Question: Is a team strongest both up, both back, or one up and one back?

Answer:

Assuming decent net skills, a team should try to be together at the net whenever the opponents will be hitting from their backcourt and/or defensively. When the opponents have a chance to hit an aggressive shot, your best position is both back. At the intermediate and better levels, you should only be one up and one back at the start of a point while waiting for one of you to join the other.

At lower levels, especially with players who aren't full grown, the split configuration can sometimes work out well, because the opponents hit either dinky groundstrokes or lobs, and the net player can pick off the former while the back player chases the latter.

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