My perfect partner is my regular mens doubles partner. He is very fast, has great defence, and hunts the shuttle at the net. He never makes any mistakes, and can hit winners when he tries. The pace of his smash is quite slow, but it doesn't matter, given the steep angles and great placement. For me, the movement and the defence and the consistency is what makes him a great partner. We can use our speed to overwhelm opponents, we build pressure by making no mistakes, getting there early and playing good shots, and there is no way their attack will get through either of us. Matt is happy 🙂

When my partner has a weak defence (its ok if they can defend from cross court, but if they can't do that, then its a problem), it creates a lot of pressure on us. I am naturally the kind of player that would rather lift high to the back line, than risk making a mistake on an impossible shot. If my partner can't defend the attack that follows this lift, then that is bad. Everything else is kind of a bonus in many ways. So I think my shopping list for a good partner, in order, is:

Good defence

Good Serve

Good frontcourt/midcourt attack

Good speed

Good rearcourt attack

Note, this is only a technical list, and doesn't consider tactical awareness, or personality etc.

A bad partner may or may not affect me, depending on what we mean by “bad”. Most of the time, partners and pairings have weaknesses, and we can overcome these. E.g. one guy I sometimes partner has great shots, but very limited movement going forwards or sideways. I can overcome these weaknesses through shot selection and my own speed of movement. If by “bad” you mean fundamentally not suited to playing with each other, this can be quite tricky. In these instances, I try to take every point as it comes, and fit in with my partners style of play, and put aside my own preferences. These games make me uncomfortable, but not inherently a problem.

Interested to see what everyone else's partner shopping list is!