Some of you may not be old enough to remember that backhand serves were unheard of in badminton in days gone by. I think it was the Indonesians who first started using backhand serves in doubles some 40 years ago. I did notice a long time ago that it is much easier to rush and kill a forehand serve than a backhand serve in doubles play. There may be a player here or there that still uses the forehand low serve in doubles, but they are a dying breed.
Using a backhand serve, you can hit the shuttle from closer to the net. That gives the receiver less time to react. It's a small difference, but at world-class levels it is enough to totally exclude forehand services from doubles play.
I am that mythical beast!!! I use a forehand serve. My coach is about to change that though. I haven't played that long and it's something she's said we will change, but we've been busy working on other things up until now. At my level it's not been a particular disadvantage, but now I know what I'm doing it's time to sort it out!!!
Yeah, forehand serves tend to arrive kind of flat. Much easier for me to push it to the weak side of the serving team. I used to serve forehand as well but soon found that control and variety is better with the backhand. There's probably a freak player or two out there that has a killer forehand serve but I haven't seen one.
Its becoming extinct in top level mens singles as well, look back 5-10 years and who was using backhand serve?
Most players find it easier to flick, and much easier to slice with a forehand serve. But of course, at the world-class level, that's irrelevant. There are plenty of players at my level who have excellent forehand serves, however.
The way I see it is that it is just a matter of survival of the fittest. The best skills and techniques survives while less effective ones are gradually phased out. The backhand serve is more effective in doubles, so more people use it. Assuming you can serve equally well with either the forehand or backhand serve, you are only putting yourself at a disadvantage if serve forehand in doubles. -Rick
I always serve backhand in doubles unless I'm feeling really lazy against friends and just wanna lob it. In mixed doubles I always serve forhand though, since (at least for me) all the disadvantages of the forehand serve are void when I stand a bit further back. This way I can also always let the girl stand in front of me as I'm serve. Plus my friends say I have the trickiest looking forhand serve and can't ever tell when I'm going to serve long or short ^^ Then again I don't play with the best of people...
Indeed, forehand serves are all but unheard of. thanks to whoever brought this up - just one of the many things that has changed about the sport over the years. for example, the role of the woman in mixed doubles... much more often now mixed doubles pairs will rotate like a regular doubles team. I'm glad to see this. Andy Chong, who coaches out of Boston, still uses a forehand low serve in doubles - i believe his reasons lie in the variety of locations he can easily serve to when serving a low forehand, but i can't be sure.
I think one main advantage of the short backhand serve over the short forehand serve is that with the backhand: 1) You can hit the shuttle closer to the net, as Gollum said, giving your opponent less reaction time, and; 2) You barely need any swing on the racket, merely a tiny push of the forearm or slight flick of the wring, also making it more deceptive and giving your opponent less time to react. At top level doubles, a split second can make a big difference!
You can make the backhand serve even shorter and more deceptive by leaning your body foreward and transferring your body weight from the rear foot to the front foot as you serve, and wear something that is white or light-coloured (same colour as the shuttle), as this low contrast combination makes it a bit difficult for the opponent to pick out the line of flight of the shuttle. The forehand serve does not benefit from any white shirts.
Forehand serve slow down the recovery of your racket stance compare to backhand serve where you just flick your wrist. Forehand serve you have to swing. In terms of deception , both is equally good but backhand serve is more accurate and easier to control compare to forehand serve. What i can say is backhand serve the shuttle nearer to the top of the net is easier than forehand serve.
The sad thing is that nobody used the backhand serve prior to 40 years back. This was a big loss to the many generations of badminton players that used nothing but forehand serve. It was the Indonesians, I think, who discovered it. I still can remember Malaysia's Tan Yee Khan/Ng Boon Bee being repeatedly mauled by the Indonesians with their backhand serve. Yee Khan's forehand serves were repeated killed off by the Indonesians.
Good thing they didnt call the backhand serve illegal during that time.. if not we can't exploit it now
