Any advice? When my partner played MD, he always played in the front and when I played, we played doubles style. Now I don't know what to do...
Could you be more specific about what you would like advice on? It sounds as if when you play together, you play as if you were equal, like a mens or womens doubles. Are you saying you are not happy with this? or you want to change it? or learn "traditional" mixed doubles? Are you not winning matches? Thanks Matt
It mainly depends on your partner. If he's significantly stronger than you from the back of the court, then you'll probably be most successful playing traditional mixed-doubles - even if he's also a very good front-court player. If there's not much difference between you, then there's nothing wrong with using level-doubles strategy, where you both swap between front- and back-court positions. If you want to have read, there's a nice excerpt from a book here: http://www.badminton.tv/sites/badminton/media/books/winning-badminton-doubles/chapter-7.pdf
well he keeps on telling to stay in the front and its my first year playing for real where my partner wont ditch me during a tournament and then i have to get paired with a sucky and stupid guy i don't like so u could say i dont know wat im doing most of the time. But we've only played a few games together thnxs ^^
It sounds as if both you and your partner need to understand how to play mixed. AS the lady in a mixed doubles, your job is to make all cross court shots (except a clear) out of bounds. You must ALWAYS be covering the cross court, but that doesn't mean you always have to stand cross court - if your partner is at the back, smashing, you can go towards his side to cover more straight shots, as long as you CAN get to any cross court shots) You can start by imagining where you need to be. Imagine the shuttle is on the left hand side of your opponents court and you need to cover the whole court (your partner didn't hit a VERY powerful smash). you must make all cross court shots out of bounds to your opponents. You need to take up a position on the RIGHT of the court (cross court from the shuttle). This position should be with your left foot near the centre line, and you should be about a metre BACK from the WHITE SERVICE LINE. Thats right. You are NOT AT THE FRONT. Standing at the front is stupid because you cannot SEE the shuttle and you hence cannot participate in the rallies. You are standing further back, looking for any cross court net shots or cross court drives that you will smash/kill back at them. You should be assuming a crouch defence position most of the time. When the shuttle is on the right hand side of your opponents court, you must be on the LEFT of your own (cross court) with your right foot near the centre line and again be 1 metre back from the service line. As long as you do these TWO things, your partner CANNOT ask any more of you. If you cannot reach a shot EASILY, it is NOT your shot. ALL the women I know try to cover too much at the front, trying to cover the WHOLE front. The whole front is HUGE, and you cannot cover it alone. Your partner has to stand ready for the straight smash, so any straight drop that you can't reach, is well within HIS reach. If he ever LIFTS cross court, you must move from the side you are on to the other side, to cover the new crosscourt, e.g. you are standing on the right, and your partner hits a shot to the right of your opponents court, you are now straight in comparison to the shuttle. You must move to the opposite side, immediately, to cover the cross court, which is the LEFT. If your partner tells you you need to get more, or that you should be further forwards etc. Tell him he needs to learn to play mixed doubles. Get him on here (BC) and we will teach him to play. I have only covered court positioning, but in terms of shots, generally you want to attack the STRAIGHT side tramline, or the centre of the court. Hitting cross court ruins everything unless you are DEFINITELY going to win the point with it. Hope that helps Matt
That's all great advice. Your role as the lady is NOT to just "stay in the front" and look pretty, as some men would have you believe... You both need to read this brilliant article: http://badminton-coach.co.uk/270/wh...om-women-partners-at-badminton-mixed-doubles/ (suggest you print it out and show him)
That truly is a great article! Like so many on his site, Paul (the coach who wrote that article) has cut almost immediately to the main problems that arise. I too am a coach, and agree whole heartedly. Thus you can tell your partner that this article comes from the advice of TWO qualified coaches (although i am not the author!). Enjoy! Matt p.s. pay particular attention to the bit about the fast straight drop. This is such a fantastic shot, everyone should have one but I know so many ladies who choose to clear instead of drop... as paul says in the article, the key is to attack intelligently, never to defend!
