Attacking as a pair
Tactics · Advanced
Explanation
openIn attack, your pair plays out its greatest strength: you can put the opponent under pressure and close the gaps immediately at the same time. This works through the clear division of tasks between back and front.
The rear-court player is the engine of the attack. From the back they set the hard, deep strokes — the smash, the pressing drive — that force the opponent to lift the Speeder or bring it back weakly. They keep the pressure up.
The attacking player at the front is the finisher. They lie in wait for the weak return that the pressure from behind produces, and finish it short and hard before the opponent gets sorted. Their job is interception and ending it — they stand ready to put away any short, high answer immediately.
Together this makes a pincer: one presses, the other snaps shut. As long as this rhythm runs — pressure from behind, finish from the front — your pair stays in attack and the opponent on the defensive.
You are hammer and anvil. The rear-court player is the hammer that strikes from behind; the attacking player is the anvil at the front on which the weak ball breaks. If either is missing, the attack fizzles out.
The most common mistake is that both stay back and the opponent's short balls fall unpunished. Without a player at the front to finish, even the best pressure from behind stays ineffective.
Exercise
openPressure and finish
Goal
Hold the attack as a pair — the rear-court player presses, the attacking player finishes.
How to do it
- Set up as a pair: one at the back as rear-court player, one at the front as attacking player.
- The rear-court player sets deep, pressing strokes that the feeding opponent can only bring back high or short.
- The attacking player at the front intercepts these weak returns and finishes them short.
- Keep the rhythm over several balls: pressure at the back, finish at the front.
- Switch roles after a few rounds.
Self-check
Does the attacking player really intercept the short balls, or do they fall unpunished? Does the pressure from behind stay high enough to force weak returns? The attack only holds when both roles work together.
Wrap-up
The pincer of pressure and finish is the basic figure of the doubles attack. Once it's in place, your pair becomes hard to stop in attack.
Classification
- Playing goals
- Doubles-specific solutions, Answer to defensive players
- Prerequisites
- Doubles as its own game, Setting up the smash