Thoughts on Poaching the Third Shot

Let's talk poaching of the third shot.  

A simple definition of a poach is a shot where you step in front of partner to intercept a ball.

Poaches are usually quite effective as they do three things.  They change the timing of a point.  A poacher will be taking time from the other team, though he is also taking time from his side too.

Secondly, a poach is usually done close to the kitchen line and if the ball is high enough, it's easy to sharply angle the shot.

Thirdly, if you poach, you provide your partner with some time to continue to the KL.  

The typical situations where poaches are expected are to hit the third shot, in dinking battles, any time the ball gets lofted and you and partner are separated in the net to baseline direction.

 I was going to go on at some length, but let me concentrate on the third shot poach.  This scenario is a frequent and important part of playing at any level.  I would make the case that Ernies and excessive poaching might not belong in rec games below 4+, but the third shot poach is fine, neh, required and expected at all levels.

So, assume you are at the net and partner is returning the serve.  If you look up "really good places to place the second shot" you will see that the "book" location is to the center side of the server.  If the server is right handed this will be his backhand.

There are good reasons to return to this area. it doesn't provide an easily angled third shot, it's usually to the server's backhand, and there is a good amount of court depth there to either hit the ball deep or low and soft.  Of course, the opponents may have trouble deciding who will return that shot, an added bonus.

The service ball is going back to the middle of the court and you, at the net, are looking something to do.  In my life philosophy, the guy at the net is responsible for middle shots.  It doesn't matter if they will have to hit it with a backhand, they are up there and don't have to move much to return any middle shot.  So they should be looking for it and they should be moving towards or onto the center line.

The key to hit this shot well, is to move your feet and be in a good stable position when the ball comes over the net.  The big problem I see is that the poacher will take one step and then stretch to hit the ball.  This leads to missed shots and bad hits.  It's important to understand that this shot is yours and you need to fully move to hit it.

I've had this conversation with a lot of partners and my line has been, "I have no problem with you taking that shot, but you need to fully step over and hit it."  I would probably change that to, "That's your shot, I'm expected you to hit it, move  all the way over and do it justice!"  

Where should the poach be hit?  I don't have any wisdom to pass on in re that topic.  I don't think it matters much.  Obviously if you can keep the opponents deep in the court while your side rules the net, that's the traditional strategy.  But angling the ball off or hitting a dink or angled shot is probably also effective.  But what you want to avoid is a middle ball getting to the service returner or, worse, hitting the third shot into the net.

This poach is most effective against a hard shot from the servers.  It is not as important if they drop the third shot.  

A lot of what happens at the third shot and what I'm describing here assumes that your partner was on the way to the kitchen line, as they should be regardless of the quality of their second shot.

There are other poaching scenarios, but for the sake of keeping this shortish, I'll forego that for time being.  I've been negligent in writing at all for a while and I'm trying to recover some enthusiasm!