Stop Standing HERE in Doubles! (why you’re losing)

all of these doubles points have one thing in common somebody didn't move to the right place which left a huge gap of court open unfortunately most Devil's players do this all the time which makes the game way too hard for themselves and way too easy for their opponents don't worry in this video I'm going to show you exactly where to move and when so you can start winning more doubles points and more doubles matches right away if that sounds good to you do me a favor click that like button and let's jump right into it we're going to look at some real life Point examples in just a second but first we've got to lay some groundwork I want you to imagine that in this point scenario this is the server this is the returner this is a service partner this is the returner's partner really quickly the players are positioned in these spots for a reason we know that the ball has to bounce in the service box first before the point can start which means that as the ball comes back to this defensive player back behind the Baseline hitting the return of serve this player up at the net is the first one every doubles point to have the opportunity to attack so when you watch a high level doubles players the service partner is usually trying to get as close as possible to the net to give themselves the best chance to intercept the ball they're the first attacking threat they're the first offensive truly offensive player on the courts then we have the returner's partner the reason why this person is close to the middle and back further around the service line is because if they go close to the net as well then what happens is we leave a huge chunk of court in the middle that's just primed and ready for the first person who's attacking so this is why we start and you see high level players begin in this position right here and so there's a lot of coverage of the center because most balls travel through the center of the court and doubles of course some go down the alley but statistically speaking most of them go through the middle so these Net players are simply giving themselves the best opportunity to be involved in the point now here's the thing if the returning player successfully avoids the server's partner and the ball travels over to the other side of the Court then what happens now is everything is flipped now the ball goes over this side bounces goes to a defensive player relatively speaking back away from the net back by the Baseline on the other side and now if these Net players want to have the best opportunity of winning the point they both need to shift this player needs to transition to get closer to the net to have the best chance of attacking and now the player who is just in attacking mode if they're smart is going to preemptively move back into a more defensive position because if they don't do that then what happens well if on the very next shot if this ball goes to the net player then there's a gigantic hole in the middle so when you watch very high quality high level doubles players they're The Net players are always moving somewhere as the ball travels back and forth so if the ball is over on this side of the Court this net player will be in a relatively defensive net position while this net player is in a relatively offensive net position and then if this Baseline player gets it across to the other Baseline player this player will go forwards to an offensive net position while this net player goes back to a defensive net position the reason why this is happening is there's a huge premium on the center of the courts and if at any point in time these players stop transitioning from defense to offense and offense to defense then they're leaving a huge chunk of court open in the center for the other attacking player to exploit now let's look at a real life example of this not happening so you can see how huge of a deal this is we've got server about to hit the ball here returner over here and I want to commend these players this is a pretty good start this is a really nice defensive net position which really gobbles up a ton of that Center Target which is kind of the Prime real estate that this service partner is going to want to hit you the Service Partners starting off in a pretty defensive position though there are more so covering the alley than they are covering the middle which leaves a lot of cord exposed for the returner to hit back Cross Court but that's a little bit of a side note it's not what we're focusing on here I want you to notice how when the serve goes into play and the point gets started when the return of serve gets hit and the returner does avoid the service partner watch the service partner so everything is about to shift and the returner's partner watch how he correctly comes forwards albeit a little bit early there's a little bit of a little bit of kind of bonus analysis here look at how he's already moving forwards before the ball even gets hit which means if this shot right here happens to go to the net player on the other side he's actively leaving the chunk of court that he's supposed to be guarding and so he's opening up a little bit too early here a really easy target for that other net player but other netplayer doesn't get this ball and so he continues going forwards into offense which is great but look at the net player on our side of the Court he's staying there staying there staying there and so what's happened is the two players on the other side of the Court have just transitioned forwards into being more offensive meanwhile he's just stayed right here in this circle and so when the ball travels over to this spot and he stands there what does that open up it opens up the easiest Target possible for the other side of the court so watch this play out watch the two players on the other side of the Court how they transition forwards and watch the net player on our side of the Court how he stands there and watches and so now by the time he recognizes what's going on here's the ball being hit on the other side and it's too late he should already be back in this position to guard the middle the key principle here is you cannot cover everything all at once something has to be left open so critical that you shut down the easiest Target so some of you might be saying as you're watching here well Ian he's just he's just guarding the angle and maybe that's his mentality but what's easier for this person attacking in the middle of the hit an angle that goes off the court or right dead center in the the middle of the Court hopefully you understand it's much easier to just hit the center of the chorus and so it's critical that you use your positioning wisely and you position yourself in the best spot to be able to cover the easiest shot and then force your opponent to try a little bit tougher one and if you can force your opponent to try a little bit tougher one then over the long run they're gonna make more mistakes instead of having this super easy now In fairness like this would have been put away shot anyway but hopefully you get the idea we're just illustrating how the middle got left wide open here and it absolutely should be the first thing to get covered now let's look at a little bit more subtle example but the exact same thing is happening now we have a server here return partner and I'm just gonna actually go ahead and play the point and I want you to see what happens here watch where the the ball goes away now let's break this down slowly so when this serve goes in play we'll get the direction the returner has to go the returner is getting stretched pretty aggressively off in this direction now a core rule of doubles positioning is follow the ball and anytime your partner gets pulled in One Direction you should be going with them otherwise something gets left open and that's something usually ends up being the middle so look at the response of that returning player's partner look at how when the returner gets stretched the returner's partner stands there and what that means is we have a widening gap between these two players and so this returner's partner is doing a great job of covering the middle if the ball actually kind of stays towards the middle but everything changes when the ball gets pulled and the partner gets pulled off the court now we have this widening gap between the two players and so what happens next is the returner just does his best just to kind of get the job back just to get the ball back in play does a good job of just playing a shot and now the middle is just wide open the easiest Target so the net player on the other side kind of has a choice here what well actually kind of three choices can either do nothing which is what he did and doesn't cover either position or can shift with his partner and shut down some of the center and what that does is leaves a little bit of the angle and the question you want to ask yourself is which is an easier Target is it easier to hit the dead center of the court or is it easier to angle the ball off the court well it's easier to hit the middle of the Court so that should be the decision he made he also um by the way if you play somebody who angles the ball a ton maybe you might want to shift in this direction but to be honest with you I wouldn't ever recommend just a totally like leaving the center open and going the opposite direction of your partner so in this scenario hopefully you can see that this the job of this net player was made dramatically Easier by the opposing net player doing nothing when the opposing net player watched his partner get stretched and he didn't do anything in response a big chunk of Court got opened that left an easy target and that left an easy volley if you're wondering why this is such a huge deal this is why big thank you to Warren at tennis analytics.net who sent me this data that he gathered over thousands of points from everyday doubles players just like you and me critical question we need to ask ourselves is how do most tennis points end and in doubles this is analysis of 3 5 and 4-0 ladies players and 3 5 and 4-0 men's players and if you look at this analysis you'll see that best case scenario about 20 or one out of five of our points are ending with somebody hitting a winner and the other four out of five points are ending with somebody making a mistake an error of some kind so if we're not really really good at standing in the right spot and moving and shifting with the point with the ball and big chunks of quarter of getting opened and exposed for our opponents to hit you the chances of them hitting a winner go way up when we give them an easy target and simultaneously the chances of us making a mistake because we're in the wrong position and we're just like reaching and stretching when we shouldn't be reaching and stretching the chances of us making an error at this very same time dramatically go up so we're making our opponent's job really easy and we're making our job really hard when we don't stand in the right spot which plays right into these statistics if you want to flip this script and I recommend you do it's critical that you know where to stand and you know how to shift your position so that you close up those easy targets as best as possible now let's look at a couple case studies of how to do this correctly so these are four five oh plus level players we've got obviously a server about to serve over here returner on the other side look at how both Net players are really squeezing towards the middle to begin with and as the point gets started I want you to watch how the the ball initially goes over to the Baseline player on the other side the returning player server's partner tries to get his racket on it but isn't quite able to and now instead of standing there watch what he does look at how he transitions back and then brings his attention to his opponents before the ball gets hit so that he's ready so from this position right here he's giving himself the best possible chance to cover the middle in case this player does get the ball he just transitioned from a really really offensive spot look at how much Court he just covered from all the way up next to the net he could have reached out and touched the net here so he gave himself the best opportunity to cut off the ball couldn't quite do it and then went all the way back to the service line so that he could give himself the best opportunity to also cover the middle he's doing both by transitioning quickly and getting The Best of Both Worlds this example is really really awesome I want you to keep your attention on this player in purple right here and I'm actually going to go ahead and just play through the point first and watch what he does watch how he's in the right place at the right time that's a good pickup oh that's tough that's enough good job amazing anticipation amazing shot let's look at how he's able to do it exactly first of all he understands that right off the bat he's on defense because his partner is returning and so look at his position here how he's facing that net player on the other side and he's ready to play defense because he knows that he's the one that's in charge and responsible if the net player gets the ball and tries to hit it through the middle now watch the the net player the service partner on the other side makes a move right here like he's gonna go get the ball and that pushes the returner's partner off the net a little bit but when he recognizes that the other net player is not getting the ball he digs in and goes back again a little bit more offensive but now the ball's back to his partner again so he can't close in all the way otherwise he leaves this chunk of Court super super exposed so he stays patient and he just stays in that position because he knows the other net player is still a big threat and so now when the other net player does get the ball and tries to hit between him and his partner he's just there waiting for it he's in the right place at the right time he could have been up at the net in an offensive position which would have made him totally useless he also could be over here covering his alley which would leave the center wide open and would have made a ton of work for his partner to try to run that shot down but he's not in those places he's waiting in the center of the court because he knows the most likely spot for his opponent to hit is in the center of the courts and so that's why he looks like a genius here covering this shot he's anticipating and covering the right place which makes his opponent's job much more difficult now for contrast we're gonna watch that player in purple again again his partner is starting off the point returning and again he's starting off by covering the center of the court but this time something totally different happens Watch What Happens in this point back up communication there oh no there's the break good break so this is huge you understand exactly what happens he starts off in defense his partner avoids the net player and so now the the ball is going back to the opposing Baseline player which means he has an opportunity to attack so look at how fast and how athletically he transitions forwards from a defensive position to start the point identifying oh sweet I have an opening and then closing forwards the offense so here's his first attacking shot he splits the two players he's not able to get his racket on the next one but that's okay because he sees that his opponent who was a second ago attacking is now going back to the Baseline his threat up at the net is pushing his opponent off the net which means that he has the opportunity to just stay there he's the only attacking player so he doesn't have to transition back anymore in this point unless the other player comes back in again so look at how close he stays now I want you to remember where did he start this point he started this point way back here and as the ball has transitioned and made its way back and forth now he's made his way in to hit volley number one then continued forwards as his opponent got pushed off the net and so now he's in a completely different position and he's giving himself a huge opportunity now which he cashes in on by hitting this shot that angle is only possible when you're this close to the net and he's only that close to the net because he's anticipating the flow of the point and he's moving to the right place ahead of time he's closing down his opponent's shots and giving himself the best opportunity to put the ball away if you enjoyed this training go to textbook doubles.com right now for more insights that will totally transform your game thank you so much for watching today keep up the great work on your game and I'll talk to you next time

Channel: Essential Tennis - Lessons and Instruction for Passionate Players

Views: 452,671

Keywords: Essential Tennis, Ian Westermann, tennis, tennis highlights, tennis match, essential tennis doubles, doubles, tennis doubles, doubles strategy

Id: Y3dHyGhvFeU

Length: 16min 57sec (1017 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 21 2022