A Tiger at the Net

 The last post of this series is what to think about when you are at the net and your partner is returning a serve.  Note that when this point starts, that you are the only one at the net.  You are king of the hill, on top of the enchilada, the eye at the tip of the pyramid!  It's a position of leverage over the rest of the players.  Massive power and grand responsibilities!  Let's explore this situation...

I think this is the most fun position to play.  You can make play, if not life difficult for your opponents, hit a lot of put aways, and generally be a pest (in a nice way of course).

Let's start with setup.  You want to favor the center of the court, but still on your side of the court.  And the reason for that is you are responsible for covering the center when the third shot comes back.

Let's say that you are on the right side of the court.  Partner returns the serve to one of three locations.  He'll hit it directly across the court, up the middle, or crosscourt to your right side.

If the ball is hit to the middle or to your left hand side, then center court is where you want to be.  Feel free to step on or over the center line just a touch if you want to.  If the ball has been hit cross the court to your right, then move one or two steps to your right.  (There are people who will hit up the line for the third shot a lot.  If that is who is going to hit the third shot, then be ready for it.)

If the ball is on your left or middle then you should be looking for a poach (unless it is a very friendly game, in which case poaching can be poor form).  I'll chat about that below.  But if we are all in to win, look for the poach.  If you see one coming, take another step or two or whatever you need to hit it without having to stretch for it.  If the ball is high and soft enough this might take you all the way across the court.  That's only three or four steps if you were ready to move, but it will seem like a lot and it will amaze the other players.  Doing that once early in the game will make the opponents nervous and even if you miss the shot, think of it as an investment.

If the third shot is not poachable, then you as the net person may have to contend with drives and drops and middle coverage.  Being prepared for blocks of hard shots and drops is the name of the game.  

General strategy is to return the fourth shot deep and keep the opponents at the baseline.  It's an advantage to be at the net when the opps are not, so use that.   Keep them back.  If you want to try for a winner, then drop shots and angled shots are good, but easy to miss.  Deep shots back to the middle of the court are rarely wrong.  If the opps manage to get three or four balls back, don't panic and hit the ball too hard.  Just being at the net is the advantage and it will pay off in the long run.

When not to poach...  Friendly and gentlemen's game are not the place to poach.  We are all on the court to hit the ball and have rallies.  Poaches shorten points and can be boring for everyone but the poacher.  If you want to practice your poaches, then hit them, but hit them so the opps can easily return them.  Keep the rally going!

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This finishes four posts coving the main positions played in doubles and what thoughts are in play to start a point.  That pretty much covers the opening moves.  But like chess, all the subsequent moves make things more complex.  I think that knowing what to look for at the start of the point is important, golly, call them the fundamentals of the game.  More importantly since most play I've seen, new teams with no conversations, are typical.  It would be nice or expected that a pickup partner with some experience would know and follow the fundamentals.  I've not seen then written down until now, and of course, these are my opinions and may not be universal.

A lot of what I think is correct will lead to points with dinking in them.  I like those points and my observation is that the higher level games have a lot of dinking in them.  Dinks become more important when everyone can all the normal ground strokes back without too many errors, so you will have to dink to beat them.  

I did mention in a post a long time ago that the closer the ball is to the net, the more the net acts as a shield/barrier.  The dinking game is more about working around the net than it is working the opponents.  They of course have the same problem.  Hmm, might be time for another post on dinking; part III or IV or something.