Help on mixed doubles!!

[Allan]

Hi, my partner and I need help on playing mixed doubles..
We have problems dealing with returns to the back of the court. We both are very weak at smashes and clearing; however we drop pretty well but it becomes too predictable sometimes..
Any strategies and drills that we can use to improve on this?
Thanx.

[Takumi97]

Besides improving your clears and smashes, you should try driving the shuttle. In any case, analyze your stroke for clears/smashes - do you have proper technique? Are you using enough wrist?

[Matty]

yea... ive read the techniques thingz on badmintoncentral and they are really helpful. I especially thought that the tip to alwayz drive the bird and never lob it up is the key to winning... but me and my partner cannot play well against stronger players that can break the strategy... they will either drop the shot or smash it back... how do i handle that??:confused:

[Matty]

i play at a pretty novice level... inter school leagues.... ive been playing wif my partner for quite a while but we never see mto win against stronger players.... ive read the technigues pages in badminton central and found that the point they made about alwayz driving the bird across the net and never lob it up is a very good pointer... but against stronger teams they seem to have and answer for every shot we make.... ** note** we've played some really good mens doubles teams too... and lost pretty badly... =(

[badrad]

Originally posted by Matty
yea... ive read the techniques thingz on badmintoncentral and they are really helpful. I especially thought that the tip to alwayz drive the bird and never lob it up is the key to winning... but me and my partner cannot play well against stronger players that can break the strategy... they will either drop the shot or smash it back... how do i handle that??:confused: there is not an easy answer for you except to improve your strokes, strength and range of shots. if you are expecting some magic solution to defeating a stronger team there isn't one. you need to do some homework and training and you need to learn to be able to analyze the strengths of you opponents, and to locate their weaknesses and build strategies on that. not all of them are the same, so there is no one perfect answer that will always work. also, if they are stronger, you can assume they might play smarter as well (although not always the case) that they are able to break your strategies. so you need to work them on both the physical and mental aspect of the game.

drop shots and weak returns in mixed doubles is suicide, especially against a strong mixed team and the lady has the discipline to stay at the net. your partner will be eating a lot of shuttles.

strategy wise, playing the corridors (alleys) is a typical mixed strategy, not needing a lot of strength to perform, but ultimately you need a very strong drive to take advantage of set-ups you make from the polarizing of the opponents positions.

[Matty]

alrite.. fanx.. but when i play da alleyz... there is a big chance that a drop shot would work.. where a drive would cause it to go out of boundz.. or hit da net... therez da drive where u move ur arm like u would in tennis... can that lift a bird up and then hav it drop down like a spin shot??

[JChen99]

Originally posted by badrad
drop shots and weak returns in mixed doubles is suicide, especially against a strong mixed team and the lady has the discipline to stay at the net. your partner will be eating a lot of shuttles.

strategy wise, playing the corridors (alleys) is a typical mixed strategy, not needing a lot of strength to perform, but ultimately you need a very strong drive to take advantage of set-ups you make from the polarizing of the opponents positions.
Now that you mention it, I do notice that happening a lot in mixed games... or should I say ALWAYS. Even if the female is only slightly weaker than the male, she'll still stay up front. I've never seen an instance (well given I've only been to 2 tourneys ever... n they were all last yr) where the female and male would play equal doubles.

As for placing shots at the forridors, yes it's a good strategy
another strategy (which involves more energy and I would suppose better technique?) is to smash at the female. Hard and steep. For most people (even males) upfront there's no way of getting those unless they're trained specificly for it (and I understand Mrs. Badrad trains for that? Wouldn't that mesan she would have incrediable reflexes? ;))

[alex l]

how are mixed tactics different from doubles? i know girl stays up but don't really know how to take advantage of any shots they give me except smashing it.

[Matty]

but still... therez no way of alwayz keeping da bird where itz alwayz my team that is driving it.. therez gonna b timez where they will hav a chance of driving it to us.. wud do i do then??

[alex l]

what school u representing???

North Toronto all the way except we got schooled so bad today in mixed since no one really knows how to play it. some guy on our team constantly has his partner at the rear court and doesn't realize that he should be covering it

[Matty]

hahaha.. im playing for markville... itz in toronto... well suburbz... but yea.. still toronto... good place.. and good ppl too.. lotz of talented playerz... coach... heh.. hez chinese and like 30.. so we all talk chinese to him... -=) he talkz back in chinese too... hahahaa.... ne wayz... yea.. muh tournamentz 2mr.. heh.. uh oh.

[Matty]

o.. heh.. im playing for markville... itz a school in suburbz of toronto... nice school... great coach.. chinese.. 30 yrz old.. hahaha.. we talk to him in chinese and he tlkaz back.. anywayz.. itz hard to play in mixed doublez.. i need mad help..

[Yodums]

Hmmmm, if you run a search, you'll come across many strategies that many people have recommended :)

[Matty]

heh.. actually no... ive tried.. i typed in like mixed doubles strategies.. and it came out wif like 5.... and that includez this one..

[Pecheur]

Originally posted by Matty
heh.. actually no... ive tried.. i typed in like mixed doubles strategies.. and it came out wif like 5.... and that includez this one..

Bleh, not good with search engines are you? Don't search so restrictively, this was the result of searching for mixed doubles in the title field so you get things like mixed doubles tactics, positioning, etc.

http://www.badmintonforum.com/vb/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=39889&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

[Matty]

ahh.... smart... heh... okie.. but i may end up sif like 100 matches and tahtz gona be hard to go thru...

[Yodums]

All you do is specify which thread to open and then skim through the thread to find some strategies.


Edit: Here's another search for you which I find is more narrowed down to your likings.

[Matty]

okie.. but can anyone like just tell me sum strategies to work wif?? yea.. i noe im kidna lazy... hehe.. =)

[Iwan]

Well, in mixed... at the level you're playing, winning has a lot with how well the guy travels at the back court to drop or smash and how well your partner plays a netshot without getting it killed straight away. So my advice is, work on your footwork and smashing skills and tell your partner to work on her netshots and net kills.

Apart from that, in terms of strategies, I think there's a lot which have been written here:

http://allmy.sytes.net:2778/chapters.cfm?bookid=26

Check chapter 20.

[blckknght]

For the guy it's good to practice half court shots, basically down the line soft pushes. they should go just past the oponent woman, and still in front of the oponent man so he has to move forward. it is also good to practice speeding up this shot so you can catch the man off guard by hitting it fast past him, to the corners.
G

[blckknght]

hey matty,
when they have the opportunity to hit drives, you'll have to decide if you are in a good position to drive it back and catch them off guard. if they catch you off guard with a fast drive it is probably best to slow them down by blocking - again past the girl, but so the man has to move. mixed should be block block block, re-directing until your oponent is forced to lift.
G

[Matty]

okie.. i get wat ur saying...but there are certain timez when he gurl is very capable of cuttin drives that u want to reach behind her.. or even past the man... when that happenz, itz kinda hard cuz u cant get to the man wif drive or da gurl will cut it off... and u cant smash or dirve to the women either cuz shez a good player...

[Matty]

okie... but im still kind of a novice player.. so is muh partner... heh.. whenever i start one of those drive and return shots wif the opponent she kinda ducks to avoid being hit which is kinda rite... but when that happens the opponent can just easily drop it down to muh partner and catch her off guard...

[blckknght]

right, gotcha. some good advice on that is, when you go to make your half court shot, right before you actually hit, try to move your wrist forward quickly, and that will give you a little bit of delay on your shot. it will make the woman hesitate, so she will not get there in time, or she will not get there very quickly.
G

[badrad]

Originally posted by JChen99
As for placing shots at the forridors, yes it's a good strategy
another strategy (which involves more energy and I would suppose better technique?) is to smash at the female. Hard and steep. For most people (even males) upfront there's no way of getting those unless they're trained specificly for it (and I understand Mrs. Badrad trains for that? Wouldn't that mesan she would have incrediable reflexes? ;)) One of the drills I do with some of the competitive juniors is this drill I do with mrs. badrad. And yes, she does have faster reflexes than me. She can cut off my smashes at the net maybe 80% of the time.

For most girl beginners I train them to return a smash first before getting into aggressive. returning a smash is dead simple, much simpler to do than a hard smash. I get them to not be scared of smashes, but know how to return a smash effectively. Once they can get this part, their confidence grows.

The way I do this is more effective with the help of mrs. badrad and little badrad. mrs badrad and little badrad shows the girls how to effectively return smashes and there is no need to be afraid. The girls will graduate slowly with my smashes and they should become comfortable with return or blocking them. My smashes should be harder than most of the kids they will meet up with, so they have more confidence when they are playing with other kids.

[Matty]

okie.. i get u.. but ive also come across a team that has a weaker gurl... but a guy that was realli tall... if i smashed or drove at the gurl.. she would likely miss it.. but the guy will pick it up behind her... how do i solve that??

[JChen99]

Originally posted by Matty
okie.. i get u.. but ive also come across a team that has a weaker gurl... but a guy that was realli tall... if i smashed or drove at the gurl.. she would likely miss it.. but the guy will pick it up behind her... how do i solve that??
stick to the corridors then... short drives/smashes (something fast) that passes the gurl so she doesn't block it, but makes the guy run enough to weaken him down. Play it side to side and hav hi tire out as much as possible... jus make sure ur shots land in ;)

[Winex West Can]

One of the key to success in any thing is to plan (a strategy on how you will play your opponents - based on their weaknesses), apply that strategy but also you will need to adapt according to how the game is played, assess and then reapply the newly adapted strategy.

No point in asking for pointers and just applying these pointers without thinking out how you can apply them within a framework. The books by Jake Downey is a very good start especially Winning at Doubles.

If there is a shot-by-shot formula on winning a game, there wouldn't be any more interest in the game. Even if you play the same opponent(s) twice in a row, you will still play totally different matches.

[LazyBuddy]

Originally posted by Matty
okie.. i get u.. but ive also come across a team that has a weaker gurl... but a guy that was realli tall... if i smashed or drove at the gurl.. she would likely miss it.. but the guy will pick it up behind her... how do i solve that??

Maybe at the beginning, the guy can cover his partner. However, keep doing that. Pull both the guy and girl off position by attacking the girl. Sooner or later, the girl will either block the guy's way, or, the guy will be tired about running around. Also, if both of them got a habit for pulling the guy to be "unreasonable" close to the net, well, add a little bit surprise for them and attack the guy's backcourt, backhand side. So, attack the girl, either gain pts directly, or let the guy enjoying the journy of "track and field".

One thing to pay attention, be patient. At first, since ur team's offense is not extremely strong, might take a while or even some risk about making mistakes. However, as long as u do it effectively with some patience, u can take them out of the game in a matter of time.

[Matty]

alrite... so i need a game plan... okie.. when i played those 2.. they were ahead like 7 - 0.. but then sumhow.. we came back and beat them.. although we did this.. we didnt change anyfing to our strategy at all... we just kept playing da same fing over and over again?? y is that??
also.. considering hitting sidez... would it b better to hit half court drivez?? or to make the other teams guy run a few lapz by sriving to his sidez??

[kwun]

is it me or are some kids nowadays not capable of writing some proper English anymore?

[Matty]

hahaha.... yea.. itz kinda easier to write this way... it realli screwz me up when i hav to type sumfing formal.. but heh... itll do for now...

[Matt Ross]

Capital I when you start a sentence, Kwun ;)

[Matty]

hahaha... see.. ur doin it too now.. hahaha... afta a while.. everyone will b riting muh way....

[Pecheur]

Originally posted by kwun
is it me or are some kids nowadays not capable of writing some proper English anymore?

*Counts two mistakes in one sentence from Kwun* ;)

I was just having this argument with my colleague and whilst we were both educated to write in the same manner, predominantly formal British training (the type that Pommes don't get any more :P), we have vastly different views on language. His opinion is that language evolves, and that given your audience, what might be acceptable spelling and grammar to one, may not be acceptable to another, however as long as it is understood, it's okay. For example, I always capitalise the start of sentences, however in the internet (should internet be a proper noun?) era the majority of people (including our adminstrator) don’t and that’s acceptable (to most).

American English is another example of language evolution. I will stubbornly always spell with British English, but with the expansion of American influence, more and more people are spelling like the Americans, including my fellow Australians. Unfortunately it seems that I’m fighting a losing battle, I will use contractions such as ppl, lol, etc since it’s acceptable for email/internet communication and I suspect I will become further corrupted. People use “u” and “y” simply because it’s faster for this sort of thing, where people want quick answers and dinosaurs like myself will die out eventually.

[Matty]

hahaha... thatz rite.. dinosaurz hafta b extinct... and eventually.. i even hope to get this kinda riting in skoolz... hahaha... then itll b fun.. english wif no grammar.... hahahaha... newayz... can we get back to da subject of mixed doublez strategies and tacticz?? pleeeeeezzzz????

[kwun]

i agree with Pecheur.

i actually see less problem with people writing lower case and using common short cut like "u" and "ppl". but what i see from Matty are things like:

thatz
itz
skoolz
sumfing
sriving
realli

which IMHO, serves no purpose but to twist words around and make it hard for everybody else to read. for every post that Matty did here, i had to read it through 5 times to understand it. and by that time, i totally lost interests in answering his post already. too bad, as mixed is normally my favorite subject.

[Pecheur]

Originally posted by Matty
hahaha... thatz rite.. dinosaurz hafta b extinct... and eventually.. i even hope to get this kinda riting in skoolz... hahaha... then itll b fun.. english wif no grammar.... hahahaha... newayz... can we get back to da subject of mixed doublez strategies and tacticz?? pleeeeeezzzz????

Oh get real, you're too lazy to go through old threads which definately have far more information than you could possibly apply right now, and we're far to lazy to rewrite was has already been written. Trust me it takes far more effort for us to write stuff than it takes you to read through mutliple threads :P. There's more than enough old threads and references to keep you busy.

Lazy kids these days, when I was a boy .... ;)

[Pecheur]

Originally posted by kwun
i agree with Pecheur.

i actually see less problem with people writing lower case and using common short cut like "u" and "ppl". but what i see from Matty are things like:

thatz
itz
skoolz
sumfing
sriving
realli

which IMHO, serves no purpose but to twist words around and make it hard for everybody else to read. for every post that Matty did here, i had to read it through 5 times to understand it. and by that time, i totally lost interests in answering his post already. too bad, as mixed is normally my favorite subject.

Ah but Kwun the first time you read "u" and "ppl" you probably had to think about it too. That's the point "u" and "ppl" have become acceptable in internet parlance, eventually with more people writing like Matty, as much as it pains me to say it, "thatz", "itz", etc will subconsciously become acceptable.

[bigredlemon]

Originally posted by Pecheur
Ah but Kwun the first time you read "u" and "ppl" you probably had to think about it too. That's the point "u" and "ppl" have become acceptable in internet parlance, eventually with more people writing like Matty, as much as it pains me to say it, "thatz", "itz", etc will subconsciously become acceptable.
Nearly all of the words Shakespear made up are universally accepted including in dictionaries. It's not hard to imagine some kid failing English 100 years from now because s/he forgot the "z" in Skoolz.

[Matty]

hahaha... nice.. nice... so now everytime i post.. i have to go thru da grammar and english and da words so that all of u can understand it?? man.. it's soo hard...

[kwun]

Originally posted by Matty
hahaha... nice.. nice... so now everytime i post.. i have to go thru da grammar and english and da words so that all of u can understand it?? man.. it's soo hard...

do they teach English in school anymore? or has that become optional?

[Yodums]

Since he's in Toronto, he follows the same curriculum as me which requires 4 compulsory English credits. Seriously, I hate online slang. It's just a bad habit and you did not learn English for nothing. It's hard to read and it can be a habit when you're doing something formal like an essay then all of a sudden your mind says "was" but you write down wuz. All it does is create confusion. I ncessarily care if you try to write with correct punctation or grammar and make a mistake but intentional ones sort of tick me off. Sure, I've been through all that crap but I still try to type with grammar and punctuation. Really I see no benefits of learning that slang unless you intend to own asianavenue.com (Slang is used there).

Edit: There have been many news articles about this. One parent caught his son making a mistake where he wrote slang on his essay and immediatly he uninstalled AIM from his system knowing where it came from. Another girl had written a whole essay on her cell phone using slang.

Yodums

[Matty]

hahaha... well... itz kinda hard to go back to wirting wif.. i mean.. with... a formal grammar and words.. and language... it seems so foreign now... heh.. i guess its da mad icqing and msning... o well.. as long as ppl.. i mean.. people undertstand... =P

[Pecheur]

Originally posted by Matty
hahaha... well... itz kinda hard to go back to wirting wif.. i mean.. with... a formal grammar and words.. and language... it seems so foreign now... heh.. i guess its da mad icqing and msning... o well.. as long as ppl.. i mean.. people undertstand... =P

How about people your age understand? :P

If you're seeking wisdom from us older, more experienced and more mature people, please phrase the questions in a language that we are comfortable with?

[Matty]

heh... okie... well.. i guess that you older people can read it... right?? since you can post a response i guess that u understand my "foblish"

btw.. foblish is like english but like how i type it.... =)

[BethuneGuy]

i love mixed doubles. I play mixed"a" for school team. At my level of play, the girls are not very adept at returning smashes. One of the main strategies my coach tells me is to hit the girl or the guys backahnd no matter what. At first, i did not know hwo to play mixed doubles. I would clear, and expect my partner to fall back and play sides (from watchign international play), to my surprise, my partner woudl stay up, and i woudl be left having to cover both sides. then she told me to never clear, and stay back all the time. I learned after a couple of games and mixed doubles was very fun. Soon, i learned the half court placed shot, and it was very very useful. Quick drives and steep controlled hard smashes , and sometimes, dishonourable but nonetheless most of the time more useful, smash at the girl, were the shots played most. Drop shots only worked on weaker teams though. The pace, strategy, court coverage, and shots were very very very fun. one question though, we played this team once, one of the stronger teams. Nothing worked against them. They played a tradiational styel, but the girlw as strong. She raped my partners serve (she couldn't flick fast enough, short was too high), more than her man partner, and she covered the net very well. I tried driving, but the man was good, he got all of them, his backahdn was strong too, quick clears, (low), and surprising us with crss court sliceish drops. He got most of my smashes directed at the lines, and the girl waits ducked with the racket up and if i smashed at her, either she intercepts or man returns it. She would read my partners drops everytime (well, its predictable, drop drop dropd rop), and charge up and kill them (yyeah, you heard me). When i'm in trouble, i learned clear=death so i did fast drops, i say that they were pretty good, but she got there in time to do those annoying low fast clears underhand and made me jump around like mad, and because drivinign to back and clear=death, i dropped again. Same thing happens, and if i smash, i risk being out of position, so i woudl only smash if i could win that point. I had to cover some drops too (partner not adept at getting shots), and i was dying. ONLY the half court placed shot worked, sometimes, but damn, the girl would poach and intercept some of them. (if only my partner could...) i told my partner to do more of those half court placed shots, but she would keep drop shotting. Gets me mad, as i dislike parts in m ixed doubles such as girl getting smashed at (i do that too, but when its done to me...), partner giving them advantage or attack when we have it ( weak clear and she drives into other players racket), and not being able to finish points (floating infront of service line (birdie) and end up charging up hitting it out, or drops it, hits it into players racket). But i love the flaws as well. just love mixed doubles. Back to taht game, what i was bothered most by, was that he also did those halfocurt placed half smashes or cut smashes. I was a monkey runing around mad, and we ended up losing, despite the long long match (15-4 15-4). It was around 50 minutes. My right knee was so hurt that night, woah. Got any ideas how to beat those guys? Flick serves to draw girl back doesn't work, she does a nice downwards jumpish smashish shot, or quick drop, or quick low drive and they get back in position very well. Damn, if onlyi my partner.... Anyways, i love mixed doulbes

[MarkinJapan]

okie.. but can anyone like just tell me sum strategies to work wif?? yea.. i noe im kidna lazy... hehe.. =)
I`d say a good tip for mixed is don`t be lazy. Another tip is play at a good club. Its hard to explain mixed from the ground up over the internet. Watch some good mixed players for a couple months, then come back and ask some specific, intellegent questions.

[Slanter]

Jake Downey! Read his stuff. Run a search on his name and you will find some links to free resources on the internet. He has a whole chapter on mixed doubles. Basics!

[hardik18]

well the main thing that you shoud keep in mind while playing mixed doubles is that in a doubles game the main key to scre and win is hit as fast smashes and play as aggressive game as possible and yes drops are useful if you are capable of hitting fast drops as in a game of doubles the empty room in the court is very less and so if you paly a slow game then your opponent will definately reach up to the shuttle and will make you loose the point and so try to improve your smashes, also the male partner shoud try to play from the back court as much as possible as he must be having more pover and so he can hit the shuttle better then the girl. Also try some exercises to improve your wrist as a powerful wrist is very necessary and also some other exercises as push ups and stretching... Best of luck:)

[Gollum]

Full stops and capital letters are your friends ;) Learn to love them.


well the main thing that you shoud keep in mind while playing mixed doubles is that in a doubles game the main key to scre and win is hit as fast smashes and play as aggressive game as possible and yes drops are useful if you are capable of hitting fast drops as in a game of doubles the empty room in the court is very less and so if you paly a slow game then your opponent will definately reach up to the shuttle and will make you loose the point and so try to improve your smashes, also the male partner shoud try to play from the back court as much as possible as he must be having more pover and so he can hit the shuttle better then the girl. Also try some exercises to improve your wrist as a powerful wrist is very necessary and also some other exercises as push ups and stretching... Best of luck:)

[Neil Nicholls]

and stretching... Best of luck:)

Full stops and capital letters are your friends

You wait ages for some punctuation, then 3 come at once :D
Does a smiley count as a full stop?
It must be a pause of some sort, but I doubt if it'll be found in a standard book on grammar.

[cappy75]

Hmm... playing a good mixed doubles games is more challenging than level doubles, especially playing in a traditional mixed formation. Weakness in one partner will be amplified and fully exploited by the opposition. It's much easier to do that as your formation would have been mostly static.

If you look at the pros, Kim/Ra in particular, you'll see that they fluidly switch positions all the time. BethuneGuy's partner should learn to back up diagonally from a smash when one is imminent or expected. It's unreasonable for her to expect him not to lift when one of the objectives is to get the other team to lift. Playing with experienced players, defensive clears/lifts are regrettably inevitable:(.

Totally agreed with MarkinJapan... go play in the good clubs and observe how good players play the game. You had an opportunity to play with very good players, best to take full advantage of the encounter and ask them for tips or a little post-game evaluation.