Hi all I recently watched a video about serve return selection. What it was saying was basically: If the serve is low and can pushed to the sides, you can try that. (SOFT return) If the serve is:: low and is directly at your racket arm (hard to move shuttle sideways) then you can push it forwards gently as to not hit the net. If the serve is slightly above net height you should do a HARD return (fast drive to the opponent's body or his sides) If you guys have anything to add or something to correct about these points please do
I dont think there is a rule that if opponent do A you must do B & if opponent do B you must do C. If you do that its plain easy to read & anticipate your action. So, sometimes you do this, other time you do that. This makes your opponent guest, what shot will you play? Where should i be ready for? Should i stay or move back? Less predictable is what you want & being deceptive is what you do. But if its the opposite, like if the opponent do A then dont do B then its good rule to follow. For example if you are late for hard smash, dont force yourself to smash hard. You can do stick smash/drop/clear. Which one out of 3? You choose it yourself & makes your opponent guest which of the 3 that you will use.
It really depends on the level. The soft push/drop options are meant to make the opponent lift, which is then up to your rear court partner to start the attack when he hits the 3rd shot. The hard push option is really to take the situation to your own hands as you hope to force a weak return that you can intercept right away. For me if I think I can overpower my opponents with a strong push then I do it. Otherwise I will go the other route.
This completely depends on your play style, your opponent's play style, the quality of the serve, and the general, overall quality of you, your partner, and your opponents. There's no such thing as "you should return a certain way based on a certain type of serve".
cz i watched it quite a while ago and lost the video. + have no memory whatsoever of what the channel was or what the wording of the video title was.
let's just say I forgot which video it was mentioned in (it was mentioned as a tidbit of info (5-10 secs of the video) , not as the main topic) and I lack the time needed for checking all the serve return videos i watched that day to find out exactly which one it was and at which point in the video was it said ^P.S: yeah should have done at that time. forgot to, now it's lost in time somewhere .___.
Now thinking about it, this does seem a wiser option to keep opponents guessing. Thank you for your input
All the advice in BC or YouTube videos more or less is helpful if you are able to implement it during the game. So if you can push the birdie to the sides without playing it wide, or redirect the flat serve to the opponent's body and not into the net 4/5 times then you can choose at your leisure, dont predecide what return you gonna play. Improve the overall consistency of your shots. You will hardly score a point on a return... not against a good team. But you can definitely lose the point if your return is weak. So decide your return according to the opponents skill level IMHO. For ex. If my opponent is fast then I don't try to play fancy right off the bat and play a safe return away from the server, near the sidelines in the mid court and low enough so the rear court opponent can't smash it. Similarly think before you serve, take cues from the position, body language of the receiver. But for that you must have a good bag of serves, or he would be playing it to the sides or into your body Cheers.
