High Lob Hindered

Mar 06, 2008
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Handling a Lobbed Return of Serve in Doubles
by: Kathy K

First, that is a good doubles tactic. Believe it or not, back in the golden age of doubles, it was a dreaded one. Perfect lobbing of the service return can defeat perfect smashing.

So the first thing to do is make any attitude adjustment you might need to make. Respect the tactic and don't be disappointed with yourself for having difficulty with it.

In direct answer to your question, yes, it is better to overhead that lob, and it is better to bounce it first.

The is because of the tremendous speed a ball falling from a great height has. It's just falling (and accelerating) too fast to time. Bouncing it has the disadvantage of forcing you to play it from farther back, but a bounced lob is falling much slower into your hitting zone.

That kind of smash is almost like a serve, except that you don't control the toss. If you are missing too many, try stepping inside the baseline and driving the ball on the fly. You get a nice angle this way, and you deny them much reaction time. You may be able to follow this drive-volley to the net.

MOST IMPORTANT: either way, you and your partner are switching when this happens. Be sure to switch properly so that your partner isn't in the way of your shot. You partner crosses to the deep, wide corner of the other service court so that you can hit your return anywhere. Now you have nasty options! At the sound of your shot, your partner pops out into the normal net-playing position.

After the switch, he is right in front of the opposing net player and can easily switch-poach your opponents' next shot. (The Switch Trick Play). In other words, this strategy turns the tables by simply taking advantage of what they're doing when they make your team switch.

If that explanation is hard to picture, you can see a more complete one with court diagrams here - on the switching doubles page.

Another possible solution is to position your partner back at the baseline, but I would save that as a last resort and try other things first. If you do resort to this strategy, consider having the server follow serve to the net.

Using the Australian formation might give your opponents a problem they find hard to solve. Which side of the court do they lob to then?

Normally, that's a poaching formation. But in this case you wouldn't have to use it that way.

If they adjust, then throw the I-Formation at them so they never know which side your net partner will take.

You can even play serve-and-volley from either the Australian or I-Formation to really make things interesting. The I-Formation is complex though, so you and your partner have to carefully coordinate your actions.

In short, to halt almost any attack, all you need do is throw something unexpected before the opposition. I'll bet that this would at least keep the service returner back at the baseline so that the Switch Trick would then work perfectly.

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Mar 06, 2008
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Submitted by: Kathy K

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First, that is a good doubles tactic. Believe it or not, back in the golden age of doubles, it was a dreaded one. Perfect lobbing of the service return can defeat perfect smashing. So the first thing to do is make any attitude adjustment you might need to make. Respect the tactic and don't be disappointed with yourself for having difficulty with it. In direct answer to your question, yes, it is better to overhead that lob, and it is better to bounce it first. The is because of the tremendous speed a ball falling from a great height has. It's just falling (and accelerating) too fast to time. Bouncing it has the disadvantage of forcing you to play it from farther back, but a bounced lob is falling much slower into your hitting zone. That kind of smash is almost like a serve, except that you don't control the toss. If you are missing too many, try stepping inside the baseline and driving the ball on the fly. You get a nice angle this way, and you deny them much reaction time. You may be able to follow this drive-volley to the net. MOST IMPORTANT: either way, you and your partner are switching when this happens. Be sure to switch properly so that your partner isn't in the way of your shot. You partner crosses to the deep, wide corner of the other service court so that you can hit your return anywhere. Now you have nasty options! At the sound of your shot, your partner pops out into the normal net-playing position. After the switch, he is right in front of the opposing net player and can easily switch-poach your opponents' next shot. (The Switch Trick Play). In other words, this strategy turns the tables by simply taking advantage of what they're doing when they make your team switch. If that explanation is hard to picture, you can see a more complete one with court diagrams here - on the <a href="http://www.operationdoubles.com/switching_tennis_doubles.htm">switching doubles page.</a> Another possible solution is to position your partner back at the baseline, but I would save that as a last resort and try other things first. If you do resort to this strategy, consider having the server follow serve to the net. Using the Australian formation might give your opponents a problem they find hard to solve. Which side of the court do they lob to then? Normally, that's a poaching formation. But in this case you wouldn't have to use it that way. If they adjust, then throw the I-Formation at them so they never know which side your net partner will take. You can even play serve-and-volley from either the Australian or I-Formation to really make things interesting. The I-Formation is complex though, so you and your partner have to carefully coordinate your actions. In short, to halt almost any attack, all you need do is throw something unexpected before the opposition. I'll bet that this would at least keep the service returner back at the baseline so that the Switch Trick would then work perfectly.

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