WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR PARTNER WON'T PLAY AS A TEAM

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR DOUBLES PARTNER WON'T PLAY AS A TEAM?

Open play and ladder leagues often leave players without partners who choose to play their own game from their side of the court and stall their forward progress at the transition zone, while you advance to the NVZ line.  As you attempt a one on two soft game with your opponents, your "mule-headed" partner resorts to doing what they do best, which is all they know how to do, play their out of control,  clumsy, backcourt bangers game of wayward, smashing, forehands, and sloppy, slamming, backhands, completely oblivious to the winning finesse strategy of soft dinking and hard put-aways at the net." And post game they have the unmitigated  gall to proclaim themselves as intermediate players, who lost the game because of your inability to keep pace with them. 

Mike Swartz, the owner of Simon Pickleball Machines Company, a ranked 5.0 player and a close friend, told me in a recent phone call, that his core group consists mostly of 5.0 and some 4.5 players. They only play the NVZ line net game of control pace changing soft cross-court dinking and  sustained hard back and forth volleying, often resetting the point as many as 5 times or more before the rally ends.  At times their rally's involve as many as 25 shots before the point is captured or service is lost.  Swartz and his crew will not play with anyone who does not play their finesse style pickleball.  If you demonstrate the skills and you want to learn, they will teach you.  But you don't play until they decide you are ready and can play.

Mike said this is a common practice in his neck of the woods. Players stay within their skill levels and playing styles.  Just because you are ranked as  4.5 does not mean you can play the finesses style of advanced level pickleball.

So, what do you do when you get a partner who can't or won't play your style of the soft pace changing game at the NVZ line?

1. If your partner choices to  hang around at mid-court and bang his/her way through the entire game, you can choose to play the NVZ line on both sides of the court poaching most every short shot that comes over the net, smashing the pop fly's and letting your back court buddy return the shots that get past you.
2. Turn the game into a self practice session for experimenting new spin servers and spin returns, practicing your drop shots from different spots around the court, testing out your lobbing skills on your opponents.
3. Trade off partners with other players who will play your style of pickleball game.
4. Do not play down to match your partner or take it easy on a lower skilled opponent. You are diminishing your game, and doing your opponent a disservice, of experiencing first hand higher level play.

Barb Elgin here's a nice post by Sarah Ansboury that quotes the issue of 'partnering' https://sarahansboury.com/setting-pickleball-goals/

Joseph Palmere Jr. BARB: Sara is great at leaving her points open-ended. Her advice to playing with partners she don’t know, puts the blame on your shoulders . . . . you are not a good communicator and you don’t play with a positive attitude, never mind the fact that you tried to play nice with these folks and you see where it got you. And you are one of the most positive players I know, always trying to support your partner.
Sara’s 3 Keys to better pickleball are straight from the Pickleball 101 Handbook: #1 Know your weaknesses and work to improve them. You know well that your tend to favor the backhand over the forehand, and it often gets you in trouble. Remember the 3-B’s . . . Backhand – Bad – In Backcourt. #2 Know your strengths. Again you have a great forehand but you still choose the backhand. #3 improve In both areas. Apparently you are a poor communicator, with a bad attitude, and a preference for a weak backhand over a strong forehand . . . and you believe it.

If you try to civilly communicate with a different partner in each ladder league game, about moving as a synchronized team, and playing the control game at the net, and your partner ignores your suggestion, you really can't do much except play a solo game covering as much of the NVZ as you can, poaching all the close shots and letting the uncooperative partner hang in the back court and return the long shots.  Or you could hang back about 3-4' from the NVZ and cover your side of the court, and charging to the NVZ to hit a put-away or start a one or two shot dink game and try for a sharp angled put-away to the opponent who's weak hand is guarding his sideline.  You are most likely only going to get one chance to pull this off, so make it good.

Next game complain to the league captain that you don't want to partner with that player in the future.