So, I decided to really get into Ena Shibahara’s tennis lately. You see her name pop up, especially in doubles, and I got curious. I thought, alright, let’s break this down. What’s the secret sauce? My “practice” for the week was to become a Shibahara-ologist, if you will.
First Impressions and a Bit of a Muddle
I started off watching a bunch of her matches. Clips on the internet, full matches when I could find them. My first thought was, okay, solid groundstrokes. Good fundamentals. But honestly, who at that level doesn’t have solid groundstrokes? That wasn’t it. I was looking for that one thing, that signature move or strategy I could point to.
Then I focused on her doubles game, ’cause that’s where she’s made a big name. I tried to watch her positioning, her net play, how she moved with her partner. And you know what? It was kind of all over the place. Not in a bad way, mind you! But one match, she’d be super aggressive at the net, cutting off everything. Next match, more patient, playing angles from the back. I was trying to find a consistent pattern, a “Shibahara system,” and it felt like I was trying to catch smoke with my bare hands. It was frustrating, actually.
My Own Doubles Debacle – A Flashback
This whole process threw me back to when I first got serious about trying to play decent doubles myself, years ago. I wasn’t trying to go pro, just not embarrass myself at the local club. I bought a couple of books, watched some coaching videos. You know, the ones that say “partner A does this, so partner B must do that.” Seemed logical on paper.
Then I dragged my friend Mike onto the court. He’s a casual player but has decent instincts. We were a disaster. A complete mess. We were running into each other, leaving alleys wide open a truck could drive through. I was trying to apply the “rules” I’d learned, calling out “Yours! Mine! Cover!” like a maniac. Mike, after we shanked another easy volley, just stopped and started laughing. He said, “Man, you’re trying to play chess, but this is more like jazz. You gotta feel it, not just follow a script.” That really stuck with me. He was right. I was so busy trying to implement what I thought was the “correct” strategy that I wasn’t actually playing tennis or paying attention to what was happening.
The Click – It’s Not a Formula
And watching Shibahara after remembering that? It finally clicked. Especially seeing her play with different partners over her career. There isn’t one single “Shibahara method” for doubles. What I was seeing was adaptation. It was her reading the game, her opponents, her own partner’s strengths and mood on that particular day. It’s that “feel” Mike was talking about.
Her volleys, for example. Sometimes they are killer put-aways. Other times, they are these incredibly deft touch shots, just redirecting pace, finding an awkward spot for the opponents. It’s not about having just one type of volley; it’s about having the right one at the right time. And that’s not something you just drill into yourself like a robot.
So, What Did I Learn?
So, my “practice” of dissecting Ena Shibahara’s tennis didn’t give me a neat checklist of techniques to copy. Thank goodness, in a way. Instead, I started to appreciate the sheer intuition and adaptability involved, especially in doubles. It’s way more than just hitting good shots or knowing where to stand based on a diagram.
It’s like, you see these top players, and you might think if you just copy their forehand grip or their serve motion, you’ll get a piece of their magic. But nah. The real magic is often in the stuff that’s harder to see, harder to quantify. It’s in the head, in the gut. And for Shibahara, a big part of her game seems to be that incredible adaptability and court sense, especially with a partner. You can’t just download that. You gotta develop it. And watching her, I got a much better sense of what that actually looks like in action. It’s a constant series of adjustments, not a fixed plan. That was my big takeaway.
