45 yr male, newbie, love the sport. We have a few guys that play once a week, we dont know any better and have been playing doubles with partners standing side by side. It seems as though from reading here that we are the only ones doing the side by side position. Are we total ding-a-lings for doing this or do some people play doubles side by side. Thnx for any help.
I'm not an expert at this but I will try and tell you what I know - I belive I've heard that side by side is more of a defensive position. I see people change to from front-back to side-side when they expect a smash. - On the contrary, I've heard that front back position is more offensive. - IMO side by side is the good if you don't really know your partner. Like...if you go to a club and a random set of individuals are jumbled together for a game. Nobody knows whose weaknesses/strenghts are what . - If you can get a partner to stick with, maybe you can talk it over with him. I believe your supposed to switch positions constantly according to where your partner is forced to go.
that is correct, side by side is a defensive position, front - back is used in offensive because the person in the back has to move less to smash clears, and the person in front can intercept any shots or kill off any bad shots. you switch to side to side if your opponents have forced you to hit a clear and you excpect a smash. if i'm wrong, someone correct me.
I agree with both of the replies above. Generally when your team serves, you should be standing front and back. The front person would kill and bad returns and the back person attacks by smashing or dropping. Switch to side by side for defense. I also have a problem of my own. Whenever I flick serve, my team tends to get killed because I find it really hard to defend against a smash return when we're in the front and back formation. Any help would be appreciated
After you flick serve, step back into side by side position unless the receiver is slow to respond, in which case stay in front ready to kill any weak return. Another possibility is your flick is not fast or deep enough. If flicking to center line is intercepted w/o problem, try flicking to far corner.
