Top Five Tips For A Better Doubles Warm-up

Recently, I had a student say to me after a lesson, “Mo, can you tell me how to handle it when your opponents won't allow you to warm-up before a match? It takes me a whole set just to get into a rhythm because they won't hit the ball back to me during the warm-up.”I could see the distress in her face as she described her frustration. I didn't have a convenient answer at the time, other than to suggest that she try to go out early, before the match and warm-up with her husband or a teammate—as the pros do. I previously had other players broach this issue before, but her words prompted me to thinking more seriously about this dilemma.

This also took me back to a session I had with a student (call him “Joe”) who uncovered the reason why he would try to rip a winner—versus hitting cooperatively—pass me when I approached the net: After some thought, he revealed that a former hitting partner of his would approach the net and slam the first volley away for a winner. “Joe” continued to say that he started going for an outright passing shots because it upset him that his partner would hit winners off his cooperative groundstrokes. When this starts happening, neither player is focused on the process of hitting cooperatively. The warm-up or practice session has now turned into a first-strike contest of winners.

The bottom line, I believe, is that most players have never learned or have never been taught how to properly warm-up or hit cooperatively. For instance, I see players standing right on the services line trying to hit mini-tennis strokes; or, standing well inside the service line—too close to one another—to perform a volley-to-volley warm-up. Why is this happening? First and foremost, I don't believe teaching pros are addressing this issue enough with their students; and second, televised tennis matches very rarely show the professional players cooperatively hitting to one another before the match starts. We may get to see snippets of the baseline to baseline warm-up; a few volleys at net; a few overheads, but that’s about it. Hence, I have come up with my top five tips for a better doubles warm-up (this also applies to singles):

1. GROUNDSTROKES FIRST – Hitting mini-tennis groundstrokes first gives players the opportunity to “wake-up” the feet before moving on to something else, like the volley-to-volley warm-up, which requires faster reaction time and quicker, smaller steps. Too often players attempt volley-to-volley warm-up first without having a good feel for the ball and not being ready for quick movements.
2. BETTER COURT POSITIONING – As I mentioned earlier, I see players plant their feet right at the service and attempt to hit mini groundstrokes. This is a huge mistake because a lot of recreational players have only marginal footwork at best (let’s be honest), and don’t have the directional or velocity control of the ball to execute a good volley-to-volley exchange. The proper positioning for executing mini-tennis ground strokes is in between the baseline and the service line—not on the service line. From this position, you can perform easy, full swings which will help you better groove your swing path and get a good feel for the ball before moving back to hit full court.

3. FOCUS ON ONE STROKE AT A TIME – I recommend getting the rhythm and feel for one stroke at a time and not trying to mix forehands and backhands right away. For instance, if two players are warming up on the left side of the court first, hit down the line forehand to backhand (if both are right-handers) and then change it up to backhand to forehand. I often have players tell me that they had to work hard in the warm-up just to get adequate repetitions on a particular stroke (e.i., run around the forehand to hit backhands because the opponent could hit only to their forehand). If your opponent can't hit down the line properly, you can warm-up with your partner (if they have better directional control). The warm-up shouldn’t be a frustrating venture that leads to even more frustration while playing because the warm-up was insufficient.
   

4. CHANGE SIDES – During doubles play, formations change a lot, so you are not going to hit shots from only one side of the court for the entire match. Hence, you should hit warm-up shots from BOTH sides of the court; regardless of the side of the court from which you will receive serve. You should regard the warm-up as a prelude to every possible shot that you will hit during the match—not merely the shot(s) you think you will hit most often.
5. HIT CROSSCOURT … ESPECIALLY RETURN OF SERVE – This is the most important and most used shot, and from my experience, it is the most neglected shot in the warm-up. Again, most players only focus on hitting down the line on their side of the court. When play begins, players must make a huge adjustment in directing their shots crosscourt away from the net person. This is another reason it takes so many players at least a set just to get into a rhythm and develop feel for all of their shots. So take the time during the warm-up to rally crosscourt and hit some crosscourt return of serves.
   
   

I believe that the pre-match warm-up is not so much about warming up your opponent, but more about getting yourself ready for the battle ahead. It is a chance to gauge the strokes of an unfamiliar opponent, establish your rhythm and contact points, and get your feet moving. Knowing this, some players may choose to engage in a little gamesmanship and purposely hit the ball away from you; therefore rendering the warm-up useless.

U.S.T.A rules state, “a player should make a special effort to hit his shots directly to his opponent” during the warm-up. But this doesn’t always happen, even at the elite level of the game. Tennis Hall of Famer Chris Evert, was quoted in a June 2011 New York Times article as saying, “There were a couple of players that just didn’t want you to get a good warm-up,” she said. “We’d hit a couple of shots and then she’d hit one for a winner or end the rallies quick so you didn’t get into a groove. I kind of laughed it off and kind of rolled my eyes.”

Good advice coming from a world-class player, because if your opponent is not hitting shots back to you, neither of you are warming up sufficiently. And if your opponent is slamming winners during the warm-up, chances are he/she won’t be able to hit those same type of shots during the match.

Another good piece of advice to come my way is to roll the balls back to your opponent after he/she hits a winner (don’t feed it) so that he/she will have to start the rally and you can at least hit a few shots this way. Keep rolling the balls back to them if they refuse to hit cooperatively. They will either get the message or they will be catching more balls rolled to them than they will be returning groundstrokes. Have fun and feel free to let me know how this works out for you.