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Speaker A: Doubles tennis drills. There are a variety of doubles tennis drills, but the
one I'd like to talk about today is what we call the criss-cross drill, or the poaching
drill. And, in doubles, often both players are going to be at the net. And when they're
both at the net, a lot of times one player will cut in front of the other player to get
a ball and put it away, and in a put away volley. We call that a poach. Where one player
crosses over to the other player's side and makes a strong volley to win the point.
So what we are going to show you is a drill where both players are at the net, and the
feeder or pro is on the other side of the net. And the feeder feeds the ball cross court,
the person on the other side cuts across, makes a volley, the other player comes around
and switches to the side that the other player left, and they make a volley. So it's volley,
volley. Poach, and a criss-cross, OK. So that's the doubles drill that I like, what do you
think, Kirk?
Speaker B: I like the drill when the player makes the poach. The emphasis should be on
closing in towards the net, not just moving to the side. It's not nearly as an aggressive
of a play, if you are moving laterally. Think of volleying as aggressive, think of volleying
as closing in to make that volley.
Speaker A: Right. And I think also what we emphasize to our students, when we do this
drill is that a big part of poaching is anticipation. You have to anticipate that your opponents
are going to hit the ball cross court and you have to start moving just as they take
their swing. Otherwise, you're not going to make that poach. So the criss-cross drill,
or the poaching drill, is a fantastic doubles drill.