Winning Tennis-Doubles

Tennis-Doubles has been a big part of my tennis career. It has provided me with the opportunity to play as part of a team, which is the way I first became involved in sports.

Today most people who enjoy tennis play doubles, because it is more physically forgiving as well as more social, and so more fun.

There is an old saying that the most important aspect of a winning doubles team is the choosing of a partner. It's a little like dating; you want to find the best possible partner, someone who can cheer you up in crucial situations, while at the same time your partner also wants to find someone as good as or better than he or she so to provide support when times get tough.

However, a doubles player may have specific shortcomings that call for a partner with offsetting attributes.

Here is where I can help you work through this dilemma by providing you with strategies to improve communication with your partner on and off court and ways to highlight your team's strengths while downplaying your weaknesses.

The best doubles players and the best doubles teams share several characteristics which include the following:

• The ability to serve consistently and accurately.
• The ability to follow the serve to the net.
• Good volleying skills and quick hands.
• An aggressive "returning" on-court nature.
• Returning serves dependably.
• A good sense of how to use the whole court.
• Making adjustments.
• Enjoying team play.

Doubles also provides unending opportunities for players to use and develop technical, tactical and movement related skills often missed when only practicing and playing singles.

Summary of the benefits of doubles play:

• Provides an opportunity to develop "serve and volley" skills.
• Provides opportunities to execute shots not often hit in singles play such as lobs, volleys, overheads and targeted returns.
• Encourage social interaction, team work and tactical problem solving.
• Develops motor skills related to quickness and improved reflexes.
• Doubles is fun!!.

Each of the player in a tennis-doubles match should be positioned for best advantage and will depend on the player's role on the serving or the returning team. Click here to learn more about player positioning and formations for serving and returning teams.

Great doubles teams equal a perfect combination of doubles partners. Think about the Bryan brothers or Martina Navratilova and Paes. They all have in common a set of principles which make their team successful at all levels.

Click here to learn more about becoming "the perfect doubles partner to play with"

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