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Should you poach the ball crossing in front of you?
Intercept only what you can take in front of you, moving forwards. Anything you reach for belongs to your partner.
You are at the net on the right. A cross-court ball is travelling towards your partner and you could step across and cut it off. Do you?
Intercept only what you can take in front of you, moving forwards. Anything you reach for belongs to your partner.
Why
The intercept is one of the highest-value shots at the net, because you take time away and you hit into a court where nobody is home. But the test is your own body position, not the ball: if you can step across and meet it out in front while your weight moves towards the net, take it and finish. If you have to stretch sideways or backwards, you will produce a weak volley from a position your partner cannot cover, and the space behind you becomes the point.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Leave it. Learn to hold your position and volley the balls that come to you before you start hunting.
Intermediate
Decide as the ball leaves their racket. Late poaching is worse than none at all, because your partner has already committed to it being theirs.
Advanced
Tell your partner you are going, even with a word, and expect them to rotate behind you. An intercept without a rotation is just a hole with a volley in front of it.
Common questions
You are at the net on the right. A cross-court ball is travelling towards your partner and you could step across and cut it off. Do you?
Only if you can finish it going forwards. Intercept only what you can take in front of you, moving forwards. Anything you reach for belongs to your partner. The intercept is one of the highest-value shots at the net, because you take time away and you hit into a court where nobody is home. But the test is your own body position, not the ball: if you can step across and meet it out in front while your weight moves towards the net, take it and finish. If you have to stretch sideways or backwards, you will produce a weak volley from a position your partner cannot cover, and the space behind you becomes the point.
Why not yes, if you can reach it before it passes your partner?
Reach is the wrong test. You can get a racket on plenty of balls from a position that leaves you stretched sideways and your own court wide open behind you.
What should a beginner do here?
Leave it. Learn to hold your position and volley the balls that come to you before you start hunting.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Tell your partner you are going, even with a word, and expect them to rotate behind you. An intercept without a rotation is just a hole with a volley in front of it.
Puzzles like this one
They lobbed you deep. Smash it or play the bandeja?
Deep ball, high hands: bandeja. The shot exists to keep you at the net, not to win the point.
beginnerThe ball is at your feet at the net. What now?
A ball below the net cannot be attacked. Block it deep and wait for one above the tape.
intermediateYour partner got pulled wide. Where do you stand?
The pair moves like one body. When your partner is pulled wide, you take the middle.