How to STEAL doubles points! (without cheating)

if you're tired of never getting the ball at the net and doubles and points lasting Forever Until a baseline player finally misses then you've clicked on exactly the Right video you're about to learn how to magically appear in exactly the right place at exactly the right time so that you can steal points from your opponents and level up your [Music] game first things first before we get to some Pro and amateur examples of doing it right and doing it wrong it's c crical to understand that the width of the court in doubles is much much bigger than most people understand or acknowledge take a guess in your head right now how wide do you think this is I'm going to give it in feet 36 feet wide which means that if you're this player right here that means that for you to cover the entire width there would need to be six of you at a six- foot wingspan to be able to cover the entire thing so I know you're probably saying to yourself well du y well the point is I think most doubles players are looking for some magical place they can stand just tell me should I stand here should I stand here should I stand here so that I can cover the whole thing and I don't have to worry about getting passed down the alley and I can pick off balls in the middle of the court and be a hero to my partner but the reality is that magical place does not exist there's no way for you to be a force in the center of the courts intercept balls pick off crosscourt shots without giving something up you can't be on your side of the court and your partner's side of the court at the same time and there needs to be six of you to cover the entire thing which means we have to give something up now that being said there's absolutely a way not to do this let's go ahead and look at that right now so let's look at how much Court she's actually covering here as the ball goes back and forth from Baseline player to Baseline player so we're going to draw a line here this kind of far left side that she's getting to then as she goes forwards okay we need to readjust that line so she's making it to this point then she's going back to the right so here's the furthest right she's gone so far is here okay now she's gone to here we're just kind of charting really quickly like how much court is she actually covering from right to left now she's going back and forth from offense to defense which is great but sooner or later okay we've got a new record here sooner or later if you want to be a force to be reckoned with in the center of the quartz we have to make some kind of bold move towards the middle and abandon the part of the court that we currently occupy and the way that she's moving right now from side to side she's only covering about 6 feet from one side of her range to the other side of her range and this is most of you this is most of you out there playing doubles is you're you're like doing some movement and you're like oh yeah I know like I need to try to like be involved and like get in the way a little bit but if shot after shot after shot the furthest you ever break out of your normal kind of home base position is like 3 feet to one side and 3 feet to the other side all your all your opponent is going to do is use all of this real estate over here and of course they're not going to hit it to you because that Baseline player back on the other side knows that you hope you're going to get it and put the ball away and so they're going to do whatever they can to avoid you and as long as the real estate that you are occupying is only 6 feet from one side to the other you make it very very easy for your opponents to just hit everything in this spot you know anywhere in that like 25 ft range and they're good okay so now on the other end of the spectrum we're in the middle of a point here the ball is going back crosscourt to the other Baseline player now if you're if you are the Baseline player on the other side I want you to ask yourself the question would you ever hit this ball crosscourt so again other end of the spectrum and I want to I want to commend this player at the net for being brave here and doing something different and stepping outside of that little six foot you know rut that she was in before but she's starting from a position already pretty close to the center and like there's already a decent chunk of Real Estate behind her and with her body language she's making it very clear I am running this direction and so of course that Baseline player is going to hit this shot down the line remember we can't be in two places at once and it's a big court side to side so if you're visually showing that Baseline player your intentions too early then you just end up getting beat down the line and then you go you know your your partner gives you the evil eye and you just go back to covering your alley again and not doing any good for your team in the center of the courts here's another quick example of playing your hand too strongly I want you to watch the player in green here he's going to move forwards and on this actually make a really good move but he can't quite intercept the ball and so on his way back again he doesn't really make his way back to a neutral position and so when the next shot is about to get hit he only makes it back to as far as this and then goes right back to the middle again and now we've overplayed our hand left too much real estate open and this is where you get beat down the line there's the there's the Walk of Shame with the with the head hanging low so let's look at how to do this without giving up too much but also without being too tentative and too safe and just being a spectator and watching the ball go back and forth the entire match all right eyes are going to be on Bob bran right here his brother is hitting a return of serve right now return of serve makes it cross courts and as of this moment right here I want you to look at Bob's position he's slightly squeezed towards the middle and this is something that you're going to see across the board with world class highle doubles players is they give up a little bit of the alley and this is I mean this is just a great lesson this is a whole other video you don't want to cover the whole alley you do want to give some of the alley up so that you can have more of the center available to you I would say he's like 10% you know squeezed towards the middle which gives him a little bit more opportunity this is more or less his kind of home base now as the ball goes back across over here to the other Baseline player he's going to make a move towards the middle and I want you to look at how he times it you see this pivot step right here how his left foot now is pointing out to the side and he's pushing off of his planted right foot his right foot and look at this move towards the center right here I want you to look at how that move is timed with the swing of the player on the Baseline over here watch the pivot and the plant and that move you're going to notice that it's timed with the forward swing of the racket what does that mean what's the significance of that that means that this player once he starts swinging forwards has picked a Target because he has initiated the forward swing of his racket so he's already timed his swing with wherever he wants the ball to go and at that point even if he sees Bob it doesn't matter he can't retime his swing because he's already started it this is The Sweet Spot this is how you can be basically invisible to that Baseline player cuz as they begin that forward swing their eyes are on the ball could they see you in their peripheral vision yes but we actually kind of want that because it's going to be disruptive and it's going to be distracting to that Baseline player plus they've already started their swing so it's too late to change their mind in terms of like where the ball goes so this is the perfect time a bob began from a slightly aggressive position but he didn't sell himself out and begin in the middle and B he's in a neutral stance right now he's in a neutral body position and he doesn't really commit until the forward swing happens but notice that he is committing had this ball happened to be hit in this direction he would have been beat he is physically committing with that pivot to the middle and at that point he's saying you know what it's possible I might get beat here but I know based on past experience a whole lot of balls go through the middle so I'm going to give myself the opportunity to intercept a lot of those balls at the risk of getting beat down the alley like there's risk reward here even Bob Bryan can't cover the entire net at the same time he's giving something up in order to gain something higher percentage for that Baseline player which is a better opportunity for him now I want you to watch some three five players doing the exact same thing that Bob Bryan did right now the ball is traveling towards this Baseline player on the other side and we're going to keep our eyes on this net player right here and I want you how she sinks her timing towards the Middle with the forward swing so watch the forward swing of the Bas Hine player on the other side it's starting now you see how she's sliding towards the middle right as the racket starts moving forwards that's the magic timing that's going to get your body moving in the right direction and it gets her all the way over to the other side of the cour and she started from like a very conservative position right here she's actually a little bit closer to the alley than she is to the center still makes it all the way across to the other side of the Court by simply timing that move just right and gets her all the way across to the other side it's absolutely perfect timing you have to give something up if you want to be a great net player in doubles you can't have it both ways you can't perfectly cover your alley and be effective in the middle you can't you're going to have to give something up behind you and in exchange for being a forc to be reckoned with in the middle of the net and that means you're going to get beat sometimes and I'm about to make a whole other lesson just on that topic so so hold tight like if if that really sends alarm bells and you're like no no no I don't want to get beat I'm about to show you some more advanced tools and tactics in the next upload and I want you to experiment back at home with this little pocket of timing a don't stand too close to your alley you want to give some of it up B move right with the forward swing you're going to be absolutely blown away at how well this works make sure to come back and let me know how much fun it is thanks for watching I'll talk to you again next time

Channel: Essential Tennis - Lessons and Instruction for Passionate Players

Views: 16,444

Keywords: Essential Tennis, Ian Westermann, tennis, how to steal points in doubles - tennis lesson, essential tennis, ian westermann, doubles strategy, tennis doubles strategy, tennis doubles, tennis doubles lesson, tennis lesson, how to play doubles, doubles poaching, doubles, how to, doubles tactics, tennis strategy, instruction, tennis instruction, tennis doubles tips, doubles tennis, doubles strategy tennis, tennis doubles strategy and tactics, strategy, movement, lesson, tutorial

Id: JAjsO1V-5hs

Length: 11min 6sec (666 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 13 2024