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bad in doubles

1K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  Angle Queen 
1) Have a good partner! - preferably someone with experience at net, who can put away those easy volleys.

2) Serve and volley - to be a great doubles player you need to perfect your serve volley technique. I'd also recommend using the wide serve at least 70% of the time to put pressure on the returner and set up some easy put aways (coupled with 1).

3) Try to dominate the net - at club-level doubles the team which can get command of the net more often usually wins. Not sure, but this probably goes for the pros as well. Your approach shot doesn't have to be as precise as in singles as you have the extra net coverage, but still try to keep it low and deep to force a high passing shot.

4) Work on your lobs - a shot you can live without in singles but you're dead in the water if you can't hit a good lob in doubles. Practice your top-spin lobs and defensive lobs - you'll need both!

That's about all I can think of for the time being. As the above poster says, try to have fun. Doubles is much more a social thing than singles, and you can have a great laugh if you don't take it too seriously. If you want to keep improving, just play lots of doubles. This may of course mean sacrificing some of the time you devote to singles, but you'll reap the benefits when you find you have a much more well-rounded singles game (due to the skills you've learnt from doubles).#

Hope this helps :)
Great tips. I agree with them all. Especially the lob part - my main flaw in doubles.
 
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