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The Fundamental Concepts of Poaching in Tennis Doubles

November 24, 2007 By Brent Leave a Comment
One of your fellow subscribers, Jake, wrote to me today and asked a great question about poaching in doubles.

I got a little carried away with my answer and sort of got into my philosophy of poaching in doubles…

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“Brent,

Thanks for the great tips. One thing I wanted to ask though, on poaching, sometimes I find myself trying to poach and the ball is about 2 inches out of reach when I get to it. 

This sorta screens my partner and “fakes” him out thinking that I’m making a play on the ball. 

When I in fact miss, he is frozen in his tracks and can’t recover and make a play on the ball from the baseline.  Any advice on this scenario?”  Jake, NC

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Hi Jake and good to hear from you…

Your partner has to evaluate whether or not you’ll be able to get to that return of serve, and if the evaluation is that you might not, he must be prepared to take it even if you do get to it at the last second.

Make sure you’re reaching for that return of serve with your feet (sounds obvious), and not reaching first with your racket hand.  Common mistake…  We want on balance movement.
The biggest benefit to movement with balance is you maintain much better visual contact with the ball. 

Even if you’re not the quickest guy at the club, players who “see the ball” well will make better decisions about when to receive the incoming ball, shot type, and shot placement accuracy.

Practice moving to cut off the return of serve with your elbows to your side for at least your first 2 steps so you start your movement on balance. 

This way you insure that your feet are actually taking you to the middle of the court and that you’re not just “leaning” out there.

Being on balance when you poach allows you to make better decisions, not only with shot selection, but with your ability to be ready for the next shot should it come back to you quickly.

Another way to practice moving the feet first is to master the “fake poach”. 

In fact, I believe, the fake poach is the most important weapon the net player in doubles has at any given moment during a point.

I always try to establish the fake poach first in a doubles match rather than trying to establish the poach first.

I want to show movement to my opponents, and a good fake draws your opponents’ shots directly to you where you’re naturally better balanced with better angles for your shot.

Once that fake is established in my opponents’ minds, then the actual poach is much, much more available and effective.
The big problem that net players get into is thinking that their poach must work as a put away each and every time. 

That thought causes lots of doubt in the potential poacher’s mind, not the returner’s mind, and the fear of failing on a poach causes players to stay put, exactly what a returner of serve wants.

Effective poaching is much more about showing “movement” to that returner which

  • can be visually distracting causing unforced errors,
  • can force the returner to wait for the very last moment to decide where they are going to play their return (either back cross court, up your alley, or a lob) which means that their return will not have as big a swing shape and probably be played at a slower pace,
  • and can cause enough doubt that the rest of their game is simply not as confident as when they are returning serve big time.
Showing movement can be either a poach, a fake poach, and/or an early fake and then poach.  There are lots of combinations and they should all be used.

I teach my students, and my doubles partners and I agree, that as a net player we are either poaching or faking on every serve, never ever standing completely still. 

So, if we signal with either the open hand (poach) or closed fist before each serve, the closed fist is not a signal to stay, it’s a signal to fake, to show some form of movement.

The art of poaching (when your partner is serving) is simply being able to show different forms of movement that will bring the return of serve to you because you fake so well that it appears you’re crossing and the returner of serve plays their shot right back to you.

This gives you a chance to either put away their return, or more likely, allow your serving partner to get to a good net position.
Good poachers cause lots and lots of unforced errors off of their opponent’s returns of serve. 

If you get a chance to watch a really good poacher, you’ll discover that they don’t really put away a ton of returns of serve by crossing into the middle of the court, but in fact, they cause lots of unforced errors, and they also enable their partner to get to a good net position without having to play a tough first volley or 1/2 volley on their way to that good net position.

And we all know that whichever team achives that good net position first during any given point, that team’s chance of winning the point goes up dramatically.

So, blah, blah, blah, what’s the point here? 

Your job as the server’s partner is not to have to always end the point with a great put away volley as you fly across the middle of the court, but to help your partner not have to play a tough 1st volley or 1/2 volley.

You do that more by causing unforced errors with your movement

  • by faking and drawing that return back to you so your partner gets to that really good volley net position as you play your volley or overhead,
  • by forcing the returner to play slower shots cross court back to your partner which equates to easier 1st volleys and 1/2 volleys, and yes,
  • and of course by you from time to time moving into the middle of the court and intercepting that cross cour return of serve and sticking your volley into your opponents “open space” and having the guys out on the porch stand up and cheering for you!
To be a good poacher you’ll need four things: 

1.  Attitude – you must want to “control” the returner of serve

2.  Movement with Balance – Better visual contact with the tennis ball equates to better decision making

3.  Volleys and an Overhead – You don’t have to own the greatest volleys and biggest overhead of all time, but you have to be able to play these shots well enough that you don’t set up your opponents and be on balance enough as you play these shots so you can re-claim your good net position to get ready for your opponents’ next shot. 

Good fundamental stroke mechanics allow you to be consistent with your shot making AND allow you to recover back to a good net position.

4.  Attitude #2 – You must be willing to accept the fact that you’re going to lose some points along the way with your movement.  You have to embrace the big picture and not evaluate how you’re doing by each and every point.
 

If I poach into the middle and a miss a volley, I pretty much can assume that my opponent is thinking that I don’t want to risk poaching and missing again on the very next point, so I always poach into the middle immediately again after I miss a volley. 

I want to maintain “control” in that returner’s mind that they are going to have to deal with my movement point after point after point after point after point…

And your serving partner had better not ever give you crap if you move into the middle and miss a volley.  If they ever do, drop that partner in a heartbeat and find someone who gets this poaching thing…
Brent

Pick up your copy of my Volleys and Overhead lessons over at:

www.webtennis.net/Tennis-Lessons.htm

Filed Under: Tennis Strategy - Doubles, Tennis Strategy - Doubles Poaching

Forehand Groundstroke – Timing of the Swing

November 9, 2007 By Brent Leave a Comment

One of your fellow WebTennis.net subscribers, Tim, recently asked me about the timing of when to start the swing for his forehand groundstroke. 

Great question that depends on a couple of factors, and it’s more about being able to get to a specific “finish” position.

That may sound confusing, but stay with me…

And I also have a video for you at the end of my answer to Tim.

Chapter 5 (Magic Move #2) of my Forehand Groundstroke Topspin Drive lesson

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Hi Tim and thanks for your email.  Excellent question…

I initially point my left shoulder at the incoming ball to at least get me sideways and thinking about “spacing”.

Hopefully, I get the left shoulder pointed before the ball crosses the net. Loose hands in your Ready position will make this much easier and faster.

But after that, there a million and one circumstances that could determine when I swing, and some of them are based on the timing of the bounce, and some are not.

The size of your swing shape (how large a loop) is determined by how soon you have to make contact.

Balls hit to you with pace that land deep in your court will mean you’ll have to swing sooner, and since the bounce is so close to you, you’ll have to start your swing sooner than if the ball bounced on your service line with medium to slow pace.

And that means that if you’re fully committed to a large swing shape on every forehand, you’ve got a real problem on balls hit deep to your baseline and with pace.

So if you set up with a large swing shape, and then have to adjust to that deep ball with pace, it’s not a great recipe fro being consistent.

Do the opposite.

I always turn from my ready position and assume that’s exactly what I’m getting, a deep shot from my opponent with pace.

If in fact that’s what I get, then I’m prepared to have a smaller swing shape which is what I want for incoming pace that is landing deep.  I don’t need to add power at that point, the incoming pace is providing that for me, and all I want to focus on is being able to get out to the finish position with good contact timing.

The bigger your swing shape, the further your racket gets away from your eventual contact point, and consequently, the more difficult it is to consistently bring your racket through contact at just the right movement in time.

On short and medium depth balls from your opponent, it’s a ton more easier to “time” when to bring the racket into that ideal contact area.

A slightly bigger swing shape is usually not a problem then.

So, as I mentioned above, for me it’s much easier to turn from my ready position in a way where my hands and racket stay close to my stomach and anticipate incoming depth and pace.

That’s sort of worst case my opponent can bring to me, depth with pace.  With my initial turn out of my ready position, I’, now ready for it.

If I have to, I can then easily adjust to shorter balls with less pace as opposed to turning and setting up with a big swing shape.

Make sense?

Here’s what I think you should work on.

Try to see how consistent you can make two elements of your forehand, #1 the start (your shoulder turn to commit to the forehand, and #2, the finish position.

Can you develop a swing tempo (a specific controlled swing speed before, during, and after contact) so that you end up at the same position every time.

I think if you can focus on those 2 things, your start and your finish, the stuff in between will work itself out over time.

I’ve always felt that if I can finish in a specific position as I demonstrate on the video, no matter what type of ball I have to receive, then I’ve had good timing on that particular shot.

My coach Tom Stow used to tell me that when one of my strokes wasn’t feeling comfortable to “start at the finish”.

Make sense? Focus on being consistent to the same finish position and everything else will eventually fall into place.

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OK, hope you enjoyed this post.  Always interested in your feedback here.

Brent’s Downloadable & DVD Tennis Lessons 

www.webtennis.net/Tennis-Lessons.htm 

Brent

 

Filed Under: Tennis Tip - Spacing

The Mental Game of Tennis – continued

November 6, 2007 By Brent Leave a Comment
My tennis pal Joel Drucker and a guy who I have a tremendous of respect for his world class tennis writing was good enough to post a reply to a recent entry on how come we tend to play better in practice than we do in a league or tournament match.

I posted an entry on the value of developing a between points routine in your tennis match which can be viewed here.

I want to make sure you get a chance to also read my reply to Joel…

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Thanks for your great feedback Joel.

I like it…

“When you’ve got the lead, make them bleed, but if you’re going down, slow it down…”

The other ritual that has hurt and also helped me before a match is visualization.

I’ve got to admit that from time to time I can see myself (visualize prior to the match) either losing to someone or playing poorly.

And that’s not a great recipe for being able to play at the best of your abilities on any given day.

On the flip side, before a match, even just driving to the match, I’ve also visualized myself playing well in general, seen specific point situations, and visualized myself shaking hands with my opponent at the end of the match as the winner.

And the consequence of this very positive visual is I know I play better.

Obviously it’s not a guaranteed lock that positive visualization is goijng to win you each and every match, but the key is that you are setting yourself up mentally in the best possible way to “play well”…

And that’s really what winning is all about, giving yourself a chance to play well.

We’ve all won matches where our perception was that we didn’t actually “play well”, but mentally we hung in there and found a way to win that last point.

“Playing well” doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re hitting the ball super well shot after shot.

It’s a combination of phyiscal and mental, and sometimes the mental “playing well” part of it all can overcome a mediocre physical performance on that particular match day.

It doesn’t matter.  And that’s just reality in competitive tennis. 

You frequently hear the touring pros comment after a match that they didn’t feel that they hit the ball all that great during their match, BUT, they were pleased with the way that they didn’t panic, how they continued to “compete”, just hung in there even though they weren’t executing their normal shots, and they understand the cold reality that finding the so called “mental zone” doesn’t always mean they’re going to hit great shot after great shot…

And as mateur players, we put WAY too much pressure on oursleves to hit the ball perfectly each and every time.

We evaluate so much of our tennis by how well we’re physically executing our shots without realizing that on any given day we’re not going to hit the ball as well as yesterday or the day before but better than last Tuesday which we perceived as a disaster depsite the fact that we won the match and blah,blah, blah…

In the long run, good mental skills will win you more matches than depending on your ability to hit great shot after great shot.

Why…?  Because you can control your mental output much better than your physical output.

And when you control your mental output with things like visualization and the between points rituals we’re discussing, your strokes will become more consistent and less flash in the pan where you hit one great shot and then two shanks…

So, what’s the next step?

Let’s practice 2 things starting today.

Push away from your computer right now, shut your eyes, and visualize this match situation…

You’re serving at 40-30 and its 5-3 in the first set. 

[ We don't need to remind ourselves of what we've done in the past in this situation where we've gagged like a monster with 2 double faults and a missed an easy sitter to get broken, fumed both outside and inside which has totally put the pressure on you to somehow salvage this set after being in sucvh control until that set point we had just a few minutes ago, lost the first set 7-5, and then gone into a mental funk and started listing all of the reasons (uh, can you say excuses?) why we're never going to figure out how to close out a set, not to mention an entire match... ]

Like I said, you’re serving at 40-30, 5-3 in the first, and you see yourself calming take your time picking up the ball in the corner and deliberately, but not rushing, walk up to the baseline to get ready to serve.

And as you take your serve’s ready position prior to starting your service motion, you pick out a specific target where you want to serve and you visualize yourself (see yourself) serving the ball to that exact spot.

You take 3 controlled breaths, bounce the ball three times, and then play your serve to yes, that exact target.

Your opponent has guessed that’s where you’re going to serve and just crushes their return slightly to your right.  You calmly visually lock on the path of their incoming return of serve, take two steps over to where you sense a “waiting” feeling because you know you don’t have to rush your swing.

You wait for just the right moment, you commit to a rhythm swing (that’s right, you don’t feel any need to “fight” the power of your opponent’s shot) which will direct your shot cross court away from your opponent, you keep your eyes down through the contact point because you don’t feel a need to “peek” to see if your shot is going to its intended target.  You have faith that your swing will simply send the ball on its way cross court.

And as you eventually look up fully anticipating you’ll be playing another shot, you see your shot scorching past your opponent’s outstretched reach.

Your point, first set is yours, you calmly walk to the bench for the between sets break without exulting or looking around to see if anyone saw you close out that first set, and it’s just another beautiful day on the tennis court that you’re lucky enough to a part of…

Guess what, you can make that visual happen every day of your life.  You can make any positive or negative visual happen each and every day.  I’d hope you’ll choose to visualize the positive and not the negative.  And you can do this whenever and wherever.

Does this guarantee victory each and every time?  Of course not, but I’d rather be thinking positive than negative as I go out to play a match.

And you can also practice the between points routine we’ve discussed off the court whenever and wherever.

Like your strokes, the mental skills of tennis takes lots of practice.  Too many players think there’s some magic pill or light switch you just turn on and now all of a sudden you

Filed Under: Tennis Mental Skills