Thursday, September 27, 2007

More on the Up-and-Back Formation of Tennis Doubles

A bit more on the Up-and-Back Formation.

Poaching, of course, makes sense only if your team is in the Up-and-Back Formation. So, if you avoid the Up-and-Back Formation, remove poaching from your list of ways to score.

Poaching wins many points in doubles. You set up your team with but one net player. You put him or her on the right side or the left side of your court.

Any opposing back-player must keep the ball away from your net player.

Easy? Not when your net player can poach.

I could give more examples, like the Switch Trick Play. It's an Up-and-Back Formation play.

Yes, doubles becomes so simple you can be brain-dead while you play it if you never use the Up-and-Back Formation. That's because you're either both-up banging angle-volleys at the alleys all the time . . . or both-back scrambling to keep pushing the ball back into play.

You have no other options, no other things to try. Your banging/pushing either works or it doesn't.

Which is why it's ironic to hear people say that playing the Up-and-Back Formation marks you as ignorant. For, saying that is what marks a person as ignorant.

The strategically ideal formation is the Both-Up. Most teams have the weapons to play it at least occasionally and should. The last resort is the Both-Back Formation. Bt no formation (or any of its variations) is "bad." They all have their place in the game.

As I showed in two earlier posts on this subject, those who cry out against the Up-and-Back Formation are losing so many points because they don't know how to play it. (1) They look back to watch their partner hit the ball. (2) They switch for lobs over their net player. (3) They park in one spot instead of moving to give their baseline partner a wide enough hitting lane. Yes, anyone who makes these blunders is going to lose a ton of points to volleys through the gap between partners.

Just as you'll lose a ton of points if you play both-up without preventing good lobs.

Therefore, don't condemn a formation. Just learn how to play them all, and you will get satisfaction and fun out of your game. There's more to the Up-and-Back Formation than the other two, so you might have to exercise a brain cell or two to learn that one.

But if you're not too intellectually lazy to do that, so what?

A huge part of the fun in doubles comes through the mental battle of trying to outfox your opponents. It's a blast.

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2 Comments:

At 2:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

thank you - what I need to know as a Social Doubles Tennis player is where at the begining of the first set, who decides the the positons of play., that is, the server and their partner and when the first rotation begins after the first game and each game thereafter, who moves to which position on side of the court rotated to? Is this a fast rule of tennis or is it adhoc based on the socialiblity of the players?

 
At 6:10 PM, Blogger Kathy said...

I'm unaware of any rules about this, though I suppose an organized league or club might establish one to make things run smoothly. Players usually just sort themselves into teams, deciding sides, ends, and who serves the first game. Then, if you rotate clockwise, everyone gets a chance at every position and with every partner.

 

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