Compass Doubles Drill

Doubles compass drills are great training routines geared to improve shot making during doubles matches. I first tried these many years ago with my doubles partner, Chris Johnson from the Worcester area. I first met Chris as a candidate for the PTR at a testing course I ran at Falmouth. Chris was former number one at Umass and we instantly became friends. Being both alumni gave us a common ground. We decided to play USTA New England doubles tournaments. We had some great wins. My singles wasn’t great but in doubles I specialized. I’ve always viewed singles as training for doubles and vice versa. I’ll share the drills now:

1. Cross Court rally using doubles alleys, using inside and outside groundstrokes. Stay in the diagonal positions. Switch sides of court and repeat (ad and deuce courts). This is great practice for keeping the ball away from the net player. Every once in a while you can announce that you’re going to change the ball down the line and then you can continue the drill in the shifted down the line position. It’s easier to hit a down the line with your inside groundstroke rather than your outside one. Still, practicing the outside groundstroke down the line is good because it happens when you face an active poacher at the net

2. Down the Line rally using doubles alleys, using inside and outside groundstrokes. Switch sides of court and repeat. Simply keep all your groundstrokes on the side of the court straight ahead using the ally’s. Notice this can be a challenge with a higher net and less court. You can also announce change and stroke cross to change directions of the rally to the diagonal cross court rally. This helps you manage direction against the poacher.

3. Repeat with one up one back, both in the diagonal and down the line positions. Be sure to include overheads as well as volleys. When taking volleys practice just inside the service line and also close to the net. This creates eight possible court positions to go around the compass with offensive (6 feet from net) and defensive (mid court transition) volley zones. This covers every position you’ll face plus direction change if you call it.

4. After completing compass add in the serve and return of serve and play points out cross court.

This whole compass drill workout takes one hour if you keep it moving. It’s an amazing workout.

To this day it’s my favorite training tool for doubles. Keeping score is optional but when practicing form and skill consistency this isn’t ideal. Getting reps in is paramount to improvement and sharpness. At the end portion of the session playing out points when adding the serve and return simulates actual doubles competition and is perfect for developing mental toughness in game play. The other compass drills also can be done adding a score component to focus on a particular formation adding the mental toughness component restricted to one compass point you’re working on.

See the diagrams to show you the court positions for training one on one doubles drills and games. There are more and I’ll add them in. Here are some great ones to get your power hour started with your training partner. These drills are the same ones I do at our doubles clinics. Enjoy!