Hi I play mostly doubles and its annoying when my friends keep driving or pushing to my left hand with me no time to hit it overhead and then going up to the net waiting for a drop so they can smash it before it goes down. I cant do a back hand clear that low cause everytime i do it lands in the middle of their court for a smash. All i can do is drop it. Most of the time i try to cross court drop it to get it out of their reach but it doesnt always work.
1) work on your backhand clear to make it stronger 2) cheat on your backhand side so you can hit a forehand 3) practice arching your back to the left so you can hit a sideways overheard forehand
sometimes the problem isn't your backhand, it maybe other issues in your game. footwork - you are slow to get to the backhand rear court. work on strength of your leg and learn the proper footwork. shot quality - the reason your opponent can pressure your backhand is because you gave them the chance to. are your clears deep to the rear court? if not, they can make a fast clear to your backhand that will give you very little time to react. are your net drops tight? if not, they can do a flat push to your backhand side.
deception works too! pretend (make sure they know!) you are hitting straight and then do a cross court.
Yeah, but basically backhand isn't much of use, work on your forehand overhead smash/drop instead. In doubles especially, backhand should be avoided at all costs. Even if you did a backhand shot, it should rather be a smash or drop than a clear, as it's doubles we're talking about. If it's easily predicted, try hitting a cross-court drop, it surprises the opponent(s) sometimes quite well.
That's if you could avoid hitting a backhand. Most of the time, backhand clears are executed when there's simply no other options. Doing a desperate forehand overhead when you're not in position will compromise your situation even more. Trying to smash that return will severely reduce your accuracy and make recovery all the more harder. IMO, blindly smashing at your opponents is worse than a good clear. At least a clear allows your team to regroup and attempt another defensive conversion. If your backhand smash is really good, then you should use it to apply pressure on the other team by keeping the rally low and fast. Use it as a snapshot to prepare for a forehand overhead shot. Don't even try a backhand drop unless you can do a really tight one, experienced players will pounce upon it.
Umm.. I play doubles so its not me serving or clearing. Also im pretty tall and i cant try to bend and try for a sideways shot(around my thigh...?). And how am i supposed to get there in time if im not supposed to guess my opponents shots before my partner serves. Its a drive not a clear or a lobby shot. Even if i do get there i would have to bend down for it to hit my face so i cant do an overhand shot.
train your leg speed/strength. there is no way in doubles when your partner is serving that you cannot get to the rear court in time. there are no other alternatives / shortcuts, you need to train the speed of your footwork. period.
Some experience will speed up your anticipation of possible returns, so your guesses will get better over time. Also, with your long reach, you don't need to be too close to your partner when s/he serves. It's definitely easier to lunge forward to retrieve a drop/push/smash than to step backward for an overhead shot, so position yourself nearer to the baseline and anticipate lifts from your opponents.
I think you are misunderstood... My partner serves and already being at the back of the court i get a LOW PUSH or DRIVE that is already LOW to my left. So then I run to my left. I can get there in time to the birdie with the birdie low to my left hand hand side. I can try for a smash if its around my head (doesnt happen much) but i might make an error or if i dont ill be really unbalanced and cant recover for the next shot. If its low (around my thigh) my only choice is to make a backhand shot but i do not know where to put it.
1) get your partner to serve tighter 2) get your partner to mix up the serves, to the T, body and corner and flicks 3) take a step back from your starting position to defend it better if they keep doing the same shot 4) i would try my best to lift or do an acrobatic cross court drop... even the world's best players cant do much when theres a really good return of serve, due to a sloppy serve in the first place
Ugh! In that case, you might wanna drive back at them and follow the shuttle in instead. You're already in a defensive situation as you took a downward shot, might as well form side-by-side and try to take back the offensive. Like Natrificial said, there are times when there's not much you can do against an well placed aggressive service return. Just work with what you got at the moment.
Watch the person who received the serve, and respond with either: 1. Backhand shot, down the line, low and close to net 2. Backhand shot, lift down the line to baseline 3. Backhand shot to centre, low and close to net 4. Backhand shot, cross court, landing on tramlines, before service line. All are taken akin to tennis backhand height. It all depends on your opponent's movements.
anticipation. Just try to beef up your wrist power. Take 10 minutes to practice hitting drive and swipe the shuttle back to the base line. You'll get it right with regular 10 minutes practice. Its numbing but rewarding. rgds