On Saturday I lost to my usual singles opponent 15-2. Our score lines used to be very close, and points are usually taken after a reasonably long rally. But recently, the rallies are all quite short, and very frequently I would lose the point a few strokes after his service. So I observed how he served and received, and compared it with how I served and received. When I serve in singles, I usually stand at the middle of the court, and do a high deep serve to the baseline. When I receive, I stand at the same place. My opponent, however, do a shallow serve at the T, and receives at a point about 1 to 1.5 steps behind the middle of the court. The shallow serve, he explained, is to get the shuttle over my head in as little time as possible. In fact, I had lots of trouble returning that serve, because I could not get the timing for the contact of the racket with the shuttle, and my feet pushing off, right. If I clear, the shot will either reach the middle of the court, or go wild. I then asked him why he stand so far back to receive my serve. The answer was very logical: if I decide to do a short serve, it must still go beyond the short service line, so all he need to is to be able to reach the short service line. Since it is crazy to think of rushing a short serve anyway, there is no point in being able to reach the part of the court in front of the short service line. This evening, I put his logic into practice, and stood 1 step behind the middle of the court. It felt weird, because the net looks further away, but then I found that I am no longer troubled by his shallow serves. In fact, with one step back and a gentle push off, I could smash the serve down. And he is right, I am not disadvantaged when he do a short serve. It's not doubles, and since he serves from the T, he cannot move back fast enough to take advantage of my lift to the baseline. Any singles player out there with different service and receiving positions, and experiences to share?
interesting......i'll try that next time i *have* to play singles......might come in handy since we now have some county players in college
"When I serve in singles, I usually stand at the middle of the court, and do a high deep serve to the baseline" you should experiment with the other serves too, not only the high deep service but also the low serve, the drive, the flick and the low/fast service to the body, of course then there are variations with deception, try never to be predictable, keep your opponant uncertain. good luck
Hi gerry, I do variations in my serves too, but I always stand at the same spot, i.e. the middle. I noticed that my serves don't really threaten anyone, no matter what I do (including flicks), so I focus on taking the return shot and slowly manoeuvring myself into an advantage. My singles game play is still too simplistic. I will need to work on developing a greater array of strokes.
The way I see this that if it's a fast and really shallow serve then you should be able to jump smash it. If it's out of reach of your jump smash then it either really ain't that shallow, and it can't be going that fast, if it was going fast at the 40 degree or so mark then it'd be out. Since it ain't going that fast you should be able to get behind it.
I was going to say something similar to pecheur. If you stand in the middle of the court and he serves over your head, you should be able to either cut it off early (putting him in trouble) or if you can't cut it off, it is probably high enough to give you time to move backwards and get behind it. On a related note, I would say that professional players tend to stand a bit forward of the middle of the court to receive, would everyone agree? g
Re: Re: Singles Receiving Position On that last sentence, you may not be fast enough to get behind it for a smash but definately you should be able to hit a good clear as opposed to giving a weak clear. Are you reacting fast enough after the shuttle leaves the oponent's racquet - meaning, are your feet moving? Pros play singles differently - their speed and efficiency of movement enables them to perform differently.
