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11:34 am
March 1, 2010
Offline
Paul,
I read through your serving blog with interest and was going to reply but found myself going of on too much of a tangent, agreed with and will try out the ideas on serving, did however find the idea of winning a point/game/match with a short serve a bit unlikely- obviously you can lose a point/G/M with a bad serve. But, unless you get and ‘ace’ on a short serve I personally wouldn’t count it as a winning shot, more like the opposition lost it with a bad return. With a flick or drive serve an ace is more likely. This is why I didn’t post a reply as it is really splitting hairs. Not taking anything away from the article as I agree completely that a good short serve is invaluable, and is something that I have worked on a lot this year, also have copied the idea I read on here about deliberately aiming at or below the tape to cut out the safety margin that I have unconsciously built in.
The idea of moving forward past your comfort zone when receiving a serve got me thinking about points and their relative importance, obviously they are all equal as far as scoring goes. But…
Although I can just about toe the line, it is a bit of a fake, I am so commited to going back to cover a flick that I can’t really effectively attack a short serve, I am happier 60-90 cm off the line. However I make a point of going as far forwards as I can during the course of an evening, settling with a 30-45 off the line. My aim is to push this and attack the serve so that at the end of an evening I will have been caught out at least once by a flick serve.
Trouble is that that one point where I look like an idiot is remembered much more than all the loose short serves that I killed outright by taking an aggressive stance. One or two points is about as much as my ego can take during the course of the night, then I will back off fractionally- either mentally or physically move back. However the aggressive stance must net me far in excess of 1 or 2 extra points in the course of an evening. So mathematically it seems that I should keep on pushing it.
But the fact that it will create short and dull rallies and will make either me or the server look silly means that I don’t, these- games are in name friendlies, but are as competitive as it gets round here as the league has collapsed .
So, is there a general coaching (or otherwise!) consensus on a decent balance?
Nic
8:13 pm
February 15, 2011
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Nic
What a good post.
The point of my article was that most players serve to start a rally rather than win a point. That doesn’t mean the serve itself is a winner, but a poor serve can be a definite looser.
Whatever level you play, a good tight serve sets up your chances on winning. Anything less than that is asking for trouble. However, we always seem to focus on the negative, when something is going wrong rather than when it’s going right. That’s why I believe we should raise the profile of good serving around the clubs.
If you listen to commentary on badminton matches, you’ll hear a good serve get a mention. And, if you watch the flick is still used. Because it’s not used much, it’s highly effective and catches the best in the world. That doesn’t stop them taking up the same stance next time.
What you’re experiencing in terms of being flicked is nothing new. You’ve kinda answered your own question here by acknowledging that your ego gets in the way. Effectively this takes the shine off all the good work you had done in receiving the short serve in an aggressive manner. By the way, you only look an idiot because that’s what you’ve labelled the result of you not returning the shuttle as you’d like.
There is no coaching concensus on where you should stand to receive the shuttle. This will depend on every players abilities and their style of play. Some players have the speed to get to a flick and smash the return. Others wouldn’t get close and so you choose what works for you.
Paul
2:18 pm
March 1, 2010
Offline Hi Paul,
I see and agree exactly what you are saying about serves. My question wasn’t really about where I should stand to receive service, more about the balance between playing aggressively or defensively. I used to be happy to play defensively, concentrate on placing a safe shot back and getting in position for the return, I had much better fitness then. Now I play much more aggressively- I try to play a wining shot whenever possible, I get more points but also lose more points by messing up the shot. I think the balance is about right at the moment as my game has noticeably improved (not forgetting your help with my backhand!) plus I quite often finish a game without being out of breath, which could be seen as a bonus….
I could however overdo the aggressive stance and by trying to kill every shot lose more points. The fact that I am playing doubles means that this is a bit unfair on my partner, as taken to the extreme if I hit the shuttle the rally ends, one way or another.
I suppose the acid test is just whether we win games or not, maybe I am just overcomplicating things!
Nic
2:33 pm
February 15, 2011
Offline Nic
Whenever you watch the pros, very few get the chance to bury the shuttle. What they are trying to do is take command of the net because then they are in a position to attack.
Maybe there is a happy medium between being aggressive on the loose serve and tactically sound on the better serves.
Glad you got my point on serving too, because it’s a critical difference that can literally change everything for you.
Delighted your backhand is improving too – I think I may be becoming the backhand specialist with the number of players I’ve helped.
Now, if only I could find a way to get the average club player smashing the shuttle at 150mph!!!!
Paul
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