hi everyone, this situation came up yesterday when i was playing some md matches, hopefully i can describe it clear enough for you to help me with my questions: say the score is 1:0. i am receiving and the woman in the other team is serving. i dropped the serve back to the corner opposite the serving side(left side). i then move back to cover the back area. the woman who just served then dropped the shuttle right back over to the left corner. whose responsibility is it to get that shot? people were telling me that in that situation, i have to cover the front left corner in addition to the entire back area of the court. that's where i am confused. i understand that if i clear, the woman goes the opposite side and is only responsible for the cross-court drop and i am covering the other 3 corners. but since i am playing a drop shot, shouldn't my partner cover the space i have just vacated to protect the exact same shot i was just describing? am i wrong? hope the description was clear enough. thanks for your reply. jack
I think you should discuss this with your mixed partner and split up the responsibilities. If she's a weaker player and you guys are adament about the back-front position, then she should rush to the front and cover all drops. However, if she's a decent player or stronger, then you should cover it since you initiated the drop... just like playing level doubles.
I think you made a fundamental mistake in returning a net shot to the wrong side of the court, leaving your partner the very difficult task of having to cover such a long distance if she is to regain command of the net. Remember, in mixed doubles, the man should try to attack a lady's serve. It is worth the risk to return the lady's serve hard and fast straight at her. You return the lady's serve to the net only when you cannot rush or push the serve, but always to the side of the net where your partner is. Returning the serve to the opposite side net corner from your partner would be suicidal. In your case, the best person to go for the shot to get yourselves out of the mess is whoever is best placed to take the shot.
Yup, this is my conclusion as well. The wrong choice of service return putting yourselves in an incredibly difficult position.
taneepak, i understand what you're saying and i do try to push right back at her when i can. my partner basically stands on her side of the "T" when i receive serves. on a good serve from the other team, wouldn't she be close enough to cover? i guess i just need to work on my fundamentals
Although it depends on a lot of factors (standard etc) but if I undertand you correctly, score 1-0, lady server is in right hand court ( your perspective) you on left hand court, you play net shot on left hand side which should then be just about straight ahead of you but serving lady has to move to net corner, depending on the quality of your shot I would agree with you that your lady should cover the reply mostly so you can prepare for any lift/push, I would sometimes stay near the net for maybe one more net reply/kill but would always be looking for my lady to take over so that we can return to a more attacking formation. From the fact that you asked this question and from your description I think this would be the best strategy for you and your partner although you should always discuss with partners and agree who will do what in any given situation.
gerry, thanks for your reply. i guess my partner and i need to figure out who's getting what. we just started playing together for oh...a couple of weeks. so we're still new to each other. i'm sure our teamwork will improve as we play more matches together.
i I guess that your partner should have returned the shot. However I suggest that you return this shot to the center (sorry i can't write comas or points) the opponent lady will have to push the shuttle to a line' maybe making her do an unforced error" people often forget that by closing the game (hitting more toward the center) it will force the opponent to make errors" on the other hand if the shot you give to your opponent is easy to attack/drive/w/e closing the court is not good i hope i was clear (sorry for my english and spelling but my keypad doesnt work well tonight)
