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The lob is heading to your partner's backhand overhead. Cross or hold?
A lob to the middle-right is the left-side player's forehand overhead. Call it early, cross, partner rotates.
You are on the left at the net, your partner on the right. A lob is going toward your partner's backhand side. Do you cross to take it on your forehand?
A lob to the middle-right is the left-side player's forehand overhead. Call it early, cross, partner rotates.
Why
The left-side player, with the forehand in the middle, owns the lob that comes down the centre or the centre-right. The cross has to be called as soon as the lob is read, "mine" before the ball has peaked, so the partner knows to slide left and cover the space the crosser has left. It works because a forehand overhead is a much better shot than a backhand overhead, and because the rotation is agreed in advance. It fails when the call is late, when the lob is genuinely on the partner's side, or when the crosser cannot get there in balance. Cross for the ball you can attack, not for the ball you can merely reach.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Let your partner take lobs on their side for now. Learn the rotation later, when the overhead is reliable.
Intermediate
Practise the rotation on purpose: you call, you cross, they slide. Do it in warm-ups until it is automatic.
Advanced
The rotation is also a way to hide the weakness: if the opponents see the backhand overhead never gets hit, they stop lobbing it and start lobbing the forehand, where you want them.
Common questions
You are on the left at the net, your partner on the right. A lob is going toward your partner's backhand side. Do you cross to take it on your forehand?
Call it, cross to the forehand; partner slides across. A lob to the middle-right is the left-side player's forehand overhead. Call it early, cross, partner rotates. The left-side player, with the forehand in the middle, owns the lob that comes down the centre or the centre-right. The cross has to be called as soon as the lob is read, "mine" before the ball has peaked, so the partner knows to slide left and cover the space the crosser has left. It works because a forehand overhead is a much better shot than a backhand overhead, and because the rotation is agreed in advance. It fails when the call is late, when the lob is genuinely on the partner's side, or when the crosser cannot get there in balance. Cross for the ball you can attack, not for the ball you can merely reach.
Why not hold, never take your partner's ball?
The middle belongs to the forehand. A lob in the middle-right zone is exactly the one the left-side player should call.
What should a beginner do here?
Let your partner take lobs on their side for now. Learn the rotation later, when the overhead is reliable.
How does this change for an advanced player?
The rotation is also a way to hide the weakness: if the opponents see the backhand overhead never gets hit, they stop lobbing it and start lobbing the forehand, where you want them.
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