The Art of Doubles: Winning Tennis Strategies and Drills

Basic Doubles Strategy. Definitely increases your win percentage.

I have a collection of about 50 tennis books and I have read many others - I'm a bit of a fanatic - and this is one of the best I have read on doubles strategy. I am a 4.0 player but stronger at singles than doubles, which I don't play that often. But I am also in my late 50's and starting to transition into more doubles. My problem is that I really don't have a sophisticated and global understanding of doubles strategy. I go into singles matches with a definite game plan and idea of how I want to win points. But with doubles, I pretty much understand that it is good for both partners to get to the net and control it if possible, but no real understanding of the best ways to do so. This book is perfect for presenting a systematic approach. Blaskower teaches the "California doubles" style. The book is particularly good on explaining court positioning, the role of each team member and shot selection and target. If you are at the level where you are capable of playing serve and volley, this book is particularly appropriate. I am very much seeing a difference in the level of my doubles game and I have only just started to implement the ideas presented in the book. Of course, it is even better if you can find a partner, or partners, willing to read the book and play California doubles, since teamwork and specific roles are essential for success. Blaskower explains which team member should cover lobs, hit cross court, end points, when to poach, etc. Overall very informative and easy to read and the explanatory diagrams are better than most tennis books. I strongly recommend.

A nice book specifically for doubles. In a general tennis sense I would rate it "very good". As a player I hated and evaded doubles for a long time. Well, this book showed me ways to play doubles efficiently and with lots of fun. If you hate doubles like I did a while ago -- consider reading. Most probably you'll find enjoyment in doubles just like I do now. Trust me, there are NO stupid phrases in this book like "if you don't like doubles, it's because you're playing it BAD, WRONG etc.". The author is very delicate about the matter since she truly loves the game.

This book really focused on the aspects of the game that I haven't experienced in such a direct way via classes and team practices. I do recall some of the things in this book being mentioned by the coaches in those classes and practice sessions, but not really going in depth as to why they were wanting us to do things some way or explaining necessarily what skills the drills were supposed to be honing for us. More times than not, I felt totally lost about what my court position should be in a match at any given time. This book and the diagrams in it were exactly what I was looking for to make me a more educated and confident player... court position explanations, where you should be hitting the ball, and describing drills (many of which my coaches have had us doing, but now I know the why of things much better). In addition, this book covers mental aspects of the game... how to read (and avoid telegraphing) mental states physically, how to avoid games some players use by chatting you up before or during matches (or even comments made off court), how to choose partners... well worth a dozen dollars.

What's great about this book is it's helping me understand where to be on the court based on the situation at hand, as well as helping with shot selection and providing some fairly easy to remember rules that I'll be able to apply during a match, e.g. deep to deep, short to short, etc. After you've learned the mechanics of the various tennis shots, this book teaches you about actually playing the game itself. For example, I learned how serving wide, which I liked to do, was not really to my advantage. The book also explained the diminished importance in doubles of "power" tennis shots such as the flat serve and topspin forehand.It's important to make sure you're getting the 2007 edition of this book since the author has updated her doubles strategy from the 'wall axiom' (1993 ed.) to a staggered strategy with a cross court player and a 'terminator.'For what you'd pay for two value meals at McDonald's, you can't beat the slice of doubles knowledge you get from this book.

Good presentation of the author's view of modern doubles. To understand her strategies you need a good understanding of tennis strokes and the game of doubles. I'm an experienced senior player and would find some of the ideas presented hard to implement. That does not mean that you shouldn't try.The game of tennis and doubles is constantly evolving. Though I don't agree with everything she proposes, it is a good book for ideas on how to play the modern game of doubles.

Looks brand new :)

Well-written, good diagrams, and covers the newer "staggered" positioning when playing against a one-up, one-back team. The chapters are clear and if you follow the advice, it makes sense, even if you have to learn new offensive and defensive positioning. Even players above 4.0 will find useful information. Recommended reading for all doubles teams---and I say "teams", because if only one of you are following the positioning advice, it won't work. You need to know what each of you have as your "job", how to work together to cover most balls, and how to solve problems as a team.

Excellent doubles' strategy book. Some of her suggestions are counter to what one typically learns in doubles. However, I have put them to use and they are certainly effective. The only issue (and this is not with the book itself) is that I downloaded it on kindle and because of the diagrams, it doesn't work as well as a hard copy.

Very informative. Looks of detailed information about tactics, strategies, plays, directions, types of partners, choice of sides etc. Easy to tell that it's written by a real 'doubles' specialist who really understands the game of doubles. Geared towards higher level dubs but it's still a informative read even for improvers, students of the game etc. If you like doubles and genuinely want to improve your doubles play and results or gain a better understanding of doubles strategies and plays, it well worth buying.

Great book if you play doubles! Easy read and well written.

Most club players play doubles most of the time. This book is the perfect guide to tactics and strategy on court, with easy to understand explanation and diagrams for each situation and role on court. An entertaining read too. It truly wants to make you go straight out there and play a match. Buy one for your doubles partner!

There is a lot of very useful information in this book to help people who are serious about playing doubles to improve their perforance on court.