Loser or Winner
One of the most important traits I look for in any partner is their desire to win.
A desire to win can overcome many technical and tactical shortcomings a player might have. When I'm looking for a doubles partner I ask two questions:
- Do I enjoy being with this person?
- Do they play to win and are not the sort of person who plays AT winning? There is a BIG difference.
People who are so-called losers are actually pretty comfortable with losing. In fact, they expect to and get good at losing.
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Winners on the other hand hate losing. Just like expect to lose and do lose, winners expect to win.
Always Talking
All the best doubles teams talk to each other all the time. Just watch any professional doubles match and you'll see the players come together after every point.
Ignoring your partner means you won't have a connection during those crucial moments when you need to stand strong together.
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The more time you spend with someone, the more of a connection you end up having with each other. You begin to think along the same lines and even finish each other's sentences when you're speaking.
Every single point involves your team either serving or returning.
You should come together, at least briefly, to discuss where you want to serve and what your partner should do. The same goes for the return. Once you pick up on the serves of the opponents, you should discuss possible return strategy, even if it's "just try and get a racquet on it."
Not Now
If you and your doubles partner follow one rule, this is it: There should never be any negative communication between the two of you on the court.
When you are on the court you have to be positive, whatever happens. Every potentially negative situation can be reframed to a positive. If you feel you can't reframe most things in to a positive with your partner then you're playing with the wrong person.
Wait until after the match to give constructive criticism or discuss how to improve your play.
Communication
I don't need to tell you that the area of communication is huge.
Your success as a team is not just confined to what you do on the court. If you get together with your partner off the court, it's much easier to prepare for an upcoming match.
Before the match:
- Talk about how you want to play;
- Try charting out your plans on a notepad and review them before the match;
- Travel to your match in the same car.
Good communication means talking about how to overcome hurdles, not just commiserating about them. You want a dialogue about what is happening in the match and what to do about it.
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When people ask me how much they should talk to/communicate with their partner, I always fall on the side of over-communication.
During the match:
- Get into the habit of calling even the most obvious ball;
- Have the baseline (cross court) player calling most of the shots because they have the best view of what is happening over the whole court. As a result, they become responsible for calling lobs, staying and moving etc.;
- Walk onto and off the court together, come together at the changeovers and walk off the court to your bench/chair.
This will help your team building as well as present a unified front to your opponents, which can have a profound effect over the course of the match, especially if they don't do it.
Energy Output
When putting your team together, you need to try and match up with someone that compliments your energy output.
This doesn't mean how hard you or partner tries. Energy output is more directly related to your playing tempo, which we all have.
If you tend to have a fast tempo to your play, then choose someone that is on the other side of the "tempo scale." Pick someone who is a bit slower and methodical or vice versa.
There will be times during matches when the team will need to keep calm. Two high energy output partners will have difficulty adjusting and could lose the match.
Likewise, other situations will require a higher intensity and two slow "ploddy" players will likely struggle.
If you have a good balance of each type then the "UP" player can pull the other one up and the "DOWN" player can calm things down when necessary.
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