Crisscross Thoughts

 The question of who will return a ball can be resolved a couple of ways.  One of the more utilitarian ways is the crisscross rule of thumb.

Basically it boils down to the idea that the ball is usually heading towards one of the players.  And that is the player who should hit it.  The difficult part is that the ball frequently starts on the side of the other player.  We can think of this as applying to all cross court shots, which move diagonally across the court.  This will cover a large majority of the shots.  It's something to talk to your partner about before the game starts.  Most people have heard of it and it's a chance to ensure that you and partner are thinking along the same lines.

The shots that come up one side, aka straight back, bring with them little confusion.  Which leaves the shots up the middle that are still a problem.

 The rule of thumb I hear a lot is that the forehand should take them.   I think it's a bit more complex than that.  Let's look at the various scenarios.  

A soft high bouncing ball is easily handled by either player.  There is usually time to allow a player to take on the challenge, call the shot and promptly dump it into the net -- ok, maybe just return it nicely back and see how the point develops.  

If the short is low and hard, I think it is easier for the player who was not serving the ball to handle it.  That player should be fairly close to the center line and behind the baseline -- you were behind the baseline, right?  And the non-server has more time to prepare for the return.

And if the ball heads for one of the lines and you expect the dreaded "Downs" skipper ball, then I think both should take a swing at it, one high and one low.  "Mine is high!" or "I'll take low!"

This also appears to a lesser extent when in a dinking battle.  The trajectory of the ball is sometimes harder to react to, and can lead to the deadly "hesitation" when placed in the middle of the court, but the time to react to a dink is about a second and that provides enough time to figure it out.  

Sarah Ansboury on YouTube claims that the difference between 3.5 and 4.0 is that the 3.5s move their feet at the net too much.  She likes a bit of sway, paddle in front, use forehand and backhand and try to cut off wide balls with a volley, elbows in.  I'm personally working a bit on this.  I'm not quite convinced, but I lack a lot of data at this point. 

Of course, having one of the team call all the balls works well too.  That's what the pros do and if it didn't work, they would do something else.  "You, you, you, hurry, hurry, hurry!"