WIN MORE Doubles Matches With These 2 Moves #tennis

Hey, in this video I'm going to show you two doubles moves that can help you to hold serve more often. I'm going to show you how to execute them, when to execute them, and if you hang around to the end of the video I'll show you how you can signal these moves to your partner like the pros do, no matter what your level is. Let's get into it. At the highest level of doubles matches tend to go with serve, however at lower levels there is a lot more variety in who wins these games. So if you can consistently win your serving games you're pretty much guaranteed a win. The two moves I'm about to show you, if done well, will massively increase your chance of holding serve and will help you and your partner to raise your doubles game. In fact these two moves are done all of the time at pro level and in my opinion are massively underutilized at club level, yet this is the level where it can be even more effective and you'll find out why shortly. Now to understand how these two moves are going to help you to hold serve more often we need to understand how a standard doubles point is played out. Now most of the time in doubles you'll have a server stood up at the baseline and their partner would be up at the net. Now this doesn't happen all of the time, sometimes you may start both back, but having a player at the net can help you to capitalize on weak returns. If your partner hits a decent serve putting the opponent under pressure, you as the volleyer can look to intercept and to put the volley away. Now generally when players play doubles they stick to these positions and this comes at a cost, as once the serve is hit if the returner knows that the volleyer is going to stick on their side of the court then they can find rhythm with their returns and keep the rally going cross court avoiding the volleyer. And as the volleyer it makes it quite hard for you to get involved and sometimes you just feel redundant watching that rally happening. In this situation your opponents have control over when you volley as opposed to you having control over when you volley and so when you get a chance to volley it's always going to be a tough one. This is where these two doubles moves come in. The first move is the poach and you guys may have seen i've made a full video on poaching alone but what we're going to be focusing on in this video is a planned poach. A poach is when the volley player crosses over to the server side of the court to intercept the cross-court return and in this instance the server is going to switch sides to cover the down the line return. Now the reason why planning a poach can be such a good tactic is it stops your opponents from gaining rhythm. Once you do a poach or two they're not going to know what the volleyer is planning to do meaning that rather than getting comfortable with cross-court returns they're going to have to change their mind at the last second. This often results in unforced errors on returns or an easy put away volley for the poacher. Now after you and your partner have discussed that you're going to poach on this point the net player will move into their normal standard volleying position ready for the serve. After the serve has been struck and just before the return is hit i'm going to move across to the center ready to intercept on the cross-court return. My partner the server is going to be moving across the court in this direction to cover any down the line returns. Now one real benefit of a planned poach is that both of you pretty much know what shot you're going to be hitting. I as the volleyer can pretty much guarantee that from this side of the court when i'm going for my poach i'm going to have a forehand volley so i can prepare my racket nice and early because if the ball goes behind me my partner will have it covered. If we were to do it on the ad side i'm pretty much certain that i'm going to be poaching with a backhand volley and again if the ball goes behind me my partner will be running on to hit a forehand. This tactic works really well but the key is the timing. You don't want to make your move too early because if your opponent sees you move and they have time to change their mind to go down the line they're going to have a nice big gap to attack. But equally if you wait too long you're not going to have enough time to cover your volley so timing is crucial. Now i've got three quick tips for planning your poach. The first is that you're going to be better at one side than the other. For me having a stronger forehand volley means that i'm going to be better at poaching when my partner serves on the deuce side because starting on the ad side i'm going to be moving across for a forehand volley. Equally if you're better at a backhand volley or you're a lefty preferring forehands you may feel more comfortable intercepting across onto the ad side. The second tip is serving down the tee can make for an easier interception. As serving down the tee really limits your opponent's return options they're more likely to hit a central ball meaning both the poacher and the baseliner can have that court covered more effectively. And my final tip is to stick to the plan. I see far too often people deciding to poach the volley are making their move and realising actually they could reach the ball behind them so they go back not realising that their partner has gone to cover them and both players have left a gap on this side of the court. So if you're going to poach commit to it and stick to your plan. Sorry to interrupt i'm in the middle of the edit and i've just realised how close we are to 50,000 subscribers so a massive thank you if you're already subscribed but if you're not i'd love it if you hit subscribe below as it massively supports the channel. Big thanks. The second doubles move which is my personal favourite is the fake poach and this is exactly what it sounds like the net player will pretend to poach but they'll head back to their side of the court. The reason why this is so effective especially at club level is as soon as the returner sees the net player move to make an interception they're going to be tempted to try to pass them down the line and we could probably all relate as a returner that as soon as we see that gap that's the green light to go big with an attacking shot often resulting in an unforced error. Now if you make that fake and head back even if they go down the line and hit a great shot you're going to be expecting it and you're going to be ready to cover your line. Now again just like the planned poach a fake is a great way for you to force your opponents to change their mind just before they strike the ball. It also means that they're not going to be able to gain any rhythm on their returns as from point to point they're going to have to think quickly on their feet and change the shot they were going to play. Now a fake is made after the serve is struck but you're going to want to make your move slightly earlier so that your opponent can see you move before they strike the ball because after all your aim is to tempt them to go down the line. So as soon as the serve passes you you're going to make a step or a lunge to the middle of the court looking like you're going to make an interception but straight away you're going to head back to cover your line. Just like before you can pretty much guarantee that you're going to hit a certain type of volley. For me with a stronger forehand volley I'm more likely to make a fake poach on this side of the court. As I move across here I'm inviting my opponent to hit to my forehand volley which is going to give me a nice easy volley through the middle of the court. If I were to prefer my backhand volley then I'd probably be more likely to make a fake poach on this side moving back for my backhand. So just like the planned poach it's really important to get the timing right. When you're planning a poach you want to wait until the ball bounces at the other end of the court before you make your move but if you're faking a poach you want to make that move earlier to make it obvious to your opponent that you've left the gap. That will also give you time to recover back to cover your line. Now when it comes to serve direction for a fake poach it can actually be more effective with a wide serve as a wide serve really invites your opponent to hit one down the line which is exactly what the volley wants when they're faking a poach. Now I can promise you that these moves work but the key is for you and your partner to both be on the same page with it. You need to know the plan and you need to stick to the plan. Now before we get into the signals let's talk about when these tactics are going to be most effective. Like I said at the start you will see professional tennis players using these tactics pretty much on every single point. They never want their opponents to gain rhythm but if these tactics are newer to you you probably don't want to do them too often as it may throw the rest of your game. So save them for crucial times throughout the match. A really good time to mix up with a poach or a fake poach is if you notice that your opponent is returning the ball with consistency and they're always managing to get the ball back to the baseliner. Once you see them developing this rhythm this is a time to mix things up. By simply poaching or fake poaching you're going to put them under a lot more pressure as you'll give them a different scene to see at the other end of the court, potentially forcing them to hit a shot down the line which they might not be so good at. Another time to mix things up is when it's a crucial point. Now I know this might sound counterintuitive as you might feel under pressure yourselves but just remember the returner is more likely to hit a safe return when it's crucial and so this is the perfect time to make a poach as the ball's going to be traveling much slower. Just remember even if your opponent hits a phenomenal return as long as both you and your partner know the plan you're both going to have it covered. Now as promised the final part of the video I'm going to show you through some signals that can help you and your partner to communicate more effectively. You'll notice professional doubles players showing signals behind their back and if you didn't know they generally use two signals. The first signal that the volleyer will use is to tell their partner where to serve to. This signal means they want the serve to go to the right hand side of the service box. This signal means they want the serve to go to the left hand side and this signal means a body serve down the middle of the service box. Now generally if the server agrees to that signal they'll say yes to their partner and if they don't want to serve to that part of the court they'll say no and their partner will have to give them another signal until they find a part of the court that they agree on. The second signal that is shown is what the volleyer plans to do and this is what's going to help you to know whether you're going to stay, poach or fake poach. Having a closed fist behind the volleyer's back signals that they're going to stay in the same position so the server is to do the same. If the net player opens up their hand to show this signal that means they're going to poach so they'll move across to intercept. The server's job is to go across to cover the other side of the court and if the volleyer makes this signal this signifies a fake poach and so the server is to stay on the same side of the court as the volleyer is going to pretend to dart across and then make their way back to their side. Now if you're new to signals I would recommend sticking to just one of the two and for the purpose of these moves just stick to the second signal as quite often the first signal can put the server under a bit more pressure but if you and your partner are happy with both signals then it can be a really good tool. As we know serving to a certain part of the court can help our moves be more effective. Now there are two really important tips when it comes to signaling. One is to make sure that the server confirms that they've seen the signal as sometimes I've seen the net players make a signal but the server didn't look to see what it was and there's been some confusion so as the server once you've seen the signal shout yes to your partner so they know you've seen it. The second thing is to make sure you do a signal on both the first and the second serve as quite often if the first serve is missed the net player may have given away what they were planning to do and if they don't show another signal your opponents will know what your plan is. Now of course you don't have to use hand signals if you prefer to communicate verbally that can be even more clear for you and your partner but I would say that hand signals are great for a second serve as you don't want to be walking back and forth between serves. So now that you know the theory of planned poachers and fake poachers I challenge you to go out and give them a go. I honestly think you'll surprise yourself with the amount of success you get from them but the key is to make sure that your doubles partner has seen this video too so be sure to share it with them. Let me know in the comments below if you'd like to see more videos themed around doubles or if you have any questions about this video. Thanks as always for watching, I look forward to seeing you in the next one. Take care.