The Fundamental Concepts of Poaching in Tennis Doubles

One of your fellow subscribers, Jake, wrote to me today and asked a great question about poaching in doubles.

I got a little carried away with my answer and sort of got into my philosophy of poaching in doubles…

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“Brent,

Thanks for the great tips. One thing I wanted to ask though, on poaching, sometimes I find myself trying to poach and the ball is about 2 inches out of reach when I get to it.

This sorta screens my partner and “fakes” him out thinking that I’m making a play on the ball.

When I in fact miss, he is frozen in his tracks and can’t recover and make a play on the ball from the baseline. Any advice on this scenario?” Jake, NC

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Hi Jake and good to hear from you…

Your partner has to evaluate whether or not you’ll be able to get to that return of serve, and if the evaluation is that you might not, he must be prepared to take it even if you do get to it at the last second.

Make sure you’re reaching for that return of serve with your feet (sounds obvious), and not reaching first with your racket hand. Common mistake… We want on balance movement.

The biggest benefit to movement with balance is you maintain much better visual contact with the ball.

Even if you’re not the quickest guy at the club, players who “see the ball” well will make better decisions about when to receive the incoming ball, shot type, and shot placement accuracy.

Practice moving to cut off the return of serve with your elbows to your side for at least your first 2 steps so you start your movement on balance.

This way you insure that your feet are actually taking you to the middle of the court and that you’re not just “leaning” out there.

Being on balance when you poach allows you to make better decisions, not only with shot selection, but with your ability to be ready for the next shot should it come back to you quickly.

Another way to practice moving the feet first is to master the “fake poach”.

In fact, I believe, the fake poach is the most important weapon the net player in doubles has at any given moment during a point.

I always try to establish the fake poach first in a doubles match rather than trying to establish the poach first.

I want to show movement to my opponents, and a good fake draws your opponents’ shots directly to you where you’re naturally better balanced with better angles for your shot.

Once that fake is established in my opponents’ minds, then the actual poach is much, much more available and effective.

The big problem that net players get into is thinking that their poach must work as a put away each and every time.

That thought causes lots of doubt in the potential poacher’s mind, not the returner’s mind, and the fear of failing on a poach causes players to stay put, exactly what a returner of serve wants.

Effective poaching is much more about showing “movement” to that returner which

can be visually distracting causing unforced errors,
can force the returner to wait for the very last moment to decide where they are going to play their return (either back cross court, up your alley, or a lob) which means that their return will not have as big a swing shape and probably be played at a slower pace,
and can cause enough doubt that the rest of their game is simply not as confident as when they are returning serve big time.

Showing movement can be either a poach, a fake poach, and/or an early fake and then poach. There are lots of combinations and they should all be used.

I teach my students, and my doubles partners and I agree, that as a net player we are either poaching or faking on every serve, never ever standing completely still.

So, if we signal with either the open hand (poach) or closed fist before each serve, the closed fist is not a signal to stay, it’s a signal to fake, to show some form of movement.

The art of poaching (when your partner is serving) is simply being able to show different forms of movement that will bring the return of serve to you because you fake so well that it appears you’re crossing and the returner of serve plays their shot right back to you.

This gives you a chance to either put away their return, or more likely, allow your serving partner to get to a good net position.

Good poachers cause lots and lots of unforced errors off of their opponent’s returns of serve.

If you get a chance to watch a really good poacher, you’ll discover that they don’t really put away a ton of returns of serve by crossing into the middle of the court, but in fact, they cause lots of unforced errors, and they also enable their partner to get to a good net position without having to play a tough first volley or 1/2 volley on their way to that good net position.

And we all know that whichever team achives that good net position first during any given point, that team’s chance of winning the point goes up dramatically.

So, blah, blah, blah, what’s the point here?

Your job as the server’s partner is not to have to always end the point with a great put away volley as you fly across the middle of the court, but to help your partner not have to play a tough 1st volley or 1/2 volley.

You do that more by causing unforced errors with your movement

by faking and drawing that return back to you so your partner gets to that really good volley net position as you play your volley or overhead,
by forcing the returner to play slower shots cross court back to your partner which equates to easier 1st volleys and 1/2 volleys, and yes,
and of course by you from time to time moving into the middle of the court and intercepting that cross cour return of serve and sticking your volley into your opponents “open space” and having the guys out on the porch stand up and cheering for you!

To be a good poacher you’ll need four things:

1. Attitude – you must want to “control” the returner of serve

2. Movement with Balance – Better visual contact with the tennis ball equates to better decision making

3. Volleys and an Overhead – You don’t have to own the greatest volleys and biggest overhead of all time, but you have to be able to play these shots well enough that you don’t set up your opponents and be on balance enough as you play these shots so you can re-claim your good net position to get ready for your opponents’ next shot.

Good fundamental stroke mechanics allow you to be consistent with your shot making AND allow you to recover back to a good net position.

4. Attitude #2 – You must be willing to accept the fact that you’re going to lose some points along the way with your movement. You have to embrace the big picture and not evaluate how you’re doing by each and every point.

If I poach into the middle and a miss a volley, I pretty much can assume that my opponent is thinking that I don’t want to risk poaching and missing again on the very next point, so I always poach into the middle immediately again after I miss a volley.

I want to maintain “control” in that returner’s mind that they are going to have to deal with my movement point after point after point after point after point…

And your serving partner had better not ever give you crap if you move into the middle and miss a volley. If they ever do, drop that partner in a heartbeat and find someone who gets this poaching thing…

Brent

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