I'm primarily a doubles player right now. I have read a lot in this forums, talked to some good player I know and my question is still this: what are good footwork drills meant specifically for doubles? I mean, do I still do the same drills for singles?
Doubles footwork are mostly lateral movement. Skipping rope regularly helps develop your rhythm and endurance to move on your toes. If skipping rope is too boring for you, try DDR (Dance Dance Revolution)! Stay off your heels when you move unless you're lunging.
there are some footwork drills specially made for doubles players which ur supposed to do with your partner.. The koreans especially came up with a footwork which if u do often enough is supposed ensure u and ur partner can cover the whole court without any loopholes.. and it really works within 2 weeks of training everyday u will see the results... its based more on a rotational type of footwork..
Its really hard to talk about it.. u need two ppl to demonstrate.. it works on a rotation around the court with the two doubles players... like shadow except with 2 ppl. and after practising it for some time.. its incorporated into real game play
Could you perhaps draw it for us if writing about it is too hard? A video with a webcam using dolls probably would do the trick and would be awesome! *wink*
A drill goes something like this: 2 players start front and back, the front player shadows a net kill quickly towards either post or a drive/jump to either side and the rear player reacts immediately by moving to the opposite side and shadowing a drive or rear court smash. More advanced : the front player has the option to go back straight having played one shot to shadow a rear smash before the rear player has recovered from playing his shot, the rear player immediatley becomes the front player and must move in and play a shot. You are now back to the start and the drill continues. This reinforces several points which occur in a real game: that the front player is "in charge" and that the rear player must adjust position relative to the front player to cover the remaining court, it also allows for rotation although you could possibly overuse the rotation of the front player coming back for the opposite lift since this is an option on every shot the rear court player makes... A sample shadowed rally might be : (starting A at front and B at back) A shadows BH net kill - B shadows FH drive- A shadows FH drive- B shadows RTH smash- A shadows FH smash- B moves forwards and shadows FH kill etc
I find that playing drills such as offensive/defensive are more enjoyable than shadow drills. Basically in this drill, one side stays offensive (no clearing) all the time while the other side defend (no smashing). After a few sessions, I felt that my movement around the court improved alot. The only problem is that you do need four players to participate.
The drills we have been doing are limited. What milkteddy suggested is quite a popular multi-shuttle drill in Asia. Timeless and other guys did this rotational drill a few times already but we really lack a good shuttle feeder.
yeah i MUCH prefer offense/defense too hahha.. . its easier to 'cheat' when my coach is watching and its not so tiring.. u can get 3 ppl .. and play 2 against 1.. with the 1 on offense and rotate turns..
heh not exactly multi shuttle drill but multi shuttle drills are good too. . what im talking about is a shadow routine which after awhile we use it to play in normal rallies..
