Are You Making These Net Positioning Mistakes on the Doubles Court? 3 Common Issues & Fixes

Many club-level doubles players and coaches focus relentlessly on technique. These players spend hours each month trying to perfect their forehands, backhands, returns, and volleys, often watching dozens of online videos or listening to their coach tell them over and over, all the things wrong with their grip, unit turn, knee bend, wrist snap, follow-through, etc.

These players often spend years stuck at the same level, only seeing incremental improvements.

One thing I’ve learned over the past decade working with players at every level of doubles is that changing your technique is HARD. So today, you’re going to learn something easy.

If you think you stink at the net, hate getting lobbed, or miss too many volleys, my lesson below will help.

Positioning, literally where you stand and how you move on the tennis court, can totally transform your results. Plus, it’s way easier to change than your grip or technique on your shots.

These are the three most common positioning and movement mistakes I see at the net from doubles players, especially at the 3.0 to 4.5 skill level.

Mistake #1: Standing too far back.

I hosted a doubles camp in Atlanta with Peter Freeman from Crunch Time Coaching last week, and one of our students said that she wanted to “get more comfortable at the net.” She thought that she wasn’t a good net player, and that’s why she’s better at singles.

This is a common complaint from doubles players. They think their volleys stink, they can’t figure out the right grip, or maybe their coach tells them they need to stop swinging… “Just punch the ball!”

Their unfortunate conclusion is that they’re simply not a good net player. But often that’s not true.

After playing several live ball games where she had to play at the net, I noticed that she’s actually quite good at the net. She just rarely plays there.

Whether her partner was serving, rallying, or she was approaching, she positioned herself on or just inside the service line nearly every time.

I told her to play closer to the net, and she started to make more volleys, force errors, and even hit a few winners. Her volleys weren’t the problem. It was her position.

Why standing further back is a problem

If you stand near the service line, you can create all sorts of issues.

• The ball will drop after crossing the net, so you’ll hit a ton of volleys from down low by your knees or ankles. This is tough for anyone.
• The net is further away, so you have to lift the volley above the net, but not too high because you’ll give the opponents an easy next ball. That requires some high-level technique that most players below 4.5 do not consistently have. So when they miss the volley in the net or give their opponent an easy short ball, they conclude, incorrectly, that they have bad volleys.
• You have no angles from so far back, so you can’t finish the volley or put the opponent in an uncomfortable position. Volleys from near the service line are difficult enough to make and not get hurt, much less finish.

The reality is that volleys from around the service line are hard. Few players can hit consistent, offensive volleys from that area of the court.

So… STOP PLAYING THERE!

What are the best times to play close to the net?

Here are the situations where it will typically benefit you to stand closer to the net.

• On your partner’s 1st serve.
• During a baseline rally, when the opponent is hitting from a defensive position.
• When both opponents are at the baseline.

These are all offensive situations, so you need to be in an offensive position, close to the net.

I recommend making contact with the ball as close to the net as possible. You should be able to reach out and touch the net with your racquet – don’t do it though 😜. To do that, you might start close, or start a bit further back and move forward for your volley.

Mistake #2: Standing too close.

Wait… you just said we’re too far back!

I know, let me explain.

One of my favorite doubles drills starts with an approach shot. One team ends up with both players at the net, while the other ends up in a one-up, one-back formation.

We ran this drill last week, and the player who had their partner back at the baseline often got picked on, which can be a great tactic for the team with both players up.

In defensive situations, you need time to react to the opponents’ offensive shots. The easiest way to give yourself time is to move back. If you stay close while your partner is hitting, then the opposing net player might move and pick off a groundstroke that will end up in your chest or worse… 😵

What are the best times to stay further back?

These are several common situations where you’ll want to step back a bit at the net to give yourself more time.

• The opponent’s strong 1st serve.
• During a baseline rally, when your partner is hitting or on defense.
• Your partner’s weak 2nd serve.
• Both opponents are at the net.

These are all neutral to defensive situations. You’re trying to stay alive during the point and give yourself time to get back to neutral or offense. In many of these scenarios, you’re doing good to win three or four out of ten points.

Pro Tip: If you find yourself in these situations regularly, make adjustments. Create a new strategy to counter the opponents’ tactics.

Mistake #3: Moving to the alley or middle at the wrong time.

We’ve discussed moving forward and back, but what about lateral movement?

This might be the most misunderstood type of movement for club doubles players.

I see many players who NEVER use lateral movement at the net. This makes you predictable and easy to avoid for the opponents. Not good. Other players move the wrong way at the wrong time.

I’ve created some rules below to simplify lateral movement for you.

When to move to the middle.

If you’re reading this, there’s a 99% chance you don’t move to the middle enough. Here are my rules that you can try in your next match.

Move to the middle if…

1. Your partner has a first serve.
2. Your partner hits a good shot to the baseline player, especially with depth, spin, or pace.
3. The opponent has a backhand from the ad court. Most righties can’t hit this down the line.
4. The opponent is about to hit from 3+ feet behind the baseline.
5. The crosscourt opponent has a short ball, an easy volley, or an overhead. Move back and take away the middle to make them hit a lower percentage angle.

At the doubles camp last week, I had to remind one player 5+ times to stand closer to the middle on their partner’s first serve. Look at the singles sideline. Look at the center service line. You should be right in between them. If you’re closer to the alley than the middle, you’re giving the opponent way too much crosscourt space to hit into.

Pro Tip: Except #5, these are all offensive situations, so generally when you move to the middle, you’ll also move forward.

When to move towards the doubles alley.

If you’re still reading this, you probably do this too often. But there are situations when moving towards the alley does make sense.

Move to “cover the alley” if…

• The down-the-line opponent has an easy short ball, especially a forehand.
• Your partner has a super weak 2nd serve, and the opponent has already beaten you 2-3 times without missing.
• The opponent has a particular shot that they’ve proven they can make down the line consistently. This is rare, but some ad court players like their inside-in forehand, for example.

The HUGE MISTAKE I often see here is that a net player gets beat once, so they start covering the alley. What they don’t take into account is all the attempts down the line that the opponent missed, plus the volleys they got by moving to the middle.

Pro Tip: Keep a mental tally of the opponents’ down-the-line makes and attempts. Just the other day, I was playing a mixed doubles match and got passed three times down the alley. The opponents also missed eight, so I won 8/11 points on down-the-line shots. I’ll take that all day long!

In the defensive situations above, the opponent down the line from you has an offensive shot. So, you want to force them to hit crosscourt to your partner, who has more time to react.

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