When confronted with a losing pattern of play, nearly all competitive tennis players understand that they need to make a change. The point of this short piece is to illustrate that this change must always be undertaken with a strategic foundation and not simply be a different look meant to confuse the opposition.
One of the keys to winning a tennis match is to get your opponent to play worse than her average. The best way to do this is to take away your opponent’s strengths by using intelligent targets and patterns of play. However, there is a second way which is under-appreciated.
In the post-modern world any doubles formation can be justified by the matchups on the court. I will go over a few so that you have a better idea of how and when to use them.
Most tennis players know that they play better when they are relaxed. In fact, step #3 of the 4-D System (see my book: Deconstructing Tennis) makes touching base with a relaxed body/mind a part of the preparation between each and every point.