I am starting to play doubles quite often now and I'm experiencing problems intercepting the shuttle and putting it away when I have the opportunity. I feel that I take too long to hit the shuttle on either side of my body and I have a lot frame mishits (if the shuttle is relatively quick) or I just hit a really weak return. I can't seem to generate enough speed with the racket head. any advice? thanks
take the racket higher, on the cone is good for net play thant helped me a lot in the net when i gripper the cone of the racquet
I do hold it fairly short...right in the middle of the grip for all shots. I really don't want to switch the shortness of my grips because I want to get used to one general length.
No you don't. There is no "generic grip" that works for all shots. For certain shots, such as net kills, you will really benefit from gripping much higher up. Apart from that, if you're having problems with your net kills you should of course practise them. One good way is to stick old used feather shuttles (cork up) on the net tape. Practice rushing from just behind the front service line to brush them down -- without touching the net tape with your racquet. This stroke should come from slightly under the net going upwards/forwards, the racquet face hitting the shuttle at an angle. (Similar to when doing top spin shots in tennis or table tennis.) It is also important to know when to try a net kill and when to just play a soft push. Sometimes a soft push is actually better -- it will prolong the rally, but the margin of error is higher and it will most likely force a high lift which can be smashed by your partner. If your error rate is high on net kills it suggests that: a) you need to work on your technique or b) you are trying to do too difficult kills (shuttle too close to net)
Holding it at the cone has made a huge difference for me. When returning drives, the following obviously doesn't apply - it refers to weak shots just above the net. I often (unintentionally) take a backswing (on the backhand side) My coach is trying to get it into "muscle memory" that I "lead with the racket", and that most of the power comes from pronation/suppination and clenching the fingers. I'm not a beginner, and it was quite embarrasing when he first started working on this I would often miss the shuttle (having it land on my head on odd occasions) or hit it backwards!
