My Top 5 Doubles Tips #tennis

hey in this video I'm going to be sharing my top five doubles tips with you now there are two main reasons why these are in my top five tips number one is because I find these to be the most common interventions I'm making with my players and number two they've proven to be the most effective when it comes to improving performance on The Doubles courts and in turn results so whether you're a doubles player that wants to improve your results or a singles player that's looking to transfer your single skills onto the double Court then this video will help you out let's get into it tip number one is to try the ball when you're playing at the net for example if I'm the net player and my partner is serving if they hit their serve out wide once the ball bounces I want to be tracking that ball out wide ready to cover my line as that wide serve is inviting my opponent to pass me down the line here equally if my partner chooses to serve down the tea I'm going to be looking to track the ball more towards the tea ready to make an interception as that t- serve is going to limit my opponent's opportunity to pass me down the line This is not only when your partner is serving but anytime you're at the net net as by tracking the ball you're really limiting your opponent's opportunities to have any big gaps for high percentage shots and so what this means for you as a voler is you should never stop moving watch here as PAB Bosa tracks the ball at the start of the point keeping Maria Saker Under Pressure Steph then charges the net putting the pressure on cam Nori you can see here now he's tracking the ball really squeezing Cam's line [Applause] now a bonus tip for tip number one is to ensure that you're always looking forwards a big mistake I see players make is them turning around to look at their partner when the ball is behind them when you're up at the net if you can ensure that you're always looking forwards and looking at your opponents you'll know where your partner sending the ball before it passes you as you'll see your opponent's eyes and you'll see them move onto the ball this way you're going to have a head start when it comes to tracking the ball my second tip is to try to be less protective over your tram lines when you're the net player I see far too many people standing out wide here when they're at the net as they're worried about their opponents passing them down the line but the problem is here you're giving your opponent at the other end a huge space to hit crosscourt which of course is their high percentage shots what you really want to do is try to shift your position slightly closer to the middle of the service box now yes you may feel like they've got a big gap down the line but you're actually doing is you're inviting them to hit a highrisk shot and you're shrinking the space that they have in their high percentage shot meaning that as the voler you're going to get far more opportunities to get involved in the point which as we know in doubles is the easiest way to finish the point now thinking back to tip number one as we said we really need to track the ball during the points so there will be some situations where we do move out wide if our partner sends the ball out wide here however if your opponent doesn't aim to pass you down the line and they go back to your partner then you can recover back ready to track the ball again on the next Point what I'm saying here is your starting position or your Center position should be more in the center of the service box as opposed to near The Singles Line tip number three is with regards to your territories when playing doubles and where lots of players go wrong is they try to cover their half of the court so when they're on the juice side they look after everything that lands in the duice side and when they're on the ad side they look after everything that lands on the ad side now yes it's true that you should be looking after around 50% of the Court space however instead of splitting that line through the center of the Court you should try to split the line in a diagonal like so this diagonal line now splits the court into two triangles the player at the Baseline is responsible for looking after anything that's going to land in this back triangle and the player at the net is going to be looking after anything that lands in this triangle here the reason why thinking in triangles as opposed to rectangles is going to be more effective is because the net player here is far more likely to be able to pick a drop shot that lands here than the player at the back of the court and the same goes for lobs if I get lobbed on this half of the court and the lob is landing short here I'm going to be able to reach it but if that lob lands much deeper into the back triangle my partner's got a much better chance of hitting an effective shot from there now of course once the point starts there are lots of variables there may be switches your partner may join you at the net you may go back so this triangle will change however it's a really good visualization for the start of your point as it helps you as the net player to understand which shots you should be going across at now it's important to note that splitting the court into triangles is a really good starting point if you're unsure as to what parts of the Court you should be covering however the stronger you get at doubles the more variety is involved and the higher the pace of the rallies this is where your instincts will have to start kicking in and where tip Number One and Two Become far more important than the static triangles now tip number four is with regards to where you should be aiming when playing doubles and it's a very simple rule that if you stick to it it can help you to play the higher percentage shots and to make less unforced errors and it's anytime you're around the Baseline you should be trying to avoid the voler as anything that you hit towards the voler they're going to have time to see the ball coming and they're going to have space to put the ball away and conversely when you're at or approaching the net you should not be aiming towards the baseliner you should be aiming towards the voler or through the Gap the reason being is when you're approaching the net or at the net you're really taking your opponent's time away and by hitting to the voler they're going to have to have lightning quick reactions if they even want to get the ball back in play whereas if you're approaching or at the net and you hit to the baseliner again they're going to have time to see the ball coming they'll be able to lob you or pass you just make sure if you are aiming towards or past the voler you're aiming low and you're aiming it with some pace so a simple way to think about this is Baseline to Baseline and volley to volley a good example of this is if you're the net player and your partner's H an effective serve when you look to intercept or poach you want that volley to go at the other voler feet or through the Gap you don't want to poke that volley back to the baseliner equally anytime you're returning serve as you're the baseliner you want to be avoiding that voler unless you have a really easy sitter which you can go big with down the line tip number five is a really good one for players who are playing a good doubles team that are finding themselves at the net anytime you're trying to pass these two players at the net you want to try to pass them through the middle as opposed to down the line [Applause] there are three main reasons for this number one when you're aiming to pass down the middle it's impossible for you to miss wide whereas naturally when you're aiming to pass down the line there's a big chance that you can miss the ball wide the second reason is when two players are going for the same ball down the middle of the Court they can Clash and naturally when they're both at the net they won't have time to communicate mine or yours and finally if you're going for a passing shot down the line and your opponents reach it they've got far more opportunities to pass you they've got all of the angles whereas if you try to pass them through the middle it's much more difficult for them to find angles and naturally if they get the ball back you'll have another opportunity to put the ball away so although they were my top five doubles tips I've got plenty more on my channel which I'll add links to those other videos in the description below and if you're really looking to improve your doubles I've gone in deeper in my doubles masterclass course which again I'll add links to in the description thanks as always for watching this video all the way through the end I look forward to seeing you in the next one take care