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Tennis Tips & Instruction: Tennis Doubles Strategy: The Switch Trick Play |
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He will conquer who has learnt the art of deviation. Such is the art of maneuvering.
— Sun Tsu on The Art of War
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The tennis court diagram below shows why Team AB wants Team CD to switch for this lob: Team AB's net player can easily poach that return for a putaway through the Hole. The first few times she gets away with this, people usually regard it as awesome play by Player B. But if it happens once too often, they blame it on poor play by Player C. They say she hits too close to Player B. But look again: That shot isn't too close to Player B. In fact, I've seen Player B cut off (slow) shots practically going down the left alley!
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What good is Player D here? True, he expects Player A, not Player B, to hit the ball. But even if that did happen, what good is he here? To avoid his net partner, Player A would hit down the line. If Player D realizes this and positions closer to center for a chance to cut off the next shot, he just becomes more of a block and a poaching blind. |
Seldom does anybody notice that this poaching happens only on the return of a lob Team AB switched for. So, what should Player C do? lob the lob back? Well, that would prevent a successful poach. But the main problem here isn't what Player C does; it's what Player D does. He might as well be playing for the other team. Especially if he's close to the net or the centerline or both.
To see how, let's take another look at this play from cagey Player B's point of view. The diagrams below illustrate. To review: Player C is returning a lob over her net partner that causes her team to switch. So, let's read her mind.
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In STEP 2, she (Player C) sees all that room straight ahead and no reason to lob. So she can be counted on to drive the ball down the line, leaving ample margin for error. Player B can poach with impunity in this situation. Especially if her partner's lob landed near center, or if Player D crowds the net or centerline, or both. The shadow in STEP 2 illustrates: Player D casts a protective shadow over a large and crucial part of Team AB's court.
How so? For one thing, Player D is in his partner's way, blocking a shot to that side. And that's the only shot a poaching Player B need fear — the one behind her, to the side she vacates. Poaching is normally risky, but not when a player on the other team covers that part of your court for you.
Plus, Player D isn't just a block, he's also camouflage. Switching has left him in his partner's line of sight on the poacher. All the more so if Player D crowds the net or centerline, or if Player C hits from center. Notice also that the poacher has improved her situation by crowding the net to help put Player D between her and Player C.
How does camouflage work? Since Player C must watch the ball, she sees Player B only peripherally. Peripherally, she has no depth perception. Normally that's no problem; any premature movement or antsiness on Player B's part would jump out of the background and come to consciousness as a warning that she's going to poach. But in this situation the poacher can position so that the hitter's partner is between them. Then the poacher's body lines are partially blocked out by Player D's body lines in the corner of Player C's eye.
Yes, this is the same principle as the one behind the art of military camouflage: Break up the lines of what you want to hide; though in plain sight, when viewed from a distance or peripherally (i.e., without depth perception) it will be virtually invisible. And what's out of sight is out of mind.
So, though normally a poacher must worry about a shot behind her and be careful not to betray her intent or jump the gun, in this situation she has a poaching block and camouflage. She can get a big jump on the ball without getting burnt.
But what if Player C lobs?
Good question. Though a lob is a good choice for Player C's return, it just prevents the poach, it doesn't really hurt Team AB. Their attempt to poach will amount to a switch for this lob. And that's good, for their switching unswitches the switch. That is, it puts the opposing net players kitty-cornered from each other again. Which is what Team AB wants when it's their turn to hit the ball.
But what if Player C lobs down the line? Unless she's familiar with Operation Doubles Tennis, that's unlikely. We usually lob over an opposing up-player, not to a back-player. Nonetheless, if Player C lobs down the line, Player A has time to cross after he hits the ball. His partner should duck below net level to let him drive over her if he wants to.
But what if they catch on?
Then good for them. But don't count on it. You can run The Switch Trick Play on many teams till the cows come home. That's because many people just blame-lay instead of problem-solve. So they diagnose the problem as Player C hitting too close to Player B and leave it at that.
In fact, Player B poaches these shots so easily it almost seems true. But it isn't true. Player C isn't hitting too close to Player B: Player C is just getting way too big a jump on the ball. She can reach almost anything.
Consequently, Player C gets Player D's blame, and Team CD never figures out what's going on. They don't even realize that these poaches occur only on their returns of the lobs they switched for. So they keep right on switching for your lobs and returning them down the line.
Summary
In summary, here's how to run the Switch Trick Play, broken down to steps:
The Switch Trick Play
| 1. | Your back-player lobs over the opposing up-player to get your opponents to switch. If they will switch for a lob that lands near center, aim there.
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| 2. | Your up-player comes close to the net and hides behind the opposing up-player, watching for the opposing back-player's racket to start coming forward at the ball.
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| 3. | At that instant, he or she crosses to poach the expected straight-ahead shot, volleying it through the Hole.
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"Your Strategy Guide has helped me go from wondering
what happened to making things happen." - Kevin Larson On this topic, "Switching," the Strategy Guide includes the following tutorial video animations:
The illustrated text covers the following subtopics :
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This page was last updated on 4/20/2008.
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