The Basic Overall Strategy of Doubles

This week will be themed around the specific topic in the title. A very good Joe Baker video, Doubles Pickleball - The Basic Overall Strategy, explains what is going on in a pickleball game. The video's stated intent is to provide spectators and newcomers with an understanding of what pickleball players are doing and why they are doing it. Unlike most videos I include on this site, it is not about the how-to's of pickleball, but about the why's.

The video breaks a rally down into 4 phases, each of which will be covered in a separate article. The video is long - over 16 minutes - and contains way too much information for a single post.

Let's start with acknowledging that the goal of the players is to win the rally. The strategy they use during play should support and enable that goal. The video states that the overriding strategy is:

"The main initial goal in doubles pickleball is to get your team to the net while trying to keep your opponents away from it. The team that controls the net controls the match. The statistic is this: when you are facing a team at the net, if you can't get your team to the net, you've got a 70 percent chance of losing the point."

The video explains that getting to the net provides tactical advantages by opening the court to both horizontal and vertical opportunities.

With that knowledge as background, the phases of a point are:

1. The Formality Phase
2. The Service Team Struggle to the Net
3. Dinking
4. Fast Play

We will cover these separately over the next several days. Much of the content shown in the articles will be sourced directly from the videos.

But, before moving on, I will point out that there is very little new information here for regular readers. I have covered these topics in past articles to which I will refer during these discussions. For example, I emphasized the importance of controlling the net in You. Must. Get. To. The. (No-Volley) Line and Pickleball Statistical Analysis - Getting to the Net. The nice thing is about a theme week is that a lot of information gets consolidated. Another nice thing is that my advice gets affirmed by an expert. 

The video is shown below. This post covers the first 5 minutes. I will include the video each day as we move through it section by section.