Welcome to rally tennis doubles strategy. There are a couple of strategies that you need to understand to be a super successful doubles player, and one of the strategies we're going to talk about today is understanding if you're playing offense or defense. 

Now, the reason this is so important is because most players don't understand offense and defense, and so what they do is they sit in one area of the service box and they don't do anything. They sit there hoping that the ball might go to them, and most of the time it doesn't. So you wind up playing a doubles point where as the net player, you're sitting there and you're just sitting there watching, not being a part of the doubles point. 

Now the first thing we understand when we're thinking about are we playing offense or defense? Is understanding the positioning and understanding the purpose of what you're supposed to do when you're the net player. As the net player in doubles, you are the attacker your baseliner is trying to set you up to attack. 

And so what this means is you have to understand and put yourself in a great position to attack. Most players don't understand this from this position, and that's why we're talking about it. So let's get started. The first position you need to understand is the defensive position. And so you might be asking, when am I in a defensive position in doubles? You're in a defensive position when the ball is traveling behind you.

So what this might look like is that your partner is about to hit the ball back to the opponent's side. This means you're in a defensive position because if your partner hits the ball too close to the opposite opponent's net player, they can attack you. 

And that's why you want to first create some space away from the opponent's player as they might be attacking. And secondly, we want to cover up the biggest part of the court that can hidden, which is the middle. So there's only three places you can really cover that they can really hit is back to my partner, which means they reset the point through the middle. 

They're trying to attack and the smaller portion over here because we can't cover the entire court. What we want to do is take away the two biggest parts and leave them the more difficult shot to hit. This doesn't mean we'll never cover that, but the only reason we cover that is because after a while, they keep hitting it and we have to adjust.

But you want to stick to the main game plan, which is covering up the big portions of the court. So this goes back to this is the defensive position, making sure that when my partner is about to hit the ball, I'm looking at the net player to make sure I'm ready just in case they attack.

Now, once they don't attack because the ball goes past them, this is where we need to start going on offense and this is where most players falter.

They just stay in the same spot because they don't attack. I need to take advantage of this now and move up following the path of the ball and putting myself in a much more stronger position where I can attack, meaning that I'm closer to net and I'm presenting myself in the way of my opponent's baseliner shot. 

So as they hit their shot, I now have this opportunity to cut across and attack the opposite net player. This is why moving up into this offensive position and then cutting across is so important. Now you may say, Hey, what if I cut across and I don't hit the ball? That's totally fine. Then you move back in your defensive position. 

So what this makes is a triangle as you're playing the point and as the ball is going back and forward, you have this triangle action of being in defense, looking at my opponent's partner at the net, making sure they're not attacking.

Once I realize they're not attacking, moving up to go into offense and then seeing if I have an opportunity to attack and then either attacking and then moving back into defense. This is so powerful when you understand how to do it, because you'll find yourself putting yourself in better position in doubles to be more aggressive.

If you're just statically standing in one position, looking back and forward, you're not really playing doubles. This is also why so many players say, I want to play doubles because you know what? I don't have to move that much. If you're thinking that you're not really playing aggressive doubles now, we want to really hit home and understand the timing of it because this is so, so important. 

So when we're in the defensive position, it's really important as your partner is about to hit the ball that you do not move forward until the ball passes your opponent's net player. So many times players get this confused and they start moving forward as their partner is hitting the ball and what they're actually doing is moving into a potential attack. 

So really understand the timing is key here. I'm moving back looking at my opponent's net player, making sure are they moving forward? And the timing to get this right is the moment they don't take a step forward. Then I now get to take a step forward after my partner hits the ball, after my partner hits the ball. 

The second key distinction is making sure that you follow the ball following the path of the ball is super important because if my partner hits the ball very wide and I run towards the middle of the court, then I'm leaving too much of the line open.

What you want to do is really make sure that you stay slightly in front, but off of the baseliner as they're moving out to hit the ball. So it's really important that you follow the line of the ball making sure that you keep your opponent's baseliner slightly in front of you, but off. 

Meaning that they're in front and slightly off to the left, I don't want to over cover, so I'll follow this up once you get to this position. Timing is key. You shouldn't move towards the middle of the court unless your opponent is in their swing. Too many times. 

Players start to move to cut towards the middle too early, and they give away their positioning, meaning that as the baseline person is hitting they see you moving and then they go down the line. This is such a big reason why so many players are afraid of getting passed down the line is because they have poor timing. 

And so what they do instead of getting better timing, they actually choose not to attack the middle and just to stay back on the line and guard their line. This is a mistake. Most of the big points that you want to start winning are going to come through the middle of the court, and it's a good thing if you get past down the line as a side, if you get past the line, it's a good thing because of this.

If you're moving the right way, you are getting in front of your opponent, making them choose something different. They are reacting because you're doing this and you're making them hit towards the sideline, which could potentially go out. And really, what they're saying is we don't like what you're doing. 

We don't like that. You're cutting across, putting pressure on my ball. And that's a great message too many times when we get burnt on the line once. Guess what we do? We stop because we say, Oh, I got burnt down the line. Well, that's not the answer. 

The answer is to keep being aggressive. If you do get burnt down the line, there's other options like faking. So once we get in, we're waiting for the timing. They start their swing and then I'm going to move across to potentially attack. 

Now it's potential because if the ball's too far, I won't be able to attack it and I'm going to have to move back on defense if the ball's too low. That's another situation that we'll talk about in Strategy two. But here's the key. Making sure that the timing that you're using is correct because if you move too early, especially from your defensive to offensive position, you'll be moving into an attack.

And then if you move too early from cutting across, then you're going to leave too much court open. Once you have the timing correct, this will really put you in an offensive position to really control the court and put so much more pressure on your opponents. 

So in summary, number one, you have to know is the ball behind you or is it in front of you if it's behind you? You need to position yourself in a defensive position, making sure you're looking at the net player anticipating them to potentially attack. 

Number two, if you're in an offensive position, is because the ball has crossed the net player and now it's arriving at the baseline player on the other side of the net. Make sure you follow the ball on that path to put yourself in front, but slightly off of your opponent. 

Number three, make sure the timing is correct. Make sure you're not cutting across too early. You have to wait for your opponent to start their swing before you can start cutting across, because by them starting their swing, they have to sort of commit to the swing.

And if they want to change it, they're going to have to slow down, causing them to make more mistakes. And that's exactly what you want if you want to be a successful doubles player.