Poaching – Part II (How to Poach)
In Part I of this article, we discussed that the key to successful poaching in doubles is not so much a result of how you poach, but when you poach.
In this article, we’ll look at the technical aspects of poaching.
To review what we learned in the first article, successful poaching requires educated anticipation on the part of the poacher to give him an early, extra step and several more feet of distance to make the poach.
The key here is the word “educated.” Randomly guessing when to poach, or poaching out of frustration is not effective. Net players must watch their opponents to gauge the opponent’s comfort level, anticipating a weak ball if the opponent is out of position or backing up. Poaching off the serve should also be done in communication with your partner, as the poach is more effective off a serve down the middle, because it takes away the alley shot (the poacher does not have to cover this) and forces the receiver to hit the ball inside out in order to keep it away from the net person.
How to Poach
There are two keys to effective poaching mechanics, both having to do with the direction of the poach.
First, players MUST continue across the center service line after they poach, taking the opposite side of the court after they make their volley, for three key reasons. If a player poaches only to the center service line in order to stay on “her side of the court,” this will: 1) reduce her range on the poach; 2) keep her weight out of the volley; and 3) confuse her partner who will not know whether she should cover behind her partner or stay where she is.
Make sure your players know that when they poach, it is a full commitment, with no going back. If you’ve ever seen two players in an I formation, there’s a better than even chance that the net person poached and came back. Once you poach, it’s your partner’s responsibility to switch behind you and cover you.
One key reason players do not poach more often, or without more commitment, is that they believe they have to cover the entire width of the court from alley to alley, and that they don’t have the speed to do this.
In fact, a net player only needs to take two steps past the center service line to effective cover a crosscourt groundstroke from an opponent. Taking just two steps past the center service line allows the net person to cover almost all of the possible return angle of the opponent. If an opponent can hit a crosscourt winner in the few feet the net person leaves open, it’s a rare shot.
Give up the miracle shot in order to set up the winning poach you can expect the other 95 percent of the time.
The second key aspect to poaching is to cut off the ball on an angle — this means poaching forward, closing the net. Many players poach laterally, allowing the ball more time to move away from them crosscourt. Poachers are also able to get less weight into the ball if they are moving laterally instead of forward.
The diagram our Poaching on an Angle drill shows the diagonal path a poacher should take.
Remember, if you have decided to poach, you are making an all-or-nothing commitment and you should not sacrifice your angles and ability to put the ball away by hanging back to cover a lob. Teach your players to close and get on top of the net for this putaway.
Summary
Teach your players to poach moving completely across the center service line and on angle. They will immediately see how much more court they can cover, how much better they can poach, and how much easier and more effective poaching can be when combined with the anticipation they learned in your prior poaching drills.
For more on poaching, see these related articles.
