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11:59 am
October 11, 2012
Offline
Hi All,
I’m having trouble playing a particularly tall player left hander in either MD/MX and would like some advice. He must be about 6’4” tall and stands close to the line when receiving serve. There are two areas that I struggle with consistently when playing against him.
- When my partner serves a low serve to him, he is able to consistently drive them to the rear corners within inches of the lines. I have the most trouble when my partner plays a wide low serve, which I find very difficult read, get to or play a decent return. My partner does tend to block my view a little, so I’m standing further back to give me a little more time to react. I’ve noticed that professionals tend not to stand too far back, and instead stand quite close behind their serving partner.
- My second problem with playing this tall left hander is he can get to everything with such a long reach. Be it flick serves, attacking clears, drops, wide smashes… everything. He doesn’t possess the best racquet skills and doesn’t have a great backhand but has an amazing reach and is very accurate.
I consider myself an intermediate level player and play at a local club, I have a tendency not to smash to the weaker lady opponent (just because I don’t like to win by picking on the lady). However this is not the case with this tall chap, he smashes mostly to my lady partner which she often can’t return or plays a weak return for him to finish off.
It’s a little demoralising as I know I’m at least as good as him but have been losing to him consistently.
Any advice/tips would be much appreciated! J
4:15 pm
May 25, 2010
Offline Have a look at this first, and see what you think, you need to stand close ish to your partner like the pro's do so that you are able to get to more shots, standing further back reduces the number of shots you can get successfully
/discussion-forum/advanced-general-qa/serving-problem-in-doubles-with-tall-partner/?value=serving&type=1&include=1&search=1&ret=all
Badminton Gives Me A Purpose In Life – To Serve Others
I'd Rather Be Playing Badminton…………..
4:22 pm
February 15, 2011
Offline
Whenever you play tall players you need to remember that trying to play around them is difficult because of their reach.
When serving to this player, test which should is the best to serve to. I played a tall guy once and if I served to his racket shoulder, he was really fast onto the shuttle. As soon as I served to his non racket shoulder I caught him out and got weak returns.
During a rally I would play slice smashes so he has to take the shuttle in front of him and low to the floor. i would vary with smashes to the body.
When receiving serve, I would do the same. Drop shuttles short and in front of him or directly at him where his levers (arms) are slowest. But, i would make sure these shots are played fast to ensure he has little time to react.
When you're playing mixed doubles, if you're not prepared to smash as the opposing lady then you need to have a think. How can you protect your partner if you're not prepared to attack correctly? Why should your partner have the shuttle blasted at her because you don't attack properly – you're not being very fair to her are you. I think you should consider your partner ahead of your opposition.
Paul
4:53 pm
October 11, 2012
Offline Peter Warman said:
Have a look at this first, and see what you think, you need to stand close ish to your partner like the pro’s do so that you are able to get to more shots, standing further back reduces the number of shots you can get successfully
/discussion-forum/advanced-general-qa/serving-problem-in-doubles-with-tall-partner/?value=serving&type=1&include=1&search=1&ret=all
HiPeter, thanks for the pointer, some interesting points there…
I used to stand close to my serving partner but find that with this particular player who seems to be like a machine, he is able to place the shuttle within inches of the corners every time – amazing how he manages it. But I find it difficult to intercept when my partner doesn't serve to the “T” and instead serve wide and low in to the tramlines. It gives him more angles and with him so close to the net, he has the option to place it anywhere.
5:13 pm
October 11, 2012
Offline Paul said:
Whenever you play tall players you need to remember that trying to play around them is difficult because of their reach.
When serving to this player, test which should is the best to serve to. I played a tall guy once and if I served to his racket shoulder, he was really fast onto the shuttle. As soon as I served to his non racket shoulder I caught him out and got weak returns.
During a rally I would play slice smashes so he has to take the shuttle in front of him and low to the floor. i would vary with smashes to the body.
When receiving serve, I would do the same. Drop shuttles short and in front of him or directly at him where his levers (arms) are slowest. But, i would make sure these shots are played fast to ensure he has little time to react.
When you’re playing mixed doubles, if you’re not prepared to smash as the opposing lady then you need to have a think. How can you protect your partner if you’re not prepared to attack correctly? Why should your partner have the shuttle blasted at her because you don’t attack properly – you’re not being very fair to her are you. I think you should consider your partner ahead of your opposition.
Paul
Paul, thank you for the advice. That is the sort of advice I've been looking for. I will definitely give those suggestions a go, although I have tried to serve to both shoulders, he has good drives and seems to be able to attack the serve quite well because of his reach. Your suggestion to keep him playing low shots makes sense as I found that dropping him was more effective than smashing at him.
And about playing mixed doubles, I don't normally refrain from smashing at the ladies, but at this friendly local club the ladies are very weak novices so the general etiquette has been not to smash at them – even though you want to win! At other clubs where the women are stronger or in a match, I have no issue with it. But I take your point about it giving my partner a hard time, very true.
But going back to my question about retrieving his deep and wide returns of serves. I find it difficult to intercept the return standing close to my serving partner but standing further back doesn't leave me with many options even if I get to it quickly as I'm so far back. All I can do then is play a drop or clear since I'm playing the shot below the net.
9:32 pm
March 2, 2010
Offline Just my humble opinion: like always in badminton, avoid getting yourself into trouble. When I am serving, I never ever serve wide when I open up my partner's backhand behind me. Meaning: if all four players are righthanded, I serve from the right to left, I will never serve wide, since I then serve to my opponents forhand side. If I would, and he returns the shuttle straight, it ends up on the backhandside of my partner behind me. Serving from left to right, only then I sometimes serve wide. Then I serve to the backhandside of my opponent, and when he returns it straight, it's on the forehandside of my partner behind me.
I have found that many good players make much more mistakes when you keep on serving to the T. But then I mean close to or ON the T. Your opponent wil doubt, and that can be enough to have a weak return. If you're known as “good at the net”, they will go for a half court return or (what you should hope for) a lob. Giving your partner an opportunity to smash or drop. Tell your partner not to expose your backhandside. If you have to return a shuttle from the deep backhand corner, I wish you all the luck 
.
Having a good serve is vital. I beleive it were Paul's words: the serve doesn't start the rally, it is your first opportunity to score. Golden advice !
Hide the way you will serve as long as possible. Try to master the four corners of the court when serving (see the LinDan demo on youtube where he shows the backhand serve), but use them when appropriate. A tall opponent, good player: don't flick, serve to the body.
Playing a large player: serve to the body. Weak returned as good as guaranteed, IF your serve is low over the net. This goes for all types of serves. Some tall players have a week return when you serve low to the backhand side (I tend to call that the back T, don't know if my terminology is correct). All this to just say: don't give your opponent the chance to hit the shuttle deep into your court.
Mix: if you don't want to smash to the lady, smash to the middle court between both opponents (that is if they stand next to eachother in defence). If not, you have the tramlines to hit for. Peter's hint is the best proof: lots of good stuff on this forum !
All the best, ED
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