Advice About Poaching In Doubles

Poaching may be one of the scariest moves you’ll make on the tennis court, but to be a good doubles player, it’s essential that you learn to do it well.


1) Position: Stand right in the middle of the service box. In this position you are right in front of the returner, who will immediately consider you more of a threat. You are also in position to intercept any return not hit perfectly crosscourt.


2) Your Stance:  Lower your center of gravity by widening your feet and bending your knees. In this stance you will be more balanced and able to push off to go in either direction, right or left.  It also allows you to stay lower and keep your  body below the ball when volleying.  Think about the ball, racquet and your head all at the same level when you make contact with the tennis ball.


3) Timing:  Take off for your poach either just before or right as the returner is hitting the ball. This way you are making your move when the returner is concentrating on hitting the ball so they won’t notice you (or even better, notice you and make an error on the return).  When you see your partners serve cross the receivers service line you can start your move.


4) Direction: Always move diagonally toward the net.  By moving forward as well, your momentum helps you punch the volley, helping to resist the urge to take the racket back for power.  


5) Strategy:  Great volley technique is not about power but about placement.  If you swing at the tennis ball to generate power you will often be late (hitting the ball long) or early (hitting the ball into the net),  Block the ball away from your opponent into the open court or down at their feet.

Federer "Point Of Contact, The Eyes Have It"

"Revolutionary Tennis" has written an article that discusses, what they believe to be, Roger Federer's technique in hitting tennis balls. In short, they believe he looks at the back of the racquet to see contact with the tennis ball. After giving this some thought, you may find it something you might want to try. It certainly is easier if you use a western or semi-western grip but it is also possible to do with the eastern or continental grip (continental being the most difficult).

If you are not familiar with these different grips and the advantages and disadvantages of each please leave a comment and "CTP" will discuss each style.


In the process of looking for ball/racquet contact as seen from the back of the racquet a few advantages come to mind:


1) The stroke is longer before making contact giving the racquet more racquet head speed equaling more ball speed.

2) The player is forced to develop quicker set up skills since the swing has to be initiated earlier.

3) If the player is late he still has time to make contact in front of or even with their front hip which is closest to the net.

4) You will, in time, more than likely hit more balls in the center of the racquet. 

Tennis Getting In “The Zone”

Whether you have perfect strokes or not you can improve your game and raise your level of play by improving your minds focus.  Most players at one time or another have experienced being in “The Zone” or sometimes it is called “Being Treed”.  It is almost an out of body experience when you have this feeling of confidence that you are controlling destiny.  Time seems to slow down and you can enjoy the event because you know that the outcome is going to be in your favor.

An excellent but involved article discussing the thought process that helps you reach this state of mind was written by Robert Nideffer, Ph.D..  It is called "Calming The Mind So The Body Can Perform" and it discusses our ability to focus on broad/narrow external things and broad/narrow internal things.  As it relates to tennis external would be (broad) your surroundings and (narrow) your shot, internal it would be (broad) comparing previous experiences and (narrow) analysis of shot being hit.

A bit deep but if you would like to read the entire article you can click on this link: Tennis Getting In "The Zone"

How to Analyze Your Opponent During A WarmUp

Nick Bollettieri has provided the following information to assist you in understanding an opponent you are getting ready to play for the first time. What would other players say about your game before they played you?

Stroke Preferences

Hit your shots down the middle of the court and see if your opponent favors one side over the other. For example, do they run around their backhand to hit their forehand every time?

Strokes

Does your opponent practice all the strokes in the warm-up? Some players will skip volleys or overheads all together. Others will only hit one or two balls before changing to something else. This could give you an indication as to their strengths and weaknesses. *Hint: Players typically warm up with their strengths.

Volleying

Hit your groundstrokes to them and determine where they stand on the court. Do they come forward to the ball? Are they aggressive? Include a few lobs, hitting a few over their opposite hitting shoulder and see if they come forward after the overhead.

Serving

Does your opponent only practice their first serve, blasting it all around the court? How many serves do they hit? Are they in control of their swing and can they control the ball? Does the ball seem to go in the same direction all the time or do they rotate the placement of their serve?

Studying your opponent in these four areas will give you an excellent read of your opponent’s game even before the match begins.

For Success In Tennis....

Modern Tennis Footwork

The following is a 30 minute program about "Footwork" used by professional players today.  The video is from the website "FuzzyYellowBalls" located in our directory on the right hand side of this page.

Basically it talks about a more fluid and continuous movement when you hit the ball with the body weight moving toward the net in a walking or skipping step or cross step motion.  Old school footwork required a weight transfer from the back foot to the front foot in a balanced position with a slight pause after contact then after the shot was hit you would allow your weight to transfer backwards to your back foot and regain your ready position.

All-in-all a good 30 minute lesson it is just a little slow for the first 5-7 minutes.  All levels will benefit from this video but more so the intermediate to advanced.  Click on this link: Modern Day Footwork

Test Your Tennis Knowledge

Here are a few questions for fun to test your tennis knowledge...  Just click on comments to answer one or more questions...

(1) What do you want to accomplish with your groundstroke?
(2) What do you want to accomplish with your volley?
(3) There are three basic tennis grips, what are they?
(4) How hard should you hit your average strokes on a percentage basis?
(5) Can you name four types of serves?
(6) Is your tennis game more like checkers or chess?

We will check some of your answers against some of the pros answers.... so click on comments and let's get started...

 

7 Tips To Better Doubles

Tip #1: Be certain when committing...

Don’t commit to a doubles partnership until you are certain your combination is the best fit for both of you.

Tip #2: Study and emulate the pros:

Constant communication is the single biggest weapon for doubles players
Supporting each other is a willingness to forgive quickly - for your mistakes and your partner’s
Adjusting positions especially on serve and return of serve
Recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of each player

Tip #3: Choose complimentary styles of play

Create a team where the players compliment -- not compete against -- each other. For example, if one is a big server, choose a partner who is a big returner or is an aggressive volleyer. Remember that great men and women singles players don’t always make great doubles players.

Tip #4: Consider personality traits when creating a doubles team

A team can have all of the talent and weapons in the world, but if they are not playing “together” and supporting each other, especially after blowing a big point, any success as a doubles team will be limited and short lived.  Great doubles players are capable of thinking in terms of “team” versus “self” -- not a skill common in tennis players.

Tip #5: Constantly seek self-improvement

We all tend to gravitate towards our strengths and often plateau as a player because we stop working on improving our weaknesses. This is especially true with doubles players as they become dependent on their partners to come to their “rescue.”

As the old saying goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. It won’t take long for your opponents to exploit your weaknesses and formulate strategies to expose them. Make sure your chain is as strong as it possibly can be and then strengthen it even more.

Tip #6: Know the nature of the beast

In pro doubles, most of the intense action is down the center of the court. Whereas on a club level, the action tends to be more on the outsides of the court.

If you have a strong forehand and weak backhand at the club level, playing the deuce side will be more effective. If you play the ad side, you won’t have the same opportunities.

Tip #7: There is no “easy” side of play

Just remember that one of the most difficult shots in both doubles and singles is the inside-out backhand return of serve, and it’s equally difficult during a baseline rally.

Hold on to any partner that can really play the deuce side -- they are worth their weight in gold.

Join And Send Your Pictures

If you have pictures of you and your friends playing tennis or a team picture you can submit those pictures to our blog.  Please add names just in case we can add them to the pictures at a later date. Send your pictures to CourtsideCoach@Gmail.com.