Sometimes there can be very little that seperates a good player from a very good player and in a game of doubles this tends to be the serve and return.
What the new scoring has done is made the serve and return even more vitally important, no longer can you afford to waste a serve knowing your partner has one left. Equally as important because of the same reasons is the service return, a well placed shot can give the attack straight away and force your opponents to defend.
Here are my 3 most important shots in a game of doubles.
Serve - Variations of this are important but the most important is definately the low service to the T and very ocasionally a well placed flick out wide. If you play a game of good doubles, see how your serve holds up and how many mistakes you make from it. By mistake this does not mean just out or in the net, you must also include bad serves which give your opponent an easy attack. If you are making more than 3 errors like this then your serve needs work.
Serving practice tip - Here it is important that you have a goal, something to focus on as serving without this can become quite boring. Start by placing a racket so the head is lined up in the diagonal box at the T. The aim is to serve to the T just over the net so the shuttle drops onto the racket head. You should try to do 50 serves and see how many you can get to land on your racket head. Practice this as often as you can, a good serve forces your opponent to lift and gives you a good attacking benchmark to win the point.
Service return - Here my personal favourite places to return the shuttle are down the line inbetween server and servers partner (this does not need to be tight on the line, leave a margin for error). A deeper drive into the back players back hand corner or if the server is serving to the T then a soft push at his body, or a drive at the rear court players body.
Drop shot - Now this may come as a suprise but having a good drop shot in a game of doubles opens up the court and allows you to dictate the rallys. At a medium level of badminton if you are not blessed with a Simon Archer or Bao Chunlai sized smash you will need to be creative to get the short lift to win the point. A drop shot to the middle landing around the T can cause confusion over who should be taking the shuttle, this slight hesitation can cause a shorter lift or for your opponents to try a net shot when the shuttle is too low to really be considering this shot. What you must be careful when playing this shot is that you don't overuse it. The last thing you want is someone charging your drop shot and leathering it at your doubles partners head. To combat this a straight punch clear is always a good shot to throw in once or twice, never go cross court with this type of clear as it leaves your partner in no mans land not knowing which side to come back on.
I often get asked what racket i would recommend and for the majority of balanced doubles players from club, right through to International level i would suggest the Apacs Tantrum 200 badminton racket. This is a well balanced, medium weight racket that offers excellent overhead power combined with great feel for touch shots. This also happens to be the racket i use!
If you would like any advice, training tips or racket recommendations then please feel free to contact us on admin@apacsuk.co.uk
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