Stop The Bleeding

Doubles tennis is based more on strategy than singles is. In singles there are a few types of styles: serve and volley, aggressive baseliner, defensive baseliner. But in doubles you can mix and match those styles based on who is playing with you. ANY strategy you can come up with based on those styles is applicable to the game.

Say I am a serve and volley guy and my partner is an aggressive baseliner. Then I could come to the net and he could stay back and blast forehands all day. The thing that you want to make sure that you know is that even though we play one up at the net and one back, that is not the ONLY way we can play.

If the other team finds out a flaw in our strategy and exploits it, and we don't adapt and change our strategy, then we are sitting ducks.

If a team is beating you, the answer might be not to work harder but smarter. It is a fatal flaw to think that simply playing better physically will win you matches. Not many people can sustain a higher level oftennis for so long. But you can playsmarter much longer.

In singles, not everyone is smart. Only a few people will be able to think their way around strategically in a match. But in doubles, there is ALWAYS at least one analyst in the pair on the other side of the net. There is most likely going to be strategic shifts in game play. In a good long match, the strategies shift for one team about twice a match. Once both of the teams figure out more weaknesses, they will pursue and create more opportunities with the same strategy. Then it will become an endurance race to see who can concentrate enough to stay on their game plan while hiding their team's weaknesses.

I once played a doubles match that was a three set match. A long one. The other team just started to play smarter. When we finally developed astrategy that set us on equal terms, we were able to pull out the win based on being able to handle the pressure better (7-5). When we stepped off the court, this man came up to us and said that we won because we were more physically gifted (some sort of backhanded complement). But if that were the case,it wouldn't have gone three sets. Keep your wits about you!!