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A lob goes over your partner at the back. Do you help?
Your partner's ball is your partner's ball. Shade toward the middle and cover the reply.
You are both defending. A lob goes deep over your partner into their corner. What is your role?
Your partner's ball is your partner's ball. Shade toward the middle and cover the reply.
Why
When a lob takes your partner deep into their corner, the temptation is to help; the useful thing is to stay in your half and drift toward the middle. Your partner will play the ball, probably a defensive lob or a lift, and the opponents' next shot will most likely be a volley toward the middle or at the space you would have left. Holding your half and shading central covers both. The pair defends as a unit, and the unit only works if each player owns their half.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Stay on your side, move a step toward the middle, and be ready. Your partner has their ball.
Intermediate
Watch the opponents, not your partner. Their movement tells you where the next ball is going before it is hit.
Advanced
If your partner's reply is going to be weak, you can see it from their body, start moving back and central early, because a smash is coming and the reply to it will be through the middle.
Common questions
You are both defending. A lob goes deep over your partner into their corner. What is your role?
Hold your half, shade to the middle for the reply. Your partner's ball is your partner's ball. Shade toward the middle and cover the reply. When a lob takes your partner deep into their corner, the temptation is to help; the useful thing is to stay in your half and drift toward the middle. Your partner will play the ball, probably a defensive lob or a lift, and the opponents' next shot will most likely be a volley toward the middle or at the space you would have left. Holding your half and shading central covers both. The pair defends as a unit, and the unit only works if each player owns their half.
Why not come forward to the net?
Coming forward while your partner is deep in the corner splits the pair front and back. Stay level with them.
What should a beginner do here?
Stay on your side, move a step toward the middle, and be ready. Your partner has their ball.
How does this change for an advanced player?
If your partner's reply is going to be weak, you can see it from their body, start moving back and central early, because a smash is coming and the reply to it will be through the middle.
Puzzles like this one
The 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.
beginnerThe ball is coming off the back glass. When do you hit it?
Move back with the ball, let it pass you, hit it in front of your body.
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.