Why do pros stand on the same side of the court as their partner when smashing? [PIC]

Discussion in 'Techniques / Training' started by Loafers, Mar 13, 2012.

  1. Loafers

    Loafers Regular Member

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    [​IMG]

    Is it because returning a smash cross-court is difficult and therefore statistically unlikely?
     
  2. TimothyHsu

    TimothyHsu Regular Member

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    Well theoretically, the smash will be hard so the person receiving the smash shouldn't really be able to have a well placed shot and will generally focus on just hitting it back. Theoretically, the person receiving it will lift straight and a a bad lift can be intercepted by the person in the front
     
  3. |_Footwork_|

    |_Footwork_| Regular Member

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    well, imho the correct question is: where else should the net player stand?

    notice that the backcourt player is on the very right end of the court, so the netplayer moves accordingly. nothing special bout that, pretty standard...
     
  4. Loafers

    Loafers Regular Member

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    [​IMG]

    Well, what if LYD hits to the blue dots in the picture above? For a right handed player it shouldn't be too difficult right?
     
  5. Tactim

    Tactim Regular Member

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    Not entirely sure what you mean by blue dots but I assume you mean cross court where the empty space is. For a right hander, that is in fact that most difficult defensive shot when you have a 260+ kph smash coming at you. In fact it's already hard enough with a regular smash. Unless the smash is coming onto LYD's forehand, which is very unlikely, trying to do a backhand cross court smash defense as a right hander when you're on the right side of the court is EXTREMELY hard. It's the natural limitation of being a right hander in the case of your picture.

    No player in the game can pull off the shot consistently enough, so as a result the net player defends the straight defense. There will be some rare times when the player in LYD's situation will be able to cross court the shot on their backhand, but most of the time they won't be able to.

    Hope this answers your question!

    edit: If the person where LYD is standing is a left hander, your point may be more valid. But I suspect the net player will stand closer to the middle if that's the case.
     
  6. Loafers

    Loafers Regular Member

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    Thanks for the explanation. No wonder this fails whenever I do the same thing; my partner doesn't smash hard enough XD
     
  7. amleto

    amleto Regular Member

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  8. sautom88

    sautom88 Regular Member

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    I agree w/ Timothy on the front player always have to try to intercept a smash return, so he/she should stand in the direction of the smash. Thus he is standing somehow in the centre of the anticipated smash return from the receiver.

    It is also true that it is harder to return smash cross-court, only advance players can do it well and not often played.
     
  9. wristworks

    wristworks Regular Member

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    As with all discussion pertaining to what you see professional players do, it's important to understand that they use strategies that are sometimes difficult for recreational players to implement. In this case, the front player is able to stand directly in line with his rear-court partner because the rear-court player presumably has enough power in his smash to make a cross-court reply very difficult - as a result, the front player can take advantage of this fact by moving in line with a straight reply.

    If you were playing recreationally and your partner can't smash hard, this strategy may backfire if your opponent is good at defending.
     
  10. BlueTornado

    BlueTornado Regular Member

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    With a smash that fast, it's more likely that the block or lift will come back straight as opposed to cross court. The front player stands on the same side as the smashing player so that they can get the net kill after a (hopefully) weak same-side return from the defender.
     
  11. alexh

    alexh Regular Member

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    The other thing noone has mentioned yet is that the straight block is the fastest shot the defender can play. If they block cross-court then the shuttle has to travel a greater distance, so the net player has more time to intercept the shot.

    For club level play, if your partner's smash isn't so powerful then you won't stand so far across, but you should still be a little bit off centre so that you're ready for that fast response.
     
  12. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    to elaborate the above, here is the table of 4 scenarios:

    [TABLE="class: grid"]
    [TR]
    [TD][/TD]
    [TD]standing on smasher side[/TD]
    [TD]standing not on smasher side[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
    [TD]defense straight[/TD]
    [TD]fast shot. fast receive. good[/TD]
    [TD]fast shot, slow receive. bad[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
    [TD]defense cross[/TD]
    [TD]slower shot, slower receive. ok[/TD]
    [TD]slower shot, fast receive. but not
    need to be fast.[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [/TABLE]

    so as you can see, it is more advantageous to be standing at the smasher's side of the court
     
  13. sesepuh

    sesepuh Regular Member

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    1. Statistically, as you mention, cross-court return is more difficult
    2. The distance between straight and cross-court return, it will takes less time for the shuttle to be reach if it is straight return compare to the cross-court
    3. Mentally the defensive player will see that offensive player is ready to intercept straight reply, hence give more presure
     
  14. BlueTornado

    BlueTornado Regular Member

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    Thanks for the chart, kwun; it sums it all up pretty well.
     
  15. koyeng

    koyeng Regular Member

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    It's hard to communicate with your partner, especially if they think they are senior player, without any couching. Teach them how to play might hurt their feeling. It happen to me all the time as I play with different partner each week.

    Best thing to do just aim your smash to wherever he/she is standing. If the return straight forward to him, then it would be good.

    If you are going for a tourney, find a partner who understand this basic attacking formation. :)
     
  16. fauci

    fauci Regular Member

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    because the non-pros often smash/cut into their partner, so it's safer to stand on the other side
     
  17. BaggedCat

    BaggedCat Regular Member

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    2012-03-13-221606_2048x1152_scrot.jpg

    colour coded. green fast, orange medium, red slow.

    it's just math. he's in the best place to reach the possible returns. the shuttle will cross the net between the 2 dots. he's just standing in the most optimum place to intercept any return. he has the shortest distance to travel to reach the shortest/fastest return possible, any return to the left will travel a greater distance allowing more time to get there.

    if stood on the left, he will cover the left very well but he has a long way to go to get to the shortest/fastest return possible.
     
  18. Line & Length

    Line & Length Regular Member

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    Agree with BaggedCat. Whilst attacking, standing on the same side as your partner allows you to best cover your opponent's responses (especially the weak responses).

    This is a common mistake amongst inexperienced players. If the smasher's partner is on the cross-court side, a straight-block return will let the defending pair 'off the hook' & usually forces the smasher to lift, squandering the attack and the initiative.

    One comment I'd like to add is that the position of the fore-court player in the top-image of post #17 is a little extreme. Whilst this may be appropriate for elite-level players, I wouldn't go more than a racket's length from the centre-line.
     

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