Suppose my partner is receiving a serve Say I stand behind them with one foot slightly over that centre line. ( 'the centre line' i.e. the line perpendicular to the net) The serve is a flick serve towards the centre line area. If it were the case that the flick serve was far away from the centre line, then I just move forwards.. But if the flick serve is towards the centre line, then if I move forwards I will be in the way e.g. say My right handed partner is in the left court. His right elbow might even be over/past the centre line. His feet may even more past the centre line when he receives the flick serve. Do I step sideways away from the centre line, then move forwards, then step inwards towards the centre line? Or do I move in an arc? Note that i'm not sure if this makes a difference but it's club level, none of us are super fast and super quick to respond, and when my partner is receiving serve his non-racket foot is some distance from the service line. Like, I know normally when returning serve you are meant to step forward with your non-racket foot, but if he was to step forward with his racket foot then his racket foot would be just over the service line, that's how far back he is. And of course i'm behind him as he's my partner receiving serve. So i've now got to move forwards without any clash.. How do you suggest I do that? (I haven't personally been in this situation, but my partner was in this situation when I received a flick serve and neither of us know a proper answer re this).. does the back guy move in an arc? or like half a square shape(sideways out from the centre line, forwards and sideways towards the centre line)? We know the guy at the back has to go forwards when the guy at the front receiving serve goes back, but it's a question of how to do so without clashing. (When the shuttle is flicked such that it'd land near the centre line)
Your foot is on the center line? That seems very unconventional.... I think you can just step side ways
where do you think I said my foot is on the centre line? I said a foot is over it. by which I meant across it/ past it. (like if you say a shuttle is over the line, you don't mean it's on the line) and stepping sideways is not going to move me forward, it is going to move me sideways. Perhaps you mean I should step sideways then move forward but I think I am meant to end up just behind where the service line meets the centre line. i.e. fairly central. So if I stepped sideways and moved forward i'd probably be too far sideways. Do you understand what i'm saying? It's what I said in my original post in this thread
Oh lol, in that case I misunderstood . As for moving forward...you don't HAVE to always move forward. It really depends on how your partner returns the flick serve. If he clears it or does a weak shot, you should be playing defensive. You move forward only if you think your partner is able to hit a good smash off the flick serve. As for side-stepping, don't do a huge step. Just lean away from your partner a bit and move your left foot out of the way and then move forward. Make sure you are reacting AT THE SAME TIME as your partner. As soon as your partner gets flicked, you should be leaning away and moving your left foot out of the way. Other than that, just have to work on being faster
This is really key. Your partner must take two steps to effectively retrieve a flick smash - chasse + jump normally, or 2x chasse, and even 2x crossover steps if he is really slow. In either case, he is split stepping, then taking to successive steps. You on the other hand also need to take two steps - one tiny one sideways, and then one hop forwards. In order to do so, you must react as fast as your partner as you rotate around each other - his first step pushes him very close to you, as you dodge him sideways, then his second step cements him into the rearcourt position, as your second step pushes you into the forecourt/midcourt attack position. Voila, you have rotated into the front without clashing.
React as soon as possible. Many people just watch the shuttle go past the net and up in the air before initiating any movement. Try to minimise the lag time. Step sideways and then forward. You do not always have to be just behind the T but at least moving forward in the mid court area when partner hits the shuttle.
so the first movement I would do then is a shuffle sideways..(a step sounds like moving just one foot and isn't going to move me out the way). now i'm out the way. Is the second movement, which you describe as forwards, actually a diagonal movement? (so as to bring me back in towards the centre, as well as forwards)?
You don’t need to go to centre, just step left (presuming you partner is on the right side receiving) and then go forward. If your partner plays an attack off the flick serve, he will usually play a smash to the diagonally opposite corner and you take the straightish return. Usually we wouldn’t cover the right tramline as it’s quite unusual to play to this area unless the shot is slow (so you have plenty of time to move) or the shuttle will go out if that tramline is attempted.
I wouldn't position myself assuming he's going to do that one thing. Partner might do a drop to the right box ,partner might smash straight. partner might smash to the right.. Being left of the centre line doesn't seem ideal when, if my partner hits straight, the shuttle is going to come faster to the right box, And the 'plenty of time to move' argument might also justify moving diagonally towards the centre after moving sideways, if I have plenty of time to do that.
Badminton is a game about percentages and much more so in doubles. You cover the most likely returns. Obviously I don’t know your partners but what the partner could do and what they actually do (and also opponents) are two different things. For instance, can they smash a flick serve to the right tramline? Well, yes. But how many times do they do that in games? If every one of your partners does play like that, then yes, you better go back across and cover the right side of the court. So it depends on how well you know your partners and what likely returns they might play off a certain height and position of a flick serve. Then you make a judgement call on whether you go forward to the centre (because partner usually smashes between the opponents), slightly left of slightly right of midline. In general, most people smash to the diagonally opposite part of the court so look for that area first.
When I hear in doubles, it said that this area is that partner's responsibility, and this area is the other partner's responsibility, that tends to cover the whole court. I tend not to hear that one player has this area covered, the other player has this area covered, and nobody has this area covered. But is that what you are suggesting?
You move to cover different areas based on the shots you & your partner make, this "rotation" is crucial in doubles. Seems like you are having trouble rotating with your partner. There are some basic rotation techniques and some advanced rotations if you really delve into doubles play
obviously Moving to cover different areas based on shots you and your partner make is not just called "rotation".. Rotation is a subset of that. I guess one might call the scenario where they flick one partner and the other moves to the front, a rotation. 'cos they've switched between front and back. I think we can move without coming near a clash, with the partner at the back side stepping first. And then moving diagonally forward or as per your suggestion, just forward. Is that meant to be your response to the question in the post you replied to. The question was- "When I hear in doubles, it said that this area is that partner's responsibility, and this area is the other partner's responsibility, that tends to cover the whole court. I tend not to hear that one player has this area covered, the other player has this area covered, and nobody has this area covered. But is that what you are suggesting?" It seems like the answer to this question would be a simple "yes".. ? Even with good rotation, from what you wrote earlier, it seems that the answer to that question is yes.
Well this is straying away from "how to respond to flick serves". You are asking if the entire court should be covered at all times. Cheung is saying you & your partner can take some risks and cover only the most probable areas to be hit. Which means, yes there might be an area of the court that neither you nor your partner is covering. Does that help clear up any confusion?
Basically, yes. As far as I can see, social players or those who haven't undergone formal training cannot cover the whole court or even partial areas of the court. This is only natural due to lack of footwork and balance training or maybe for some people, previous injuries. (However, a lot of people think they can). Playing by percentages, cover the high percentage shots as these will give you most bang for the buck. You can definitely try to cover very low percentage shots by positioning yourself more equally on court but that causes an opportunity cost on positioning yourself for the high percentage shots.
At a certain level, it's not about who's covering what shots when you're in an attacking position, but how you can maintain the attack (because the only way you would normally lose a point is you lose the attack, then subsequent your defence fails). If you go by the idea that you evenly cover the court between you, you will naturally forego the many prime attacking opportunities that come with covering the highest percentage shots coming back. Say you position yourself centrally after your partner (likely) smashes a flick crosscourt - with a straight block/lift most likely, you have not covered the most likely return, and therefore although you can reach most things, you're more likely to be lifting defensively than pressing the attack, which is one step closer to losing the point. If you instead cover the straight block to your partner's crosscourt smash, then you are much more likely to be able to continue to attack, and in the worst case scenario, you should still be able to do a full defensive lift if your opponent plays a cross block - it takes longer to travel there and your partner played a downwards stroke. We don't all play to such a high level, but that is the principle of high level doubles attack. At lower levels, some pairs thrive off being fully defensive all the time...
If my partner is likely to smash there then yeah it'd make sense to just move forwards and not diagonally forward to the centre line. But why is a partner likely to smash a flick cross court, i.e. towards the area of the guy that flicked it? Let's say the person receiving a flick serve is standing in the right service box. They could smash it straight or slightly to the right.. Isn't that an equally wise likely response from somebody returning a flick serve? That's a straight smash so the opponent will have even less time to get to it than they would the cross court smash. And also, there's a gap, and a smash there might be one where the opponent doesn't get near to. Whereas smashing cross court is within the vicinity of the opponent.
Smashing towards the server is by far the most common reply because the server is standing close to the net which means less time to react.
@ralphz Let us know how things go in your next games. Would love to know if our advice helps you in your games (or not).
