WIN More Doubles Matches: Your 4 Roles #tennis

hey doubles can be super complicated when you think about all of the moving parts and variables involved but it doesn't need to be in today's video I'm going to be breaking down your four roles and responsibilities as a doubles player we're going to be talking through your role as the server servers partner returner and returners partner so stay tuned all the way through to the end of the video as I'm going to be giving you some really useful tips to help you to improve your doubles and in turn your results let's get into it now before getting into your four roles I'm going to put a couple of things into context as it's going to be impossible to cover every element of doubles in this one video and so today we're going to focus on doubles with a traditional formation one up one back however you might have seen some more of my doubles videos where we're talking about poaching and different formations that you might use in doubles I'll add some links into the description below but for now we're going to keep things simple the second thing to put into context is that your role will change within the point at the start of every Point all four players on the court should know their role clearly this will allow them to get off to the best start as most points in doubles are finished within the first four shots and so the start of the point is the most important part however if the point develops and you get into a bit of a rally then your role will change into two very simple roles if you're the Baseline player Your Role is to limit your opponent's opportunities to finish the point so most of the time that means avoiding the voler and keeping it deep to the baseliner and if you're the net player then your role is to get involved as soon as you can can to finish the point now as I said there are a lot more complexities to it but that is in its most basic form so let's get into the most important part of the video your four roles so the first role we're going to talk about is when you are the server and as I said I'm going to break down these roles in their most basic form your role as the server is to create opportunities for your partner to poach and put the ball away and we can break this role down into three elements number one being your consistency and in particular your first serve percentage if you're able to hit a high first serve percentage you're going to keep your opponents under more pressure than if you were to rely on your second serve and sometimes that might even mean bringing the pace of your first serve down slightly or adding slightly more spin to your first serve to ensure that more of them go in remember an 80% speed first serve is more effective than a 60% speed second serve the second way you're going to give your partner more opportunities to get involved is hitting with good accuracy and effectiveness being able to mix your serves up between hitting wide T and body and using speed or spin to make your serve more effective is going to help to put your opponent under pressure and get your partner involved more understanding your opponent's weaknesses can help you can start to Target that side more often and understanding that hitting tea and body serves will give your partner more opportunities to intercept and finally if you're serving consistently and you're able to put your opponent under some pressure the final element to help you to achieve your responsibility is to communicate with with your partner ideally before each point you want to try to tell your partner where you're aiming your serve as that will help your partner to achieve their responsibilities within the point which we'll talk about in a second but not only telling your partner where you're aiming your serve but also what you plan to do next whether you plan to serve and volley whether you plan to serve and stay back or even serve and switch so as well as mixing up your serves into different directions and different spins it's also a good idea to mix up what you do next to keep your opponent guessing at the other end one quick tip within your role as the server is to get yourself into a decent position I see tons and tons of Club players standing really really wide for their serve normally this is because they know that after their serve they need to get themselves into a wide position but the problem is it really limits their opportunity to hit down the te and as I mentioned before hitting your serve down the te is going to get your net player more involved in the point so I would suggest trying to start slightly closer to your normal single serving position but just ensure that after you've hit the serve you move out into a better position afterwards from this position here you've got far more opportunity to mix up your serve between going down the te body or wide to keep your opponent guessing so moving on to your second role or responsibility we're going to talk about your role as the server's partner and as I mentioned at the start we're going to have a normal formation where you will be up at the net your main role as serers partner is to create uncertainty for the returner at the other end and this is mainly done through your court positioning one before the point starts but two after your partners hit their serve now as a rule of thumb you want to position yourself in the center of the service box between The Singles Line and the center line when most players go wrong they actually position themselves slightly wider in the Box as they're worried about being passed down the line but all this means is you're covering less space than you should be and your partner the server is covering more space than they need to so starting in the center of the service box is where you need to be but when it comes to how deep in the service box you stand depends on what situation you're anticipating the point to start in if you feel like your partner serving well or the returner has a weaker return then you can push your position closer to the net anticipating that weak return being ready to close the net down and put the ball away however if your partner's got a weaker serve it might be it might be because it's their second serve or the returner at the other end is a really strong player and they're attacking their returns then you might want to take a more defensive position in the box but still you want to be roughly in the center of the service box so that covers your court position before your partner hits the serve but it's really important that you make a move in between the serve and the return now hopefully from the first role your server has communicated with you as to where they're going to aim their serve but if they're not comfortable with that you might need to watch the ball to see where it goes because once your partner strikes the ball you want to be following its direction so if my partner aims their serve out wide I want to be shifting slightly wide to cover the line but if my partner serves more down the T I can shift slightly closer to the T ready to make that interception this is going to help me to cover the most important parts of the Court where the big gaps are now at a basic level once your partner's surf shoots past you you can literally move in this direction this is as far wide as you need to go if it goes down the T you'll shift in this direction but at a more advanced level you want to keep your movement slightly more disguised as a really good returner will see your move and they'll aim the other way so what you should do at a slightly more advanced level is once you hear your partner strike the ball take one step forwards and just before they strike the ball then you can make your move this is slightly more difficult to time as you're making two separate moves but it can be a really good way to add disguise to your move now if you've seen any of my other doubles videos you'll know that your role when you're the net player is to always track the ball anytime the ball moves out wide you'll make a step out wide then if the next ball doesn't come to you and it goes back to your partner you'll then Retreat ready to track the ball on the next shot so once the point started if you haven't made that first volley you'll then get into that mode of tracking the ball around the court as I always say it's impossible to cover every inch of the tennis court and if you're going to leave a gap somewhere you want to leave the Gap through the highrisk zones tempt your opponent to pass you down the line if they manage to do it well play to them they're not going to be able to do it time and time again so don't be afraid to bait them into that passing shot the worst thing that you can do is hug that tram line and leave gaps in the biggest and safest parts of the court for your opponents to hit the final element of creating uncertainty to the returner at the other end is a little bit like what we mentioned in the serving role and to mix up your move after the serve is hit there are some slightly more advanced patterns like the I formation and the Australian formation that can really help to create uncertainty I actually made a video on that as well so again I'll add the link to that in the description below just quickly if you're enjoying this video be sure to hit the thumbs up button drop a comment if you've got any suggestions for future videos and if you haven't done so yet I'd love it if you consider subscribing let's get back into it so the next role we're going to cover is your role as the returner and your role is very basic here one is to make returns if you can go through a whole game of just getting that return back in play the pressure flips straight to the team at the other end but if you're missing returns within the game you're giving your opponents free points and really building their confidence but the higher the level you play in doubles the increasingly important it becomes to keep your return away from the volia at the other end so your main priority when returning serve is to keep the ball in play and away from the voler now the first thing we need to address is the position that you stand in when you're returning serve at a basic level you want your outside foot to be where The Singles Line crosses the Baseline this is a very standard return position but I see far too many players returning from here leaving that wide serve open by starting in this position you put yourself bang in the center of where that serve could end up however just like when you're at theet if you feel like your opponent has a really big serve you might want to start further back to give yourself more space and more time but ensure that when you do take those steps backwards you take them at a diagonal from where your opponent is at the other end so you'll end up slightly wider in this position here whereas if you're playing a weaker server and you want to stand in the court again you're going to be moving forwards in a diagonal in line with where your opponent is at the other end the ideal position for you to be in is a couple of extra steps behind where you anticipate returning the ball this is going to give you a little bit more space to step in as your opponent throws the ball up and to split step as they make contact with the ball that be Zing now at a more advanced level it's a good idea to try to mix up where you start for your return position so if you're playing a player and you're really struggling to find your Rhythm on the return of surf that mix up your positions a little bit maybe start slightly more more to the left inviting them to hit more serves to your forehand but as soon as they throw the ball up you can shift into your normal position to ensure that you've got both sides covered by mixing up your starting return position not only does it bait your opponent into hitting certain serves but it also forces them to hit with more variety which is not that easy to do one final tip that can help you when you're returning in doubles is to make sure that if you're really struggling to avoid the voler you do one of two things either aim low over the net when you're hitting crosscourt as this is going to give that Vol a less time to come across and intercept or if that's difficult you can actually resort to a lob in fact in the year that Jamie Murray was world number one in doubles he actually hit 30% of all of his returns as lobs and so although lots of people think that a lob is a bit of a defensive shot or a copout it can actually be really really effective as it gets the ball away from that voler one thing I would say is if you're planning to do multiple lobs make sure that your partner knows as if that lob is a weak one they're going to be a Sitting Duck so it might be worth them starting both back so the final role that we're going to talk about is when you're the returners partner and this one is quite a unique one as you're going to have a slightly different start position to the standard volley position at the net Your Role when you're the returner's partner is to plug the gaps on the court and to really limit your opponent's opportunities to finish the point as generally if you're playing a good doubles pair the volier of the other other end of the court is hunting for opportunities to put the ball away now if you stand in the standard volley position in the center of the box here after your opponent serves your returner has a risk of accidentally hitting it to the voler at the other end and if that does happen you're leaving a huge gap through the middle of the Court here now as I mentioned earlier if you're leaving gaps through the middle of the Court there's no risk for your opponents there's no way they're going to miss that ball and what we want to try to do is cover those high percentage gaps on the court and open up gaps in more high-risk areas so as the returners partner you want to position yourself slightly closer to the te here this plugs that big gap in the middle and invites that voler to try to hit a winner through this way now yes they might do it might be a great shot but again it's a high-risk shot as there's a big risk of hitting it wide and if they do make it it's much easier for you to move forwards than it would be for you to move backwards and so anytime you're the returner's partner it's a good idea to start somewhere around here but just be wary if you stand too close to the te you might upset the server at the other end cuz lots of people might claim that's hindrance so somewhere around here is good now just like I mentioned at the volley position at the other end of the Court the depth in which you stand in the service box will depend on the situation you're in if your opponent has got a bullet of a serve or your partner is struggling Ling with their returns you might want to start a little deeper here this is just going to give you more space and more time to deal with the potential volley coming at you but if the server at the other end is hitting weaker servs or your partner's returning really really well then actually you can push forward slightly more as you're anticipating that your opponents are going to be under more pressure so you're ready to close the net down but just like in the other volley roll once your partner sent the ball back if it hasn't gone to the vola and they've managed to get it back to the baseliner you can reset into your standard volley position and you can start to track the ball during the point once you get to grips with getting a better courau position for yourself when you're the returner's partner your next priority is just to make the ball in play most of the time if a ball comes to you in the first shot or two you're going to be in a defensive position so just make the ball in play and that will help to set you up for a better opportunity on the next one but once the point starts out as long as it hasn't gone to the voler at the other end you're either going to be in a neutral situation or you're going to be in attacking situation so that's when you can push forwards ready to close the net down so in summary when you're the server your aim is to create opportunities for your partner up at the net to put the ball away do this through a good first serve percentage hitting accurately and communicating with your partner as to where you're going to go and what you're going to do next next up when you're the service partner your responsibility is to create uncertainty for the returner at the other end do this by getting yourself into a really good callt position and shifting forwards and following the ball to close down any big gap s on the court and as a bonus if you're comfortable with it mix up what you do next with I formation Australian formation and switches your next role is as returner your aim is to get the ball in and to keep it away from the voler at all costs again just like the voler at the other end mixing up your position could be a good way to unsettle the server at the other end and keeping your returns low or lobs are another good way to keep the ball away from the voler and finally if you're the returners partner try to get yourself into a good position to plug the biggest gaps on the court and focus on just making the volley once you've done this and you're in the point you can get yourself into a more offensive position in the middle of the box ready to close the net down and finish the point now I know that was a quick Whistle Stop talk of doubles but if you want to go into more detail in your doubles game I've made a few more videos and you can find the links to those in the description below and if you want to go into even more depth I've made a full course called The Doubles master class which again you'll find in the description thanks as always for watching I look forward to seeing you in the next one take care