When you first start playing tennis, learning the right technique can be challenging. But when you want to play doubles matches, there is another thing you should learn: playing strategies. In this blog we will explain a few strategies for beginners.
Know strengths and weaknesses
First of all, it’s very important to know the person you are playing with, what are his/her strengths? What can she/he do better, what do I do better? When you know this, you can use this knowledge in your strategy.
For example: Is your forehand stronger and your teammate’s backhand is better, than you should decide to play right side and your teammate on the left side.
It’s also very important to know the weaknesses of your opponents. You can see those during the warming-up. Pay close attention to all her/his strokes and tell your partner when the warming-up is over.
Tips for the net player
When playing at the net, you can follow this simple trick: follow the ball. When your teammate plays a diagonal ball, you can move to the outside of the court. When your partner plays a ball through the middle, you cover the center of the court. That way, you are always covering your part of the court.
When you see an opportunity to hit the ball, always aim to play the ball between your two opponents. If you do so, they most likely will have to do a lot of effort to hit that ball back.
A second option is to aim directly at the other net player. This player is closest to you, therefor he/she has the shortest period of time to react to the ball you’re playing.
NOTE: be nice and play these balls to the feet of the other net player, nobody likes it when a ball is hitting their body or their face.
Do not be afraid to cross the middle! Mostly you have to cover your side of the tennis court. But when you see the opportunity, go ahead and cross the middle to hit that winner.
You can better try and fail than doing nothing right?
Tips for the baseline player
When you're at the back of the court there are a couple of things you can focus on. The first one is to put pressure on the baseline player of the opponents. Because if your shots are to 'soft' he will be able to come to the net.
The second one is to avoid the net player of the opponents. This one sounds simple, but it's just really true. When the net players can hit the ball, he's more likely to score points with his volley.
Another good tip is to help your net player making a volley. You can do that for example by hitting a very offensive ball to your opponent, he will have to defense that ball. That kind of balls are softer, so it's easier to make that volley.
You can also try to hit a ball down the middle of the court. That way the baseline player of the opponents can not really hit a crosscourt ball anymore. You'll partner will easily get that ball, because it's likely it will come back trough the middle.
Practice
The only real way to practice and learn these techniques is by trying them. Play a lot of matches. Learn from them and don’t be afraid to try things and make mistakes.