Foot stance for doubles backhand serve?

[morewood]

I think it matters little more than what your comfortable with, experiment, find a stance, use it. Its the resulting serve/rally thats more important than if your feet are left or right forward.

[henmd111]

Are you sure the above footwork, both 2-steps and 3-steps, will work?

yup, coz you need to end up with your Right foot (if you're right handed) last when your moving towards the net. If youre comfortable using the 2 steps, use the left forward, if not, use the 3 step and use the right foreward, try it...

[taneepak]

yup, coz you need to end up with your Right foot (if you're right handed) last when your moving towards the net. If youre comfortable using the 2 steps, use the left forward, if not, use the 3 step and use the right foreward, try it...

This I know but the sequence of your 2-steps and 3-steps in your earlier post is simply impossible.

[henmd111]

This I know but the sequence of your 2-steps and 3-steps in your earlier post is simply impossible.

its possible, hard to explain though, but this is what most players do. What part dont you get? the double right?

[taneepak]

its possible, hard to explain though, but this is what most players do. What part dont you get? the double right?

Going to the net requires one of three types of footwork, 1-step, 2-steps, or 3-steps. The rule is that your last step should be your dominant foot or playing foot. Therefore, any odd steps like a 1-step or a 3-steps will require that you start off with your dominant or playing right foot and finish with the same dominant foot, except that for the 3-steps your second step will be the left foot. For 2-steps, it is left foot first and then right. For 1-step, it is just the dominant right foot. The above sequences are necessary for balance.
Perhaps you are mixing 2-steps with 3-steps and 1-step with 2-steps.

[henmd111]

Going to the net requires one of three types of footwork, 1-step, 2-steps, or 3-steps. The rule is that your last step should be your dominant foot or playing foot. Therefore, any odd steps like a 1-step or a 3-steps will require that you start off with your dominant or playing right foot and finish with the same dominant foot, except that for the 3-steps your second step will be the left foot. For 2-steps, it is left foot first and then right. For 1-step, it is just the dominant right foot. The above sequences are necessary for balance.
Perhaps you are mixing 2-steps with 3-steps and 1-step with 2-steps.

Yup, your footwork is correct, but this type of footwork is the basic one and is slow, More experienced players use two steps to the net, Left then right, the third step is sort of a skip and slide move to attack the net or counter. Taller players, use only one step to the net, then the skip and slide move to the net. Try watching the profesionals, rarely do they use the 1-2-3 anymore, coz the do a step or two the attack or lunge to the net with the right foot, making it a Left-right-right technique.

[taneepak]

Yup, your footwork is correct, but this type of footwork is the basic one and is slow, More experienced players use two steps to the net, Left then right, the third step is sort of a skip and slide move to attack the net or counter. Taller players, use only one step to the net, then the skip and slide move to the net. Try watching the profesionals, rarely do they use the 1-2-3 anymore, coz the do a step or two the attack or lunge to the net with the right foot, making it a Left-right-right technique.

Perhaps you misunderstand me. Of course if you can get to the net with one step it is best. It depends on the situation. What I am saying is that the net corners, just like the two rear corners, are the farthest from the player, and these four points will require at the maximum 3-steps, because these 4 points are outside the two "circles" for 1-step or 2-steps. If the return shot from your opponent to any of these 4 corners is poor, you can of course take it or kill it with 2-steps or even 1-step.

[Adone]

My coach (actually coach's sister) taught me to put my left foot forward when serving on the right side, and right foot forward when serving on the left side. Said I can get more power if I decide to do a flick serve and that you can get back easier or go forward too.

[taneepak]

My coach (actually coach's sister) taught me to put my left foot forward when serving on the right side, and right foot forward when serving on the left side. Said I can get more power if I decide to do a flick serve and that you can get back easier or go forward too.

I don't think that is quite right. In almost all strokes the playing hand and the dominant foot (both right for right-handers) are "synchronized" together, whether you are hitting a forehand or backhand shot. When the foot and the playing hand are at "opposites" efficiency is lost. You need to be twice as good as your opponent to have a chance of beating him. Serving backhand with your left (non-dominant foot) forward foot is a bad idea and is used because of old habits. Such a serve will in fact give you less power in a flick. You are also left "chained" if the return requires you to reply with a backhand stroke, because your left foot in front will be blocking your dominant right foot from going across to your left side.

[Gollum]

Serving backhand with your left (non-dominant foot) forward foot is a bad idea and is used because of old habits. Such a serve will in fact give you less power in a flick.

I don't think that is true.

The power in a backhand flick should come exclusively from the short arm/wrist/fingers movement, and especially from the grip tightening.

There is no need to move any other part of the body. Indeed, this is one advantage of backhand serves: by keeping the rest of the body still, it's easier to serve consistently.

Note that both Badminton England and Lee Jae Bok explicitly say that either foot may be forwards for backhand serves, or both feet level.

[stumblingfeet]

I don't know how there would be less power. Power for the flick is mostly generated in the lower arm - your legs could be positioned however you want without significantly affecting that.

The pairing of the racquet leg and arm for other strokes is often to making reaching for the bird easier. For example, a right hander lunging on his left foot reaches across his body to get to the bird, so his reaching distance is decreased. This makes a big difference when distance needs to be covered (singles) but in many situations in doubles, stepping across with the non-racquet foot is fine.

[taneepak]

You can watch how they serve backhand, in MS, WS, MD, WD,XD, in the recent AE and see why it was always the right foot in front. When serving backhand you have to lead with the right shoulder, and the right foot in front is more optimal than the left foot in front to do this.
In the very early days the serve was always forehand, which had the left foot in front and the right hand behind. Then came the Indonesians with the backhand serve. Others, initially some not all, then changed to the backhand serve, some with the right foot in front and some with the left foot in front and some with both feet together. Now the left foot in front is seldom used.

[Gollum]

You can watch how they serve backhand, in MS, WS, MD, WD,XD, in the recent AE and see why it was always the right foot in front.

I was at the All-England on Friday for about five hours, and I saw plenty of serving with both feet side-by-side

Need a name? Gail Emms good enough for you?

[hyperactive]

wow, this thread is really interesting...read all pages...I always serve with my non-racquet foot forward coz 1 - its comfortable, and 2 - thats how we serve during singles...but I'll give racquet foot forward a try next monday night...

my current double sercive pretty much sucks so I guess this sould me the missing ingredient...!

[TonyWdq]

i just got used to the racket foot forward stance and it definitely feels better

it was hard to get use it at first because i used to use the whole arm to get enough power out of the flick serve, but now my arm isn't properly lined up for that same jerking motion and that helped me properly develop and use just my finger and wrist.

I like it a lot better although after the serve its harder to get back to base line if i play back and i'm serving from the right

[hyperactive]

I'm slowly getting used to the racquet foot forward serve as well...its ok...not spectacular...yet...I have a question, are we allowed to use the whole arm for the serve or just the wrist action?

I like the wrist action because its what I'm used to with the non-racquet foot forward but I find my services more accurate when I use my whole arm in a sort of push action. I just wanted to know if this is illegal or not?

I'm not playing til monday so I marked out the net height on my wall and a short service line with a piece of polystirine about the size of an A4 paper to practice. My friends think I'm crazy, lol.

[TonyWdq]

push is okay, but i find it better in terms of hiding your serve if you keep your movement at a minimum by using only your wrist

its soooooooooooooo satisfying watching a better player fooled by your long flick serve