here's a picture of LinDan serving. See how far in front of his body the shuttle is held. Do you hold the shuttle so far forward? If you think you do, check if it's true using somebody else to judge! Should we be following this principle for our serves?
I think singles servers tend to hold the shuttles further in front of them when serving as they stand further back in the court, so move the shuttles away from them to get it nearer to the optimum hitting point (just infront of the service line). If you held it that far in front standing in the normal doubles position, then you would find yourself hitting the shuttle too far up to get over the net, so more chance that either the serve would be high, long, or too slow all of which produce a less effective serve. Bao Chunlai holds his shuttles even further forward. I just hold it comfortably in front in order to try get some consistency and relax when taking a serve.
Well the closer you hold the shuttle to the net when serving in doubles then the less time your opponent has to react after you strike it. I suppose it depends how tall you are, my lowest rib is roughly 4ft from the ground, so I'm never hitting the shuttle up that much anyway.
Gotta say, ive never thought of my serve like that nor has it ever been brought to my attention. I serve forehand and now that I think about it when I'm holding the shuttle it's barely infront of my body. Very interesting.
Observing that image on Lin Dan his grip seems to be a cross between backhand and universal....any ideas why? I seem to recall seeing other top players grip like this too for service....mainly singles though I think!?!?!
In doubles when recieving or serving I use a universal grip in anticipation of some driving or fast flat mid-court exchanges as we battle for the attack, but in singles? Hmm, thats a bit of a curious one. Maybe thats just the way Lin Dan likes to hold his racket, surperstition or something...
I actually tried that grip the other night and did find it helped my consistency. I tried various positions with the thumb too. When my thumb was placed more in pan handle position position I found I lost consistency and fluffed more into the net than actually went over. Thumb on the back of the racket (as in backhand grip) I found it was 70/30 accurate. with the new grip though I'd say 85/15 accurate with a much tighter trajectory to the net! Glad I tried it now, just need more practice!
I find that that distance works very well in singles because it gives you a split second more time to get ready and I think it's done that far because it allows the bird to far farther down to make the arc from the flight closer to the net. But in doubles, it doesn't work as well. My serve in doubles looks kinda like Gao Ling's. I kinda make my racquet perpendicular to the ground and rest my hand with the bird a little bit on the racquet and then I turn the racquet to about a 45 degree and kind of hook the bird. Works very well and seems to be very accurate hehe.