I noticed that there is another formation by those top professional Malaysian doubles players when receiving. Instead of the traditional side-to-side, the receiving player will stand a normal to close distance and the receiving player's partner will stand back. The purpose is to establish a front-and-back formation. Please tell me the advantages and disadvantages between the side-to-side and front-and-back receiving positions.
front/back gives more attacking advantage pros can receive like this because their footwork and athleticism is much better than us club players. the receiver is fast and good enough to push the shuttle down to force the serving side to lift, and the receiver's partner is also fast enough to cover the whole backcourt by himself in attack mode
I have also noticed that some professional pairs will both be standing in the same court when receiving, I suppose the partner has to be quick enough to get out of the receiver's way as well, if required to. (Tried that in a social game once and ended up being the reason why my partner could not return a straight flick/drive :-S)
do you mean receiving from a midcourt/flat shot? I have never seen mens doubles receive in attacking formation after a clear.
In my opinion club players can and should receive this way too. If the receiver plays an attacking return (push or drive or net shot) then they will be moving forward; receiver's partner should cover the back corner on the receiver's side, no matter where they were standing at the beginning. So the closer you are to the centre line, the less far you have to move. And if the receiver lifts the return instead, there's plenty of time for their partner to move across into a defensive position. It's hard to think of a situation in which standing side by side actually makes it much easier for the receiver's partner. (If the server does a flick or drive down the middle, then receiver's partner needs to get out of the way. But that doesn't require advanced footwork skills, it's simply a matter of being mentally alert.)