Doubles Lesson: How and When to Poach 

My experience is as follows. 1. You should know the distance you can cover with a volley on your left and right side. This will help you to know where you should stand in the box to relatively cover the easier shots. 1.1. Don't cover 100% of your alley. This will put you too close to the side and you will not be effective at the net. In fact, you should cover no more than half of your alley with a wide stretch(to the opponent it should look like you are not covering it, so if you put your hands to the side the racquet should barely touch the inside line). 1.2. The alley shot is the riskiest shot in doubles and if your opponent is attempting it, then you should tempt them to do so because you would be winning most of the times. 2. Don't move sideways when you are trying to poach. The opponent is always watching, thinking that you can just go unnoticed is not a good idea. 2.1. Instead of sideways step forward towards the net. You can deviate a little by going diagonal, but as soon as you step more to the side, you will be noticed 2.2. Moving forward looks very similar to moving sideways to the opponent and it will even make them hit at you more often thinking you are poaching 2.3. The closer you are to the net, the fewer balls you will catch under it and the smaller the court becomes for your opponent. Make 4-5 balls in a roll and you will quickly see how your opponent is going for too much and missing even the easiest of shots. 3. You should be moving forward and back 80% of the time you are at the net. If you are not moving then it becomes very easy to spot when you decide to move even if it is forward. 3.1. Don't forget to move back after an unsuccessful poach, otherwise, you are leaving your side undefended. When defending you should be at about middle of the box(wide) a step inside(long). This way any poach from your opponent hit crosscourt will end up at you.

I think there is a definite connection between a player’s comfort and confidence to poach and their volley skills and play style. I been coaching high school tennis for a long time and I spent more time teaching players how to move and hit volleys because they didn’t have the skills to carry out tactics. I find that starting practice with mini tennis inside the service box and working on volley placement and footwork helps. I direct my local USTA doubles league and observe recreational players seldom actually practice and make all the mistakes you mentioned. We run doubles clinics twice a month and spend lots of time teaching volley technique. My slogan is “ do the drills to build the skills “ and “ practice the way you want to play “.

This was really helpful after my doubles match from yesterday.

really concrete examples of what to do in doubles. play cat and mouse, yes. see a slice, go and get it. and i really liked the tip to watch for the hips to move because i was always waiting form the hit. i hope this helps and i will try and recall next time i play.

Awesome! Would love to see you with the live ball. Appreciate the content!

As usual, always good instruction. Would have been even better with live demonstration. Thanks!!

The point about going to the net cord was a great reminder to keep moving forward. will incorporate the ball machine into this. Thanks for another great learning opportunity.

I feel on a wide serve the net player should cover the alley and not worry to much about the center. So often an excellent wide serve gets banged down the line cause the net player over commits to the cross court poach. So in reality this is where team communication comes into it so you both know where the serves landing. Good topic for future vids.

2:22 - Learn to reach the center of the net as fast as possible 3:42 - When to make the move

Great video and good tips....I'm sure this method can be very effective, but leaving the line so open on a wide serve is high risk tennis. Make sure you have an understanding partner.

I agree with Darien:::: timing of poaching demonstration with balls would have been great

is hip movig forward better sign ? i was told as the racket comes forward, poach. but then alot of times i get late on the poach if i wait til racket comes forward

This video would be better if there were serves / returns / poaching actually showed in the video.

What lvl is 80% of balls poachable at the center line? I play 3.5-4.0 doubles and most of my successful poaches come just shy of mid returner’s box

Where is the demonstration? Too much talk and talk and talk....