Doubles partners

[kevhen]

Played 4 sets of doubles with 4 different partners last night and noticed something.

Many weaker players don't realize they should guard their alley but instead crowd the center and then get burned in the alley or end up missing the volley while in the center of the court. If you are weaker than you partner, get out of the way! Guard you alley, let your partner take balls up the middle. Your opponents will pick on you enough without you making yourself an even bigger target.

The other thing I found annoying was their insistence to get to net despite them having poor volley skills. They also went in behind very weak approaches and then got easily passed. You don't have to go to net! Go to net behind a good shot or learn that you can play defense at the baseline with your partner and wait for the opportunity to advance to net.

OK, I am done. Subbed in a doubles league with mostly 3.5 players last night.

 

[safin_protege]

It is very amateur to "guard the alley." The best doubles players guard the center and force their opponents to hit to the outsides of the court.

 

[mislav]

It is very amateur to "guard the alley." The best doubles players guard the center and force their opponents to hit to the outsides of the court.

Not sure about this. True, I'm only 3.0, but play against various oponents of which some are 4.0 and often kill them with my fh and bh parallels through their unguarded alleys. Even with some cross court shots to their alleys.

I think it's much easier to guard the center then the alleys in doubles game. Thus I tend to emphasize alleys a bit more.

 

[kevhen]

I am talking about when a 3.0 plays with a 4.0. The 3.0 should guard the alley and let the 4.0 cover 2/3 of the court if they want to beat two 3.5s.

I didn't say anything to these guys about staying 'home' since I wasn't planning to play with them after that night, but if I was going to partner with them on a continuing basis I would have talked to them about just building a wall on their side. The stronger, quicker player can cover more court and be the aggressive one and handle everything up the middle, but these guys were crowding the middle, getting burned down the line, and messing up on easy shots to the middle. When you play with a stronger player, guard the line, play solid, and get out of the way of your partner. I do the that when playing with 4.5s.

 

[kevhen]

It is very amateur to "guard the alley." The best doubles players guard the center and force their opponents to hit to the outsides of the court.

Yes and these aren't the best doubles players. They should let their stronger partner take the ones up the middle instead of charging and crowding the net and messing up time and time again.

Martina Navritalova knows what I am talking about. She does the same when playing mixed with Leander Paes. She builds a solid wall on her side and lets Leander make the big shots.

 

[Rickson]

I play doubles fairly well if my partner's a decent player, but if my partner is a bad player with short groundstrokes, my game turns to porridge. I went undefeated in singles last year, winning over 100 matches, but I had around a 50% win/loss ratio in doubles. I can't compensate for a bad partner's shortcomings, but I'm trying to find a way. Kev, just poach as many shots as you can and try to hold every one of your serve games no matter how frustrated your partner gets you. If you can at least hold your own serve, you can control a small portion of the doubles match.

 

[Kathy]

When the better player has a decent play on center shots, the weaker player should let him take them. I don't understand people who decide NOT to play to win just to prove a falsehood for their shaky ego -- that they're just as good as their partner. (In fact that's why I say playing to win is the only thing -- leave your ego out of it, because it makes you do stupid stuff.)

There are times, however, when the better player is in a bad position (e.g., back by the service line after having fallen back to hit an overhead). Then the weaker player may well be the right one to take the shot.

Also, you will have no real "team" unless you give the weaker player a relevant and important roll to play on it. This is the magic ingredient in successful partnerships. I have never found a player who didn't do something well enough to use it in a match. When that weaker player knows you're depending on him for that, he will eagerly rise to the challenge and do it well. That's how you get the best out of people.

The roles of BOTH partners should be mutually dependent, so that you each can count on your partner doing something that helps YOU succeed. For example, if you're a much better volleyer and he's good at getting a sharp angle on crosscourt drives, have him run the opposing back-player with sharply angled crosscourt drives. Result: you get floaters to kill at the net. And your partner is glad about your success if he knows you appreciate that he's setting you up by what he's doing.

Again, that's how you get the best out of people. And their best is all they owe you.

The old "Stay out of the way" line will cost you more points than it will save. On a team, you never do anything to lower your partner's morale and self confidence. Never. Do that to the opposition, instead.

I do like the idea of having him construct a "wall" on his side of the court. That's an important roll for him to play.

There are times when you guard your alley, and times when you don't. Getting burned down the alley is the result of not anticipating the Angle of Return. See here for when you need to guard your alley and when you don't:

http://www.operationdoubles.com/judgingtheangleofreturn.htm

And here's some advice on judging how closely to guard your alley:

http://www.operationdoubles.com/howmuchtoriskyouralley.htm

See also:

http://www.operationdoubles.com/angleofreturn.htm

Kathy K
www.operationdoubles.com

 

[Kathy]

One more thing. At net, you should always confront the opposition with a choice: make them choose whether to go for your alley or the center. So, to some extent, you're always tempting them them with your alley. Of course, weaker players shouldn't get as far from their alleys as strong players can, but all players must be an active pest when at net. Even if they WANT most shots to go to their stronger partner.

Choices = pressure = errors. Over the course of a match it matters a lot when you figure that reversing 15% of the points would turn most losses to wins.

And if a guy is missing a lot of volleys, he can choke up on his racket a bit and see marked improvement. That and not overplaying volleys is the key.

Kathy K.

www.operationdoubles.com

 

[safin_protege]

Yes and these aren't the best doubles players. They should let their stronger partner take the ones up the middle instead of charging and crowding the net and messing up time and time again.

Martina Navritalova knows what I am talking about. She does the same when playing mixed with Leander Paes. She builds a solid wall on her side and lets Leander make the big shots.

Watch the Bryan brothers play doubles- or any top team for that matter. The best players serve or attack the center of their opponents court and then guard the middle. This closes the middle and forces the opponents to hit at them or hit a low-percentage shot out wide.

 

[Kathy]

Watch the Bryan brothers play doubles- or any top team for that matter. The best players serve or attack the center of their opponents court and then guard the middle. This closes the middle and forces the opponents to hit at them or hit a low-percentage shot out wide.

Yes, esepcially when under attack from a Both-Up team. The net is higher, the court is shorter, and the sidelines are perilously closer on a DTL shot. At all levels of tennis, 60% of points fall on errors. So, the percentages are important. Unless you have a good reason not to on any particular shot, hit the percentage shot. If you don't do that now, and start doing it tommorrow, it will make a big difference in the W/L column (presuming you're playing people in your league).

Plus, unless you feed an opponent a sharp Angle of Return, he doesn't have one. When you center the ball, you deny a return down your alley. That extra few feet in the alleys has a huge effect on the angles possible in doubles.

Kathy K
www.operationdoubles.com

 

[ohplease]

When the better player has a decent play on center shots, the weaker player should let him take them. I don't understand people who decide NOT to play to win just to prove a falsehood for their shaky ego -- that they're just as good as their partner. (In fact that's why I say playing to win is the only thing -- leave your ego out of it, because it makes you do stupid stuff.)

There are times, however, when the better player is in a bad position (e.g., back by the service line after having fallen back to hit an overhead). Then the weaker player may well be the right one to take the shot.

Also, you will have no real "team" unless you give the weaker player a relevant and important roll to play on it. This is the magic ingredient in successful partnerships. I have never found a player who didn't do something well enough to use it in a match. When that weaker player knows you're depending on him for that, he will eagerly rise to the challenge and do it well. That's how you get the best out of people.

The roles of BOTH partners should be mutually dependent, so that you each can count on your partner doing something that helps YOU succeed. For example, if you're a much better volleyer and he's good at getting a sharp angle on crosscourt drives, have him run the opposing back-player with sharply angled crosscourt drives. Result: you get floaters to kill at the net. And your partner is glad about your success if he knows you appreciate that he's setting you up by what he's doing.

Again, that's how you get the best out of people. And their best is all they owe you.

The old "Stay out of the way" line will cost you more points than it will save. On a team, you never do anything to lower your partner's morale and self confidence. Never. Do that to the opposition, instead.

I do like the idea of having him construct a "wall" on his side of the court. That's an important roll for him to play.

There are times when you guard your alley, and times when you don't. Getting burned down the alley is the result of not anticipating the Angle of Return. See here for when you need to guard your alley and when you don't:

http://www.operationdoubles.com/judgingtheangleofreturn.htm

And here's some advice on judging how closely to guard your alley:

http://www.operationdoubles.com/howmuchtoriskyouralley.htm

See also:

http://www.operationdoubles.com/angleofreturn.htm

Kathy K
www.operationdoubles.com

Nice post.

Your job in doubles is to set your team up for the spike. Period. If your net man is being picked on or burned up the line, odds are YOU aren't doing a good enough job keeping your partner out of harm's way. Your partners seem to know what they should be doing, and where they should be standing. As the better player, you should be setting them up to execute, not telling them to get out of the way.

Being the guy an opposing team keeps the ball away from isn't fun - but it does mean that when you do get a chance to get involved, you do so in a different way and with a different purpose than if you were playing with a partner at about the same level.

 

[Bungalo Bill]

Played 4 sets of doubles with 4 different partners last night and noticed something.

Many weaker players don't realize they should guard their alley but instead crowd the center and then get burned in the alley or end up missing the volley while in the center of the court. If you are weaker than you partner, get out of the way! Guard you alley, let your partner take balls up the middle. Your opponents will pick on you enough without you making yourself an even bigger target.

The other thing I found annoying was their insistence to get to net despite them having poor volley skills. They also went in behind very weak approaches and then got easily passed. You don't have to go to net! Go to net behind a good shot or learn that you can play defense at the baseline with your partner and wait for the opportunity to advance to net.

OK, I am done. Subbed in a doubles league with mostly 3.5 players last night.

Kevhen,

I am having a hard time buying into this plan. I guess I understand that having the weaker player "guard the alley" may work at a low level of doubles. But this is hardly teamwork and you basically cause the other "4.0" player to cover more court that he can bargain for. A 4.0 player in my opinion is not Hewitt. If the other team has any sense at all, they will work the 4.0 player and cause him to make a lot of errors.

In doubles, guarding the middle is most important since this is the low part of the net and gives your opponents opportunity. Allowing some alley to be "open" is okay because there is a higher chance for error if they go there.

When a ball is coming through the middle, it is the player diagonol to the ball that should take the middle ball. You did bring up that the team had an obvious "better player". Maybe you are right that he should take "all" middle balls. I really can't say, as I was not there to see what was really happening.

Anyway, the advice for doubles still stands about the middle of the court being most important. I subscribe to the doubles team philosophy that the player diagnol to the opponent hitting the ball to the middle has the middle ball.

Here are my questions:

1. did the lesser player understand what they should have been doing? Was the 4.0 player hitting the ball in such a way to favor his team or was he hitting like a singles player?

2. Did the 4.0 player play most of his balls up the middle? Serves too? This would greatly help the lesser player.

3. What else could they have done besides isolating the lesser player?

 

[sureshs]

I also used to think that cover the middle, react to the alley was the correct way. Then I got another piece of advice: follow the ball and move accordingly. If the ball is deep near one corner, many amateur players will try to sneak one up the line. They will also do that on wide serves. In such cases, I move slightly towards the alley if I am the netman.

Maybe just the fact that I move forces an error!

 

[Pomeranian]

Don't get angry, upset or think any less of your partner if he makes an error or a mistake. An error is going for the right shot but as humans do, missing it. A mistake is going for the wrong shot, regardless of whether you make it or not. I believe taking all the middle shots and just letting your partner is a mistake. I could be wrong, but I'm sure there were exploitable moments where you partner should have taken advantage. Just letting your partner gaurd his ally, keeps him out of the game, reduces his confidence, and leaves the court open. If they can't volley, just tell them "It might be best to stay at the baseline, they have pretty good passing shost" or something like that.

You should be able to help your partner use his best strengths if you're the better player. If you just decide that since you are the superior player just let him gaurd the alley, then a doubles match would be pointless. You wouldn't be playing doubles. You would be playing a game where one man gets a small strip of land while another gets a whole court, like 2 people playing singles.

 

[fabulousxp]

Don't get angry, upset or think any less of your partner if he makes an error or a mistake.

I agree, when my partner and i are down, she goes ballistic and starts making this groaning/huffing sounds at me, as if it were my fault. makes me uncomfortable

 

[mislav]

I agree, when my partner and i are down, she goes ballistic and starts making this groaning/huffing sounds at me, as if it were my fault. makes me uncomfortable

Well, some partners choose to whine and give up instead of trying to play better.

 

[slewisoh]

I hope that if you are ever in a similar situation you will share some of your knowledge with the lesser player rather than relegating them to the dbls alley. Your partners know you are the superior player and would have probably appreciated a few tips from you.

I am a 3.5 player, and I would agree that many of us have the deficiences you described. Over the past year I have been learning 1) to execute a finishing volley through the middle of the opposing team, 2) to hit low, deep volleys when approaching, and 3) when serving, to use spin and placement to allow for good approach to net. These things probably sound pretty basic to more advanced players, but I'm sure that at some point you had to learn these skills too.

Just a year ago I was hitting wild, angled volleys at the net (mostly out) and hitting flat, hard serves out wide - sound familiar? Your partners probably have not yet learned the value of centering the ball, both in serving and in setting up the net player.

You could have easily demonstrated the value of setting up your partner with centered serves and shots, but instead you seemed to set YOURSELF up by pulling your partner to the alley to cover your wide angled shots, leaving you to hit winners from the middle. That's certainly a valid and effective strategy, but when done repeatedly it establishes a negative tone for your so-called "partnership".

Maybe they will give you another chance!

 

[safin_protege]

I also used to think that cover the middle, react to the alley was the correct way. Then I got another piece of advice: follow the ball and move accordingly. If the ball is deep near one corner, many amateur players will try to sneak one up the line. They will also do that on wide serves. In such cases, I move slightly towards the alley if I am the netman.

Maybe just the fact that I move forces an error!

Yes, some shifting is necessary, but still, the best players attack the center of their opponents' court. A slice serve out wide on the deuce side or a sharply angled forhand are rarely hit: they leave the returning player too many options.