1 TENNIS COURT - 4 DOUBLES PLAYERS - 4 UNIQUE MISSIONS HOW TO PLAY EVERY DOUBLES POSITION... IN PART 1 OF THIS 2 PART SERIES WE TAKE A DETAILED LOOK AT THE SERVER AND THE SERVE RETURNER IN THE GAME OF DOUBLES To play a game of doubles you need 4 players on the tennis court, with 2 players on each side. Every player on the court wants to win tennis points, so in that sense every player is in pursuit of the same thing. This is true and at the same time it is also true that every player on the court should be operating differently than one another at any given moment in time. To be an effective doubles player it is imperative that you understand: The # of roles there are to play (4) The start positions of each role The proper mindset for being exceptional in any role. What shot to hit in each role What to do after that shot. Let’s begin by identifying each of the four roles assumed by the players on the court. For organizational purposes we will assign each role a number (1-4), based on the possible shot sequence , or order of action. The server always hits the first shot of the point so the server is “player 1”. The serve returner is “Player 2”. The servers partner is “Player 3”. The returners partner is “Player 4”. The rules of tennis contain no mandatory order of who hits the 3rd ball versus the 4th ball but there is tremendous value in understanding what the order could and or should be if you so decide. This is a way to frame the situation on the doubles court during the first 4 shots of every point played. It is now time to examine the mission profile for players 1, 2, 3, and 4. If tennis were baseball, the server would have a mindset like that of a great major league pitcher. Focused, aggressive, and smart. With this mindset, we can perform our job: “Make a serve that causes your opponent to return the shot in a way that allows your partner to attack the ball from their position at the net. This is totally different than if you were to serve with the intention of making aces or unreturnable serves. In doubles, we aim to make a higher percentage of first serves compared with what would be considered optimal in singles play. This is because of our doubles partner and the influence they will wield on the returner if positioned correctly. We learned in doubles dimensions that the doubles court, per capita, is much smaller than the singles court. This applies to the targets available on serve returns that if hit do not produce a disastrous result (ball slammed at your poor partner).. The DSP for Player 1 is the intersection of the baseline and the singles side-line (IMAGE 1). This starting position allows your movements after the serve to be towards the center of the court in the majority of situations. Serve returns are usually crosscourt shots and therefore it is preferable to be position such that your movements will be towards the center of the tennis court versus your movements being away from the center of the tennis court. Imagine the path you would have to take to cover a cross-court serve return if you begun by serving from anywhere near the center hash mark (IMAGE 2) You would be running directly away from the tennis court leaving your partner stranded in the middle, effectively a singles player attempting to defend the doubles court singlehandedly until you can recover back into the playing area. (See images 2, 3, 4 etc..) doubles, lasvegas, racket, rackets, racquet, racquets, realtennistalk, teamwork, tennis, tennisdoubles, tennisgear, tennislessons, tennispodcast, tennisracket, tennisstrategy, tennistactics, usta
