Getting Out of Harm's Way

In the last lesson, we touched on this topic: if you are your team's net player, if the opposing net player is about to take the next shot, and if you feel endangered, what should you do? I said to step aside to your alley, conceding the point.

Let's look closer now.

This situation can be dangerous sometimes. Especially if one team has switched so that opposing net players are directly opposite each other, instead of kitty-cornered. Other things can happen too. For example you might guess wrong or slip and be caught in a bad spot at that moment. Whatever, if you feel endangered, just get out of the way.

Unless that opposing net player is an unsporting jerk, he or she isn't aiming at you: they are aiming at the angular gap between you and your partner. So, just get away from that area.

Some social doubles players think you shouldn't have to. They think the hitter must hit where you ain't. Wrong. The rules are consistent and very clear on this. If you get hit by a dead ball, it's nothing. If you get hit by a ball in play, YOU lose the point, not the player who hit it. In other words, the responsibility for not getting hit is yours alone.

Why are the rules set up like this? Because otherwise there would be no end of unfair interference with the opposition's shots. Especially in doubles, where you could use a net player to control where your opponents may aim, while still having a partner free to actually play tennis. You could even have one partner position so as to require the opposition to hit self-masochistic shots into known poaching traps for you. Or you could stand inside the service box to make it immoral for them to hit a serve in.

As the rules stand, if you get in the way of an opponent's shot, he or she has the right to either hit you or invoke the Hindrance Rule against you for hindering their shot with the fear of hitting you.

So, when you're caught right in front of an opposing volleyer about to wham the ball, just step aside. Get away from the gap.

That doesn't mean "run backwards." It means step sideways, toward your alley. For added insurance, do so with a pivot that turns your back to the net, so that if you do get hit, it will be in the back.

The next time you get a chance, watch professional doubles. The pros make this move all the time.

It's easy to learn. Stand in your deuce court and step across yourself with your left foot toward the right alley. In the ad court, step across yourself with the right foot toward the left alley.

One step. One step is usually all it takes to get you out of harm's way.