So lately I have been paying attention to what seems to be a weak spot in my (and my partner's) men's doubles game. 2 things; - We have trouble returning the opponents service half-court (the in between shot) forcing them to play a difficult return if they want to keep the attack or forcing them to lift. Any tips on how to practice these shots is welcome. Also would like to learn to play these shots with more deception. - When we are serving and receive a half-court shot, we are always struggling who should take the shuttle and how to return, a few options; * Play the straight drop. But this is dangerous because it is almost always covered by the player who played the halfcourt shot. * Play the cross drop. Works pretty wel because the angle is steep, but it is pretty hard to do. * Play straight or cross lift, preferably to the opponents rear player backhand. But this way you will give them an open shot for attacking. These are the areas I mean. They are pushed tightly over the net to these areas. Should the front or back player return these shots and what is the best possible return? After playing such a shot the player usually moves forward to cover a straight drop return.
1. When you are receiving Learn the proper footwork and remember in your mind and BODY that these serve always give you time to do something. For the footwork, you just need to shuffle or lunge than hit the shuttle. The problem I often see is players don't move their feet and instead just use their reach to hit the shuttle, often resulting in floppy shots and failing to reach the shuttle. Take your time, move your feet and hit the shuttle. Don't try to reach the shuttle with static legs. For your choice of shot, use the drive(or push), how hard and where to depends on your opponent position, just hit it to the body or empty area. 2. When you serve Again, I advice to use the drive and push shots ---------------------- Whats important in drive and pushess is the trajectory should be flat and downward as possible. try to learn and train these shots. For the first it will be hard on you because you will find your first drives and pushes so high and easily killed off, but the longer you practice it, you will get a flatter trajectory near net height and have a better reaction time.
1. So if I am not mistaken; When the opponent returns the service like this, you think the server should return this shuttlecock? About how far back untill the rear player should play the return? 2. I was more wondering about how to make service returns to these spots in a deceptive way, any tips on that? Maybe there is something with grip or body movement that would improve my shots when trying to do such a shot.
You will need to step forward in returning low serve. If you are not stepping-in toward the serve, you are too far (and shuttle dropped too low) to soft push to the mid-court dead zones. When you are quick and strong enough (backing up fast) for flick serves, then you will have the confidence to stay close to the line and step forward to return low serves. Then comes the practice, racket control (fingers!!! racket head up!!!). Are you at that level yet? If yes, you will be one tough MD team to deal with.
OP, you're talking about net shots/blocks, not drop shots. The latter being an overhead shot from the rear court. Practically speaking, if the server can't get the service return, then the rear player must. Quite simple, isn't it? As a rough guideline: If the serve return is landing level or behind or the server, and the server can't intercept for a flattish shot, then the non server should take it. If the serve return is landing in front of the server then it's the server's responsibility.
sorry for the misunderstanding 1. no If the opponent return it there , its the job of the non-server. the server only covers the front court (the service line till the net). so it's crucial that the non server isn't too far away, he should be able to touch the server with his racket, not standing at the baseline 2, like this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMSG3bbiFY8
1. As Amleto says, if front player couldn't get it, then the partner must get it. Often time, however, the partner could get faked out by his own front partner. And yes, he needs to be close enough to the front player to be able to step forward and take the return high enough to do anything positive with it. To be able to do so, the service needs to be of good quality (w.r.t. receiver's speed). The front player doesn't only get the net return, he could also try to intercept the faster flat push to one side (or the other). However, the net return is his primary responsibility. 2. Deception - more deception could be played if opponent serves to T. From the right-hand side, if you use a backhand grip, you could attack virtually everywhere with slight turn of the wrist, and with finger power - to the two back corners to attack the rear player, to the two tramlines, to the straight fore-court corner, to the middle fast (toward server/his partner's board), to middle net, and to middle just past server. You could also show your racket to fake a push to middle, and turn in last minute with fingers so racket face slices the shuttle to the side. Meanwhile, your forearm, and your racket shaft remain their original trajectory towards the middle. If they serve wide, you could rush forward to play a tight straight net. This should compel the server to move fast to take your return. If not, he may find he couldn't even lift the return to decent length. Once you condition him, you could use the same preparation but turn in last minute the racket face to play a net shot to the other side. On the left side, it's the same, but it may not be as easy as on right side. All of these assume you could react to your opponent's flick serves with positive and varied responses. And that you could take the low serve fast/early enough while the shuttle is still high.
These mid court side tramline push/brush service returns that land just past the server are very difficult to return for both the server and his partner. The low trajectory and where it lands creates confusion very effectively. That's why they are so effective. The only and best way to deal with them is to avoid them being played in the first place, by having a very good low short serve yourself.
These shots are much, much better when you take the serve early. Trying to be deceptive will cause you to take them later. So I would recommend you don't try to be deceptive with these shots. If you want to be deceptive in your serve returns, save it for the drives and maybe the occasional "trick" net shot. Bear in mind you can't play these returns all the time. Sometimes the serve is just too good. Your receiving position needs to be quite close to the service line to have a good chance -- unless your opponent's serve is terrible. You play the shot by taking the shuttle early and guiding it downwards into the midcourt tramlines. Stick to a simple pushing action for now, until you get confident with the basic shot. Later on, you can add some slice -- this really helps create the angle when your opponent's serve is tight and heading for the T. Combine the slice with a slight wrist movement to create a sharp angle.
My 2 cents echo Amleto's. My additional thoughts are the server should watch for those service returns. I'm always on the lookout for them since most of my opponents try those shots instead of lifting or blocks. They are much easier to intercept if you look for them. Although one thing to watch for is the double move so having a good split-step is crucial if your opponents have good deception. If the service return gets pass the server, then as others have posted it's the back player's responsibility. I've played against a good opponent who stands right behind the server. If I tried that same service return you've described, because he stands so close to the service, he can jump on the service return and just drives it back at us HARD. Probably the best type of response I've seen so far. He's also good at moving to the back corners from that initial position so I think that is required skill if you want to emulate his play.
