Stacking Walkthrough
Why this drill
Stacking looks like choreography until someone explains the two rules underneath it; then it's just geometry that keeps your forehands in the middle. Walking the rotations rep by rep — before live points — is how a team stops fearing it.
Setup
Full doubles court, four players. Each team picks the partnership it wants to protect — say, keeping the lefty's or the stronger forehand in the middle. A moment of chalk talk first: on your serve, both partners may stand anywhere; the returner's position is fixed by the score, but their partner may stand anywhere too.
The drill
Phase one, serving-team stacks: run ten serves where the serving team lines up stacked — both players on the same half — and unwinds to their preferred sides as the serve travels. No opponents pressing yet; the returning team returns cooperatively deep. Phase two, returning-team stacks: ten returns where the returner slides across after striking and the partner fills. Call positions out loud every rep — "I'm left!" — because the talk is the skill. Phase three: play games to 7 with both teams required to stack on every point. Confusion is the curriculum; sort it with words, not glares.
One thought to take on court
Talk early, slide late — call the alignment before the point, move as the ball crosses.