Grew up with singles, gravitated to doubles in my 40's. Liking doubles more every year. Starting to feel singles is a stupid game. You can get away with so much in singles that you can't in doubles. Whereas the only thing you can get away with in doubles is a lack of fitness. In singles you can win with strokes that would get destroyed in dubs.
One of our problems here at Hotel TTW is we only define good strokes based on technique. So a good stroke here for example here is an ATP FH with full unit turn, full k chain, full shoulder/hip separation, big pace and spin ... yada yada yada. I would guess 95% of all the 4.5s and 5.0s I ever played in tournaments or USTA would fail that TTW test. Also beat most giving the test
. If you measure “good strokes” based on winning/results ... the common element is players that don’t miss much ... particularly UEs. Doesn’t matter if it’s a short stroke ... lots of arm, etc if player can 1) not miss 2) hit where they are trying to 3) handle pace (whatever) the opponents at their level is throwing at them ... good results.
So in that context of “good” strokes, and rec singles vs rec doubles (say 5.0 and lower) ... IMO and experience “fuller strokes closer to ttw definitions” are much more important in singles than doubles.
This is what I mean. Singles is a game of point construction ... a game of running your opponent, a game of hitting to alternating corners, hitting behind a fast opponent recovering back to center from corner, etc. A full stroke with topspin simply gives you a higher ceiling. The guy that doesn’t miss with short flat strokes will still kick your butt unless the full stroke topspin player is their equal + more offense (angles, heavy ball, etc).
Doubles is none of that. It’s hit to the open side, cc drill, don’t give net guy sitters, no running opponent to corners. The skills are simply different in doubles. So to “pushers getting killed in doubles but not singles”. Here is what I ran into moving to doubles after being a successful singles player (s&v ... avg baseline but not pusher). I ran into veteran doubles players with accurate avg pace serves, moderate pace short strokes that kept the ball low and away from net guy and hardly missed ros, didn’t poach much but did their job (didn’t miss volleys, didn’t miss their overheads, lethal lob if needed but only plan B). These were guys I would beat 6-1, 6-1 in singles, and yet I would lose to them in doubles. Maddening... particularly since I had a quality serve, volley and overhead from s&v singles tournaments. One of the biggest skill deficits was ros. In singles, you are seldom hurt from any low ros ... I 1hbh block/sliced at will. I eventually was successful with that same bh block/slice in doubles, but it took a long time adjusting to the narrowed ros window. I think the volley skills are also much different. Much more reaction volleys in doubles, and in singles I set the volley up before I got their. You can be a top 4.5 singles s&v player by being skilled with first volley (service line) and easy block volley to open court (or short) at the net.
So ... depends how one defines “good strokes” ... I think it’s more about different low UE skills with singles and dubs. To this day, I view doubles less in my control than singles. That’s why I said earlier in the thread ... beat me in singles and you have a win over me. Beat me in doubles ... doesn’t count.
