their partner, B2 lags behind.

But what happens when B1 lobs A2 to begin with.  Back to the original illustration.




Now B1 will lob A2.  Here is the result of this event:

 
Note that there is no "switch" here.  A2 was deeper so they are closer to the ball and have te best chance to do something.    Note that A1 is again just inside the baseline.  In this event, B1 only moves to the service line, lagging behind their partner, B2, who has moved forward to a more aggressive position.

Of course it is possible to play the opposing net player in the initial situation.  Let's take a look at those scenarios as well.


So here team A has played the ball to player B2.  Because of this, A2 is closer to the net as they are down the line from the ball, and A1 lags behind since they are cross court from the ball.  If B2 lobs
A2, the result is as follows:




Player B2 has moved forward to an aggressive position because they are down the line from the ball,  while B1 has moved to the service line and is lagging behind, since they are cross court from the ball.  A1 has crossed behind A2 and retrieved the ball, while A2 has moved to a position just in front of the baseline. This is a switch. Team B is ready for offense, Team A is ready for defense.

Now lets look at the final scenario when Team A is two up to begin the point.  Back to our original positions.



And now B2 lobs A1.

 
Now A1 must retrieve this ball as well, since they began the point further back. Note that there is no "switch." A2 retreats to a position just in front of the baseline.  Player B1 moves forward to an aggressive position inside the service line since they are down the line from the ball, and player B2 actually retreats behind the service line or to the service line lagging behind their partner since they are cross court from the ball.

Now everyone is in the correct positions after the lob.  If team B started the point at the net or both back, the result of the positions after the lob would remain identical to what was described here in the illustrations.  If you find yourselves in the wrong positions, the rule is "the player furthest from the net gets the ball," then make your way to a two back position like in the illustrations.  Someone should ALWAYS be furthest from the net..

As with everything, perfect practice makes perfect.  Next post: how to adjust to lobs if your team is lobbed when you are in a one up one back initial position.

Key Components to Being a Great Server's Partner

It has been said by a number of experts and tennis professionals - "the key to holding serve in doubles is not the server, but the actions of their partner."  What does this mean?  How can we transform ourselves into net players that our opponents fear each match, thus drawing more errors and seizing more offensive opportunities for ourselves?

1) Know your limitations
This is to determine where to begin your initial court position prior to the serve.  Let's begin by assuming the ideal is to begin in the epicenter of the service box.  If you are a tall person, standing closer may be beneficial since the lob will be less effective, conversely if you are short, standing further back may be beneficial to protect against the lob.  If you are super fast and can react quickly, stand closer to the net.  Conversely if you are slow afoot or have slow reactions, stand further back in the service box to give you more time.  


2) Know where the serve is going & move forward and across from the ball
Knowledge is power.  You and your partner should discuss where the serve is intended to go.   This will allow you to react a split second sooner, and put you into a better court position to cover the court.  When covering the court, put yourself across from the ball, but be sure not to position yourself in the alley or in your partner's half of the court prior to your opponents hitting the return of serve.  Use the singles line and center line as boundaries.  "Across from the ball" means if we drew a line between where your opponent strikes the ball in space, and your court position, it would create a line parallel to the singles line.  The exceptions to the rule are if the ball is served in such a way where the returner in striking a ball from outside the singles line.  In this case simply put yourself by the singles line.  Now you are in the proper position to cover almost all options the returner can come up with.

3) Once in proper position, focus on the return that your opponent is MOST likely to choose.
This is a tricky one for most recreation players, as well as developing juniors.  It is also something tan is in flux for the entire match. In doubles, the highest percentage return of serve based on the geometry of the court is cross court.  Players will return that direction 90% of the time.  "Down the Line" returns offer the opponent two problems, a net player to hit by and a shorter amount of court with which to place the ball.  It therefore stands to reason that IF I heed point #2 and move into the correct position, that the returner will hit crosscourt 90% of the time in order to make a good return.  Therefore our focus should stay on the cross court return, even if the serve forces me to cover the line.

However, in a match our opponents exhibit patterns of play.  If, for example, your opponent on every 30-40 point returns up the line regardless of the serve placement, you as the server's partner need to take that information into consideration.  Keep in mind what matters is not what your opponent is TRYING to do, but what they are SUCCESSFUL at doing.  I define success as something that works 50% of the time or more. This means you and your partner must track the data and determine what your opponents can be successful doing.  MOst server partners get hung up on getting passed down the line.  This is part of the game.  What matters is not the winners, but the percentage of points you are losing when your opponents ATTEMPT a return down the line.

4) Move diagonally towards the opposing net player (30-45 degrees) to pick off the cross court return.
The first step to know what you can and cannot get is to take two large steps from your court position anywhere in the service box.  This will give you at least some idea as to how far you can cross over to get the returner's return.  Factors affecting your ability to pick off the ball are the speed, spin, and trajectory of the return, your speed and reaction, and your reach.

Moving at a 30-45 degree angle will get you to the ball in the quickest manner possible.  The ideal angle is determined by calculating the angle of movement that allows you to bisect the angle of the return at 90 degrees.  Since none of us are named Pythagoras, just do your best, ensuring your are moving toward the opposing net player.  This will allow you to also get your momentum behind the ball, ensuring max precision and power.

5) Volley your "poach" to the diagonal court either toward the alley in front of the opposing net player, or down the middle. DO NOT VOLLEY BEHIND YOURSELF
When you are picking off the cross court return, you are being the aggressive player on the court.  This is extremely advantageous, provided you choose the correct placement of your volley.  Like everything in life, being aggressive comes with inherent risks. Your job as server's partner is to limit those risks. 

The greatest risk to your chances of winning the point is to volley behind your self, back to the returner's side of the court.  By you crossing into your partner's court to pick off the return, you leave the side you left completely exposed.  A volley back to the returner allows them to hit a not so great shot up the line which will put your partner, who should be crossing behind you, in an emergency shot situation.  The advantage is lost.

If you haven't crossed into your partner's court, volleying down the line eliminates your advantage by allowing the player with the greatest amount of reaction time to play the next ball.  At the recreational level, this means most times a lob over your head is coming, which places you and your partner into a scramble defensive situation.

Playing the volley to the diagonal court from which you came or are positioned in does two things.  One, it forces the player with the least amount of time to react to possibly try to make a play.  Secondly, if we are crossing into our partner's court to pick off the return, a volley to this side allows us to keep the ball in front of us and puts ourselves in a great position for the next shot.  If the returner is fast and can get to the ball, our partner will have the same amount of time to go to the other side and cover for us.  At worst, if the returner sends an incredible shot cross court or makes an emergency lob over us, we are just back to neutral.  At best you will win the point outright.

6) If you know you cannot reach the return, retreat towrds the service T slightly to your side of the court
This is about proper court positioning to limit risk and take away your opponent's options.  In doubles there are offensive and defensive positions for the server's and returner's partners.  1-5 discuss the offensive positions for the server.  If, however you cannot reach the return, your offensive position becomes a liability.  Offense occurs when the ball is on your opponents side of the court and is being played by a baseline person.  Defense occurs when your partner at the baseline is hitting the ball.  A forward net position in this case is asking for trouble.

The reason is if your partner at the baseline is playing the ball, the next person who has first dibs on playing their shot is returner's partner, who should be now moving forward themselves.  If they pick of your partners return and you are too close the net, the hole diagonally between you and your partner is exposed and you have almost no time to react.  So, when you realize you cannot poach, retreat towards the T on your side and split step when your partner strikes the ball.  This way you have eliminated the middle from exploitation and you will force your opposing net play to play a more difficult cross court angle to get it by you.

7) If your partner successfully hits the ball cross court, move forward and across from the ball and repeat steps 3-6

Now you are ready to dominate play at the net.  Next post will discuss how to move when your partner lobs down the line.

Developing Feel, Touch, and Superior Net Play

Who wouldn't want to improve their net play?  90% of League players play exclusively doubles or mixed doubles.  Many developing juniors who wish to play at a college level or higher refuse to move to the net for fear of losing the point because net play is a weakness.

The key to developing great feel and a great volleys starts with playing all types of shots with a continental grip.  A good net player must be able to play slice backhands and forehands.  They must also be able to half volley with underspin, topspin, sidespin, and flat spin.  They need to be able to not only keep the wrist steady when needed, but also flick the wrist on certain types of balls.

In order to develop these attributes, players should force themselves to play mini tennis rallies and points using only a continental grip.  Then further restrict the types of shots that are allowed in order to work on just slices, just topspin or flat.

Once some success with the above mini tennis is achieved, players should immediately play a game called the "Touch Game" daily.  This game has two players who start one step from the net.  One player places the ball on the net and allows it to fall to his opponent's half of the court to start the point.  The only other rules are every ball must bounce, and only the service boxes are in.  Players of all levels, especially juniors LOVE this game.  Players learn through play to play half volleys, angles and use dropshots and touch lobs - all with the continental grip.  No other grip is allowed to play this game.

Quick volleys are essential to developing quick reactions and thus "quick hands."  Players should do the following exercises daily - Quick "touch" volleys from the center of the net area in order to do the following progression - Forehand to forehand, backhand to backhand, backhand to forehand, and figure eights.  Players should also be able to do the progression deuce court to deuce court, ad court to ad court, as well as doing each drill service line to service line.

Players should also play "Offense/Defense" where on half the court, both players start on opposite service lines.  One player is on "offense" and will close the net (move forward) against the other player who stays at the service line level of the court and plays "defense."  This game should also be played cross court to the ad and deuce court, as well as to each down the line side of the court.

Finally, players should play an "attack" game, where one player is at the baseline, and the other player starts at 3/4 court.  The player at 3/4 court feeds in an approach shot to his opponent, and moves forward to the net area.  The point is then played out to it's conclusion. At first restrict the baseline player to not lob.  After success for the volleyer is achieved, alter the difficulty by allowing the baseline player to lob after their first return.  Play this game for singles, or cross court to both sides of the court.

By constantly practicing with your continental grip, and putting yourself through the myriad of games described herein, your net game will become the stuff of local if not world wide legend.

Where have all the Serve and Volleyers Gone?

Prior to 2002, from 1990-2001, serve and volley players won 23 of 48 majors. Almost 50%. Since 2001, Only Pete Sampras' last major at the US Open in 2002, and Roger Federer's first Wimbledon title in 2003 were won by players who used serve and volley as their style of play and means of attack.  Why? What happened to the style of play?

Many experts will point to the quality of athlete improving as a main culprit.  Others will direct our attention to the lighter, faster, and stronger racquets that have helped maximize the power of today's game. Still others will point to the string technology.  I am here to tell you there is only one factor that has precipitated the extinction of serve and volley tennis - the change in court surface to a slower court with a higher bounce.

Serve and Volley tennis dominated the game through the 70's precisely because until 1976 three of the four majors were played on what I call the "old grass."  Fast courts with ridiculously low bounces.  On that surface, playing from the back of the court was just asking to lose.  Only three baseline players won Wimbledon prior to 2002 - Andre Agassi playing from the back of the court in 1992, Jimmy Connors in 1974 and 1982, and Bjorn Borg 1976-1980. And Borg and Connors both would serve and volley against the serve and volleyers!

In 1975 the US Open changed their courts from fast grass to a har-tru clay court.  Three baseline players - Manuel Orantes, Jimmy Connors, and Guillermo Vilas won the title.  In 1978 they changed to Deco Turf II, a composite hard court. In the next 25 years of the event, Serve and volleyers won 14 of 25 events at the USTA National Tennis Center.

In 1988, the Australian Open switched their surface from a fast grass court to a rubber tire based hard court.  Prior to 1988 serve and volleyers  won all but 5 of the events.  From 1988-2008 the Australian open surface was Rebound Ace.  Serve and Volleyers won 3 of the events.  The last serve and volleyer to win the event was Pete Sampras in 1997.

Back to 2002.  In 2002 Wimbledon, which had seen 3 baseline players win the event in its illustrious history, changed their court surface from the fast grass to a new composite grass that slowed the court down and allowed the ball to bounce higher.  Roger Federer's first title there in 2003 was the last showcase of this style of play at a high level.  And even that year, he only served and volleyed on his first serve, staying back on second serves.

So there is a clear correlation between the slowing down of the court surfaces and the death of Serve and volley tennis.  The causative factors are the higher bouncing slower courts.  In order for Serve and Volley to come back, one of the non French Open majors must speed up the court and lower the bounce of the ball with a new surface choice that would promote serve and volley tennis as an effective strategy and style of play on every point. Without a change, serve and volley tennis will remain a thing of the past.