how to improve defence position in doubles

The only way is to keep concentrating on it while playing. It will become easier and easier. You can do a defense drill where your opponent (or two people) keep attacking to you and you keep defending. This way you do not have to focus on anything else.

For how long you have to do it depends from people to people.

I do not know another way except having someone yelling at you every time you do it the wrong way.

 

As long as its still in your brain, it would be hard for you. Repeatitive is what you could do to makes your body memorize it & each person have different difficulty for their body to copy the pattern.

 

My experience and my coach's experience is that if you do the right practice, you will start to see the changes as early as 3 weeks after you initially noticed the error. The right practice doesn't even need to be long - 10-20 mins of good practice every week or twice a week is more than enough to change your habits. It's what you do in those 10-20 mins that is key.

Your practice needs to include:

• Executing the movement correctly
• Methodical review and feedback
• Repetition of the movement in various forms including 1) stop motion, no shuttle 2) slow motion, no shuttle 3 ) normal speed, no shuttle 4) high pressure, no shuttle 5) stop motion, with shuttle, 6) slow motion with shuttle, 7) normal speed with shuttle 8) high pressure with shuttle

I can't emphasise on the review and feedback portion enough. If you do it right, you can actually fit in 2-3 of the steps in a single week's session, getting you a roughly good shape in 3 weeks times, which will start to make itself noticed once or twice per game that you play without you actively trying (leaving you able to focus on reading the game).

If you do it wrong by skipping steps, or even worse - not having the right feedback and review, you can ingrain bad habits, which takes even longer to undo because you have to go back to step 1 again, rather than maybe re-visit the step before. Right now it sounds like you probably do step 1/2/3/4 (if you're being honest, you probably only do 1 or 2 of them), and you're probably skipping steps 5/6/7/8 because you need a regular dedicated feeder for that (whether a friend or a coach) which it doesn't sound like you've got.

It's remarkable how fast you can progress with the right environment. It's also surprising how slow people can progress if they do nothing but play games - I'm sure you can name me 5-10 players you know who have barely improved in 2+ years, even if they play multiple times a week. Sometimes this is because they don't wish to change their techniques, and sometimes they do, but they are not practising in the right environment. I will say with my experience that someone who is doing dedicated drills to improve one aspect (whether with a coach or not) is going to make 5-10x faster progress than someone who only 'practises' in games. Repetition is so key in practice - the clue in in the word DRILL - and unpredictable games are literally the opposite of drilling and repetition.

Also, don't be under the impression that after 3-8 weeks, your technique will be improved and it is done and dusted. You need to constantly review for 5-20 minutes every week even after you can do it 100% of the time in games/matches, because as soon as you start learning another technique e.g. finger power training, your defence technique may slip (or there may be opportunities to improve it further that your previous finger technique didn't allow you to take advantage of!), so instead of again going back to step 1 with ingrained bad habits, you can start off at step 4 or 5 and pick up your defence quickly again.

If you're under any doubt, I have watched Toby Penty train (#2 England MS) for a solid 10-15 mins a single footwork - middle base to round the head backhand corner. 10-15 reps at a time, and just kept doing sets for 10-15 minutes. No shuttle, no racquet, 1 single footwork - he didn't just learn it and stop. He continually re-visits and reviews each single movement, and I don't doubt for a moment Momota/Sukamuljo/LD etc. don't do it either. No wonder pro's are so good at moving...

 

You should be aware that when learning and focussing on a particular thing, then other things may dip a bit. In life. If you can remember when you learnt to drive then you might remember that happening. It doesn't mean you were doing it wrong.

When you say "I guess these are the problems one faces when trying to learn the basics as an adult." <-- Do you think children learn everything like magic. If a child spends time learning how to tie their shoelaces, that's time they are not spending on their times tables.

Generally footwork isn't a bad thing to look at first. Because that tends to come before the racket motion.

If your footwork is wrong, your racket motion might have to cater to that.

And with good footwork, everything looks more normal and better.

But there are going to be important other things besides footwork.

 

Imagine you lifted the shuttle to the other side, then set yourself ready to defend, set your feet and hips, then look and check that you did it right.

Don't keep doing it wrong then correcting it afterwards(unless you are unable yet to get it right in one go). Once you get it rght in one go, then You need to keep practising getting it right in one go.

Practise getting it right in one go, lots of times, like for an hour. Or until it feels very natural.


Practise with a partner, before a game.. That is even better practise than off court. Lift it, go into defense. Check you got it right.

Then in a game you should get it right sometimes.. and gradually you'll get it right more.

 

Stop motion is freezing at different points (sensibly after each step), and checking your position, balance, and posture. The typical example is when a coach says go....and STOP - HOLD that position, then proceeds to start moving your arms and legs around until they feel you are in a correct position.

Without a coach, it's still important to do it yourself, and even use video (camera timer is a pain) because it's often hard to see your full body position from your own eyes. A mirror is invaluable for stop motion exercises - something like a gym/ dance studio is perfect if you want to self check...you'll notice things you never noticed before. And you'll only manage it if you slow it all the way down to stopping.

Even with a shuttle, typically it is the last step that is isolated, and the position checked after hitting the shuttle too - e.g. followthrough correct? Is the racquet still in a good position or has it dropped to knee height? Only after the last step is correct can you add in the preceding steps, constantly checking to make sure the last step doesn't stop looking right.

It's very methodical, but with a fast feedback loop, e.g. with a good coach/training partner, it can be done pretty efficiently.

As you mention the 80/20 split and training plan, as @Cheung says, its important to get a clear objective for your training. This is because if you're doing things right, there WILL be times when you will get worse for a while. Typically anywhere between 3-12 weeks you'll get periods where it you're committed to changing techniques, you will genuinely 'forget' how to do anything. You'll be unable to play a full court clear. You'll 'forget' how to smash. It's up to you to decide how far you want to break down your old habits (the harder ones will lead to longer temporary underperformance) - if you're only half-committed, then you'll either try to revert 'back how I used to do it', maybe you'll blame your coach, or otherwise you'll be unhappy with your perceived lack of progress. It's important to go through big dips to reach higher levels, but not everyone is prepared to. It is perfectly understandable if you don't wish to drop in ability compared to your peers especially if you're one of the stronger players in your group already - pride is powerful!

 

You should focus on singles footwork because that is the progression. Master singles, then you either keep playing singles or switch to doubles.

 

Singles and doubles don't have many differences when it comes to footwork. Singles footwork aims to move to the shuttle as efficient and effective as possible and so does doubles footwork. The only difference is the base position which is more dynamic in doubles. Also, because there is less court to cover a doubles player can more easily get away with rough unrefined footwork, whereas in singles lack of proper footwork is much less forgiving. This also means that a doubles player can benefit from playing singles or "singles-training", because it keeps their footwork clean.

Also, about the turning of the hip on the smash defence. Often, when a player turns to play a defensive shot, it is because they are mentally biased toward one side i.e. they expect it to come to the backhand so they turn left to their backhand side (if only slightly). This is most common on the backhand because it tends to be the more natural defensive shot, but it can happen on the forehand as well. Then, when they are biased toward one side, they are not positioned to play a good defence on the other side.

I don't know if this is the case for OP, but if it is I would say to worry less about whether your hips are angled correctly and instead focus on being ready for all possible smash angles. By reminding yourself that it can come on either side as well as in the middle, you naturally take on a more forward-facing stance. Focus less on anticipation, or where you think the smash is going to come and more on reaction. Later, when you no longer have the tendency to turn to one side, you can start to try to anticipate smash angles without compromising your defensive stance.

Conversely, if you ever see your opponent turning to defend a smash, smash it to their other side i.e. "behind their back" and you usually get a weak reply..