Play Doubles Instincitively

Many a recreational doubles player, as well as many collegiate players, bemoan the fact that they should pick off more balls, cross more, be more aggressive with their movement, and move with their partner better.  Many a tennis pro will work on poaching - how to poach, where to poach, and even when to begin moving on the poach.  Your professional will also do drills with you on switching on lobs, moving together at net as well as various other tactical maneuvers.  Yet the same problem remains when you play - you are a statue at the net, you only move between points, not during them.  You also still fail to switch correctly on lobs, and still fail to move to the middle when your partner is pulled wide.

Why?  You practice these precise movements weekly in your lessons - right?  However, there is one aspect of match play that is far different from a lesson.  Intensity and pressure.  In a lesson, the environment is controlled.  You know you are working on poaching - so you try to poach. In essence you are being forced to poach despite perhaps your better judgement.  Usually in such lessons, the randomness that naturally occurs in a match is also stripped away to some degree, so your mind can ignore certain shots because they simply aren't allowed.

What each player must work on are their INSTINCTS in order to truly improve there doubles.  Instincts can only be developed for match play at a speed of play greater than that of an actual match.  Think of your instincts as how you react to situations during points on the court.  Many of you reading this have slow, defensive, or passive instincts.  This is why you do not move.  When you do the lessons on these movements, the points are slower and less intense than match play.  Because of this, your instincts never improve, despite the fact your knowledge base has improved conceptually.

If I asked any of you HOW to poach, when to poach, and where to poach, each one of you could verbatim regurgitate everything your coaches have ever told you.  Likewise, if I asked where do you need to be on offense or defense on the court in a one-up one-back situation, most of you could easily tell me the answer.   Your conceptual knowledge of where to be, what to do, and where to hit is not the problem.  Not in the least.  Instead, your problem is recognizing when to make a move, making the quick decision at match pace, and then just trusting yourself.  That, in a nutshell is what instincts are.

So what is the answer to your poor instincts?  How can we get you to tap into all that great knowledge your tennis coaches have been feeding you?  The answer?  Super fast paced point play with four to five extra balls to keep the points going that also increases the pace of play and raises your intensity level four to five times above what you tap into for one point in a match.  Feedback only given between points, and during points only helpful "trouble" commands to help you recognize when your opponent is in trouble.  Such drills confuse the brain, and force you to speed up your decision making processes, thus speeding up your reaction to stimuli and improving your instincts.

Such "lessons" should be 60 to 90 minutes long.  You will get exhausted.  The side benefit to such workouts is your physical fitness will improve tremendously.  Long points will no longer be making you tired.

After at least one to two months do such lessons, you should see an improvement in your attempts and successes poaching, as well as you ability to move to the correct location on the court for each potential situation.  All because you sped up your reactions and decision making time.  The result will be better overall play, fewer errors, and more wins.