1. The rope
You are not defending two halves of a court, you are defending one court, together.
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Step 1 of 3
Picture a three-metre rope between you and your partner.
Why · It never stretches. The whole lesson follows from that one constraint.
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Step 2 of 3
When one of you moves, the other moves at the same moment, in the same direction.
Why · The pair slides sideways as one block, without ever pulling apart.
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Step 3 of 3
One player at the net, the other left at the back: the rope snaps and the middle lane opens.
Why · This is the most common positioning mistake, and the most expensive.
2. Sliding across
The ball leaves from one side: the whole pair goes to that side.
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Step 1 of 3
Your opponent strikes from his left side, so from your right.
Why · The only reading that matters right now: which side the ball is on.
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Step 2 of 3
You both slide to that side and close the line down.
Why · Down the line is the shortest and fastest shot: that is the one you refuse.
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Step 3 of 3
The cross-court stays open, and that is deliberate: it is longer, you have time to get there.
Why · Closing both sides at once is impossible. You choose the one you give away.
3. The three lights
The height at which your opponent meets the ball tells you to step in, hold, or step back.
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Step 1 of 3
Low ball, below the knees, a botched ball off the glass: green light, you step in and close.
Why · From down there he can neither hit through you nor pass you — he is forced to lift the ball.
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Step 2 of 3
Ball at mid-height: amber light, you hold your ground and bend your knees.
Why · Nothing yet says who is attacking. You wait half a second longer for the information.
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Step 3 of 3
High, comfortable ball — often your own failed lob: red light, one step back, racket in front of your body.
Why · From that height he aims at your feet or your hip. Stepping back one metre turns the impossible into the playable.
4. The middle
The ball that goes between the two of you is the hardest to defend. It is also the one to play.
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Step 1 of 3
More than four metres apart, you leave a lane down the middle.
Why · Neither of you reaches it, and neither feels responsible. You are watching from the opponent about to strike: that is where the lane shows.
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Step 2 of 3
Close up: the middle shuts, and both sides stay reachable.
Why · You protect the centre first, never the lines.
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Step 3 of 3
Turn the idea back on them: a ball down the middle makes them hesitate over who takes it.
Why · By default it belongs to whoever has the forehand on it — say so out loud.
5. The lob goes over
You have just lost the net. What follows decides the rest of the point.
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Step 1 of 3
The lob goes over the player on the right.
Why · From that moment the pair is no longer attacking: it is organising its defence.
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Step 2 of 3
You both drop back, together, and you let the ball bounce and come off the glass.
Why · If only one drops back, the rope snaps and your opponent plays into the hole left at the net. A ball to the back is played after the glass, not before.
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Step 3 of 3
Too far for him: you switch. Your partner takes the ball off the glass, you shift across to his side.
Why · The switch is decided early and called out — here, as soon as it bounces. Decided late, the ball drops a second time and the point is gone.
The scenes
The symbols
He reaches the ball
The green tick appears above the player, with the distance measured on the simulation.
It escapes him
The red cross says by how much, and why. If the ball passes above him, it is the height it passed at that is shown.
The reach
The dotted circle has a radius of 1.3 m. It makes visible, beyond argument, whether a ball was reachable.
The zones
Green, orange, red: the zone the current step is talking about. Its name is written inside, or just beside it when it is too narrow.
The ball
Its shadow on the ground says where it will bounce; the trail, where it comes from. When a player holds it, the trail disappears.
The figures
Dark, your pair. Light, the opponents. The player the step is about is brought forward, the others are dimmed.
The lessons · lesson 1 of 6
Where to stand depending on where your opponent strikes the ball. Five animated situations, then three questions to check it landed.
Three questions
Your opponent is in trouble, he strikes a low ball from the back, on your right. What does your pair do?
Low ball means green light: you step in. And you slide to the ball's side to close the line down.
You are at the net. Your opponent is about to strike a high, comfortable ball, above his shoulder.
Red light. From up there he aims at your feet or your hip: one metre back makes the ball playable.
A lob goes over your partner, on the right. You are on the left.
The pair drops back as one block. The switch is decided early and called out, otherwise the court is left empty.