What I learned from doubles pros at Indian Wells

[socallefty]

I’ve been trying to execute in my doubles game a couple of things I saw the ATP pros do in doubles at Indian Wells earlier this month and it is turning out to be highly effective.

- The return team uses poach signals before the serve and when they signal a poach, the returner and returner’s partner switch sides after the return. So, when the returner’s partner moves to the other side at the net, the server is forced to hit a DTL volley instead of a crosscourt volley or his ball gets poached at the net. I’ve started doing it at least once a game when I return and it is causing a lot of confusion to our opponents with my partner getting a lot of easy poaches when he crosses. No one usually uses poach signals on return points in rec tennis and so, opponents are not used to it at all and I can see that even their first serve-% goes down as they are thinking about what we are doing instead of their usual pre-serve routine.
- The server’s net partner starts moving explosively forward as soon as his partner’s first serve lands in the box and is in position to poach a lot more. I used to do this, but waited a split second longer to see if my partner hit a good 1st serve. Now, that I am executing this move earlier, I find that not only do I poach more closer to the net with an easier volley, but the returners are seeing me with their peripheral vision, trying to avoid me and missing many more crosscourt returns. Also, opponents are trying to hit behind me or at me more often after a few games and either missing returns or giving me volleys that I can put away. My partners are holding serve easily as long as they get a high % of first serves in.

I recommend trying this if you play 4.5+ levels of doubles where your partner has a good serve and opponents are tough to break often. While we can’t play like the pros, we can learn from their aggressive tactics.

 

[ballmachineguy]

Yeah, but……doubles?

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Yeah, but……doubles!!!

FTFY


Overwhelmed / intimidated by the increase complexity of 2 vs 2? Also important to note that singles is a seriously lacking in chest bumping. This feature of doubles can often make MxD quite enjoyable

 

[eah123]

I only play at a 3.0/3.5 level. In watching Ian Westermann of Essential Tennis, I noticed he and his partner (4.5) determine the play for both first and second serve BEFORE the first serve verbally, instead of using hand signals. I think this is true for a lot of pro doubles teams, too. I'm doing this now with my partners, and I think it is much better. This reduces the distraction of deciding/reading/confirming hand signals, provides better flow between first and second serve, and overall has given me better results.

 

[socallefty]

I only play at a 3.0/3.5 level. In watching Ian Westermann of Essential Tennis, I noticed he and his partner (4.5) determine the play for both first and second serve BEFORE the first serve verbally, instead of using hand signals. I think this is true for a lot of pro doubles teams, too. I'm doing this now with my partners, and I think it is much better. This reduces the distraction of deciding/reading/confirming hand signals, provides better flow between first and second serve, and overall has given me better results.

Are you and your partners able to execute well after using hand or verbal signals at that level? Genuinely curious because when I occasionally play with 4.0 partners, they generally struggle to locate their first serve accurately as called, they aim for the whole box to put their second serve (can’t use signals in that case) and when I call intentional poaches often off their serve, many of them struggle to move to cover the other side of the court quickly without getting breathless after doing it a few times.

If they call intentional poaches off my serve, they often move way too late to poach (using same timing as normal without poach signal) effectively. Not to mention that many of them get stressed to locate their serve as per the hand signal and their first serve % goes down especially late in close sets or if 4.5 opponents are teeing off on returns. I’ve found that with weaker partners, they play better without signals as they feel less pressure.

 

[eah123]

Are you and your partners able to execute well after using hand or verbal signals at that level? Genuinely curious because when I occasionally play with 4.0 partners, they generally struggle to locate their first serve accurately as called, they aim for the whole box to put their second serve (can’t use signals in that case) and when I call intentional poaches often off their serve, many of them struggle to move to cover the other side of the court quickly without getting breathless after doing it a few times.

If they call intentional poaches off my serve, they often move way too late to poach (using same timing as normal without poach signal) effectively. Not to mention that many of them get stressed to locate their serve as per the hand signal and their first serve % goes down especially late in close sets or if 4.5 opponents are teeing off on returns. I’ve found that with weaker partners, they play better without signals as they feel less pressure.

With verbal call, yes, with hand signals not so much. I do not call a serve location - my partners are not good enough to hit a location and do not know how to adjust their play with the knowledge. Better to see where the serve goes and adjust. I try to put all serves down the T or body to keep it simple.

Then for the actual plays, it's Stay or Go (poach). If they know how, I add Fake (fake poach), and Aussie formation.

If they know they have to move to cover, they may serve closer to the center hash to make it easier. I think this is one of the big advantages of making a verbal call before the 1st serve - they don't need to adjust their serve position in response to a hand signal, and opponents don't notice if you are serving closer to the center.

Most players at 3.0-3.5 do not call plays. So when the opposing team calls and runs plays, they are very intimidated!