Triangle ...of Death!

There are times in the course of some doubles games where you might find yourself not on the kitchen line, but your partner and your two opponents are all set at the line. Okay, "Triangle of Death" might be a bit hyperbolic, but this formation can spell trouble because of simple geometry. Here is a diagram that shows the configuration of players I am referring to.

Proceed with caution if your partner is at the net

Figure 1

In Figure 1, you can see that both opponents are set at the kitchen line (the red circles), my partner is at the net (the black circle), and I am back near the baseline (the No Fun Pickleball). I have the ball near the baseline, and I have to make a decision about where to send it.

The most important thing in this situation is to do my best to send a ball that forces my opponents to hit up from below the level of the net. Any ball that is high, they will be able to hit down at my feet or my partner's feet because they are ready at the kitchen line.

Even if I hit a slower ball to the player on the right side and I begin to move up the court, there is a sizeable gap between myself and my partner that the player on the right side can aim for.

Figure 2

In Figure 2, you can see this gap makes a sizeable target for the player on the right. This is double trouble if my drop shot is higher than I meant for it to be. The faster that opponent can send that ball between me and my partner, the harder it's going to be for either one of us to put a paddle on it. It is also worth noting that the angle becomes better for the player down the line the closer my shot gets to the outside lane. The angle on that gap narrows toward the middle. And by sending the ball cross court, it takes away my opponents' angle on that large gap almost completely (Figure 3).

Figure 3

Hitting the cross court shot has the following benefits.

1. It removes the angle on the gap.
2. It's a longer distance, which gives me a few more milliseconds to advance through the transition zone.
3. I have more margin for error on the longer line.

Hit the slow ball and chase it to the net. If your ball was slow enough and your opponents can't attack it, and if you successfully get all the way to the kitchen line in one shot, congratulations! That is ideal, but if your drop wasn't quite that good, or you weren't quite fast enough to get all the way to the kitchen line in one stroke, not to worry. Whatever ground you gained will hopefully make your next shot even easier to dink so you can get all the way to the kitchen and begin building or rebuilding your point. That is the way to neutralize that potentially dangerous situation.

Is that all? Well, we should think a minute about how you got into this situation and whether it could be avoided.

There are legitimate reasons for one player to be at the kitchen line and one player to be back, but more often than not, this occurs because of a strategic mistake.

Scenario 1: You got lobbed

Perhaps the most common and most legitimate reason this triangular formation can occur is because your team has been lobbed. One person ran back to retrieve the lob and the other person stayed up at the net. If your partner stayed at the net, they either have great confidence that you will hit an unattackable ball from the baseline, they believe they have amazingly fast hands in case you don't hit a great ball, or they don't understand the potential problems this situation can pose.

If you and your partner are inconsistent with your drops, it might be best to retreat off the line together if you get lobbed. You will need to communicate about who is taking the shot, but by staying together, you don't leave one player at the net exposed to fast hard balls because the reset was too high. Hopefully, you can work your way back up to the line and get back in the game.

Scenario 2: Return of serve

Some players see that the return of serve went to their partner and they run to the net before their partner even hits the ball. For advanced players who hit reliably unattackable balls, this can be a good strategy, but for most players, this can spell danger. As a rule, it is best to wait and judge the quality of your partner's third shot before you run up to the net. It can also be beneficial to move together as a team. Again, advanced players may move around on the court more independently because they trust their partners to make reliable shots, they have greater athleticism, and they have fast reflexes that allow them to clean up and reset on occasions when things weren't perfect.

Scenario 3: Retreating off the line

If you were at the line at one point, but you find that you have progressively backed off the line because your opponents were hitting shots at your feet, or if you were simply sliding backward to take balls off the bounce and you never closed back on the line, well, that's not a good idea. If you get moved back far enough to create this triangle of death gap between you and your partner, that's even worse.

The best way to avoid this is to stay on that line. It's okay to take a step back and let the ball bounce, but if you have to step back more than one step, odds are you could have hit a volley (when you hit the ball out of the air) instead of hitting a ground stroke (when you let it bounce before you hit the ball). This is the whole reason you want to be just behind the Non-Volley Zone! ...so you can volley! Stay up near that line, get comfortable hitting volleys, and if you have to back off the line to hit a ground stroke, move back to the line before your opponents send it back to you.

The other side of the coin

If my opponents are split and the player in the back court hits down the line rather than cross court to me, I need to be looking to hit that angle between my opponent at the net and the opponent in the back court.

I hope you find these articles helpful. Thanks for stopping by.

No Fun David