The Agony Of Australian

[Cindysphinx]

My team is going to sectionals. During today's practice, one of the ladies gave a scouting report on some of the opponents. She said that a certain doubles pair we will likely face comes unhinged when faced with Australian.

I thought, "Oh, boy. We should practice Australian some, so we'll be ready." When it was my turn to serve, I suggested to my partner that we try Australian. We played regular formation for the first point to the deuce court.

Then I asked my partner to set up for Australian for the second point. She took up a position on the center line and began to crouch. So that is my first question: Is that a form of Australian formation? Or does Australian always mean you line up on the same side of the court?

Since that wasn't what I meant by Australian, I told her to stand in the middle of the ad box, facing the returner. That is my next question: Was I right? Should she be closer to the net than the middle of the box? Closer to the middle? Closer to the sideline?

We played out the game with her doing Australian when we served to the ad court. I lost my serve (for the usual reason that causes me to lose my serve -- groundstroke errors from me). Afterward, one of our opponents said our Australian was too "predictable." I wasn't sure what to make of this. Is there any validity to the criticism? If so, what can we do to be less predictable if we decide to use Australian at sectionals?

Also, my partner asked me what she was supposed to do. I said she was responsible for any crosscourt, wide balls. I also said she should look to pick off any floaters, but she should not expect to be able to reach a good groundstroke from our opponents because the opponent would likely go down the line. I said I was responsible for all lobs, regardless of direction. I didn't say anything about middle balls, because I don't know the answer. My guess would be that she is responsible for middle balls because these will be angling away from me, especially if I am crossing to the deuce court.

Whew. Am I off base on any of this?

 

[LuckyR]

As usual: it depends. I usually play Aussie from closer to the center of the court. This would be similar to the I formation if the server was on the other side. However, it isn't the I formation because I am not darting to one side or the other. I am responsible for my side. I play closer to the center than average because it squeezes the returner since I have good court coverage and I am "giving away" the extreme CC return angle. If the netman plays in the center of the court there is a hole up the middle especially if the server has serious wheels and can make it all of the way over to cover the opposite side and is choosing to stay on the baseline. This is less of a problem if the server is playing S&V (where the vulnerability will be in the server's alley).

IMO, either player can get lobs into the opposite corner, but personally, even though I play many lob experts, I set up deeper than average at the net so I rarely see lobs on returns.

As for the middle, I line up there so those are mine and since the Aussie is an excellent poaching position, I will get balls towards the middle on the other side.

"Predictable" doesn't mean anything to me, you'll have to ask those guys what they mean by that.

 

[OrangePower]

When we play Aussie, I tend to stand more towards the center of the court but still in the service box - maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of the way over towards the middle. We use signals similar to regular formation (stay or poach).

We we play I-formation, I stand pretty much right in the middle between the service boxes. Signals are left and right.

Generally, my experience has been that the real value of both Aussie and I is as a change-up from regular formation, to prevent opponents from getting into a groove with crosscourt returns, and to give them a different look. When we've tried to stick with Aussie or I for a whole match, usually the opponents get the hang of it and it loses effectiveness, and actually becomes less effective than regular formation. But YMMV.

 

[Wakenslam]

I'm not really sure what the "traditional Autralian" formation is, but here's what my partner and I sometimes do to keep our opponents from grooving on our serves.

On my serve, we do nothing unusual unless I get broken. Then, on my next service game we start using hand signals. He typically only poaches once or twice per game, and almost always on the deuce side, giving him a forehand volley. I serve and volley about 80% of the time.

On his serve, we also do nothing unusual unless he gets broken. Then, on his next service game we play austrailian in the ad side. I line up RIGHT up against the net, exactly on the middle line, and crouch down. We use a hand signal to determine which side I am going to, and we always mix it up.

The problem I have with Aussie is it seems to take away the serve and volley. Perhaps someone can shed some light on how to do both effectively at the same time.

 

[Steady Eddy]

My team is going to sectionals. During today's practice, one of the ladies gave a scouting report on some of the opponents. She said that a certain doubles pair we will likely face comes unhinged when faced with Australian.

I thought, "Oh, boy. We should practice Australian some, so we'll be ready." When it was my turn to serve, I suggested to my partner that we try Australian. We played regular formation for the first point to the deuce court.

Then I asked my partner to set up for Australian for the second point. She took up a position on the center line and began to crouch. So that is my first question: Is that a form of Australian formation? Or does Australian always mean you line up on the same side of the court?

Standing in the middle is the "I" formation. To use it well you'd need signals because you don't want to stay like that for the point.

Since that wasn't what I meant by Australian, I told her to stand in the middle of the ad box, facing the returner. That is my next question: Was I right? Should she be closer to the net than the middle of the box? Closer to the middle? Closer to the sideline?

Depends. If she sucks have her stand over on the sideline.

We played out the game with her doing Australian when we served to the ad court. I lost my serve (for the usual reason that causes me to lose my serve -- groundstroke errors from me).

I thought they were supposed to be come "unhinged"?

Afterward, one of our opponents said our Australian was too "predictable."

That's not the point of Australian. Some people get that crosscourt return grooved in doubles, and this forces them to return the serve to a different spot.

I've heard that the "Australian" formation is called the "American" formation in Austraila. Anyone reading this from Austrailia who can verify this?

 

[ubermeyer]

I thought that "Australian doubles" is when one player is far above in skill level than two other players. The one player is alone on one side, and only gets to hit to the singles court. The other two are on the other side and can hit in the alleys as well. It is an informal style of tennis and normally the player by themselves is at least 2 NTRP levels above the other 2.

So... I don't understand what this question is all about.

 

[Steady Eddy]

I thought that "Australian doubles" is when one player is far above in skill level than two other players. The one player is alone on one side, and only gets to hit to the singles court. The other two are on the other side and can hit in the alleys as well. It is an informal style of tennis and normally the player by themselves is at least 2 NTRP levels above the other 2.

So... I don't understand what this question is all about.

I know what you'e talking about. In Minnesota we called this "Canadian Doubles", in Arizona it's called "Australian Doubles". We do it when there are 3 and we're waiting for the 4th. The lone player doesn't have to be stronger. He serves one game while alone. After that, we rotate, but whoever is alone against the other two gets to serve. We usually only track the point score, not the game score.

The Australian Formation is when the partner of the server stands on the same side as the server. Now the other side needs to go DTL instead of CC. It's not a bad thing to try if the returner is killing you with his returns. See if he's as good going down the line. What have you got to lose?

 

[spot]

I love Australian on the Ad side so much I can't even tell you. I'd tell her that its her job to take away the crosscourt return. Go ahead and give them a wicked angle crosscourt shot- Make them show that they can hit that and adjust if they can. (but very few people actually can)

Personally the only time I think crouching is helpful is when you are doing an I formation and giving signals on which side the net person will pop over to.

People mistake that australian is not a poaching formation. One of the best thigns is that people tend ot just guide the ball up the line since they have to hit the ball over the higher part of the net to the shorter part of the court. That lets the net person poach on their forehand side and its usually an easy putaway.