Most players have problems with cross court drives for two reasons

1) they are pushed too close to hte net to be any use whatsoever
2) they do not face the shuttle and are positioned facing the net. This means the shuttle is travelling across your body rather than travelling towards you – very different. ALWAYS position yourself so that you face the shuttle.

Paul

I think communication is very important. I prefer to have a quick chat with my partner before the game to let him know what to expect, such as I will drop or clear to the lady when I am pushed to the back, but I will move forward straight after the shot. This way, my partner knows that he will need to cover any clears to my side after this shot. If my partner is good at defense, I will make it clear that everything goes between us when we are in defending position, my partner needs to take it. Also a quick chat between points is helpful (it may not help us to win the game, but at least we tried out best) to know what didn’t work and what we would like each other to play a bit more (ie, push to the mid court instead of dropping to the front court if the lady is very fast).

Let’s look at this a number of ways…

Your partner may be tired of having shuttles fired at her and perhaps thinks that you lift the shuttle too much. So, before you start messing with her game, why not consider the circumstances that cause this situation and see if you can change your response. Instead of lifting, what else could you do?

Whilst i fully appreciate what you’re saying, the key is to attack rather than defend. Look at your attack as a pair first of all and see if you can find out how to improve it.

The other thing you can work on is making sure that when you do lift, you lift into the corners and get a good length. You stand far more chance of getting the shuttle back as your opponents smash cannot penetrate the same from the back line.

I do think you need to talk to your partner and find out what’s going through her mind. The key to improving together is co-operation. You can start by saying something like “I’ve noticed that every time we defend, we lose the point. I think I need to work on a,b,c to reduce the amount I lift. What else can we do as a pair to improve our defence?”

At least this way, you’re criticising yourself first and setting yourself up as the cause which isn’t a bad thing. And, I think you’re more likely to have a good discussion and perhaps work towards resolving this.

Jordan, I hope this helps. Let me know what happens.

To your success.

Paul

Many thanks for your comments.

I purposely didn’t go into too much depth and cover defence because the article would have become way too long for a “quick read.”

I agree with all your points. I’m not surprised the ladies you have spoken to have that attitude – who can blame them? For years they’ve been asked to do so many different things and then get blamed when they make a mistake.

Some men will welcome this article and your additional comments. Many will ignore it because they’ll play their way, whether it’s right or not. But, if they truly read it and saw sense they would actually get better results – once they get the teething issues out of the way.

Just to confirm your points on defence. Ideally a woman should lift cross court so she is already in position to take a cross court return. That’s not set in stone. If she’s fast enough and her lift is good enough, she can choose any corner – just don’t lift up the middle of the court.

Likewise men, as a rule, should try to lift straight so both them and their partner are already in position to take their respecitve returns. Again, this depends on a number of factors such as speed etc but the main factor should be how late they are getting to the shuttle.

Watch out for more articles and videos soon.

Best wishes

Paul