to be the first person to ever start a thread in this section, here's a question: you're in a doubles game, where your partner is attacking from backcourt and you're around the front court ready to pick off weak replies or drops (as you should be). now in this situation, lets say your partner is attacking on the right side of the court, and your opponents make a shot near to the back court on the left side of the court. under what conditions should you go cover that shot for them, and when should you leave it for your partner and stay up front for the next shot?
has your partner smashed cross court or down the side of the court. How far to the right of the court? Is he in the tramlines? or between the tramlines and the centre line of the court? Or in the centre of hte court smashing down the right? How far back is your partner when he smashes? Within the back two lines? in front of the back two lines? midcourt? Is your partner righthanded or lefthanded? Where are you standing in the frontcourt? All the way to the left?, near the centre? over to the right? Where are you standing in relation to the service line? On it? Slightly behind? How is your footwork and movement? easier to answer the question if these details are given.
can your partner play a proper/acceptable backhand shot? Does he/she play round the head shots? How fast are you? all important points as well
those are good concerns but i think the most appropriate concern is still "how must "left" is the shuttle going" if let's say your partner is at the right corner box and the "left" is going to the other box, you better take it. but if it's only going to ard middle of the court, then might as well leave it, coz if your partner is stable, there is no way you can reach there faster than him, who just need to take one step/jump. just remember, no matter what, when you move back to take whatever shot, your partner must leave it for you, coz he can see u, and you cant.
if your partner at the rearcourt is attacking on the right side, after each shot, he should always return to the middle and be ready to cover both sides of the rearcourt. this is a tried and tested strategy already. you should only move back if your partner clears the shuttle or gets tired and moves forward so you 2 can switch. all the while, the front player should also be aware if his partner is caught out of place after chasing a nice drive return to a corner. when that happens, the front player moves back and covers the whole midcourt ready to defend especially the far side from his partner until his partner can recover and take the other side for a side-side formation.
Many would disagree with this. Many pairs prefer to keep rotating on attacks from the sides of the rear court. In other words, the "default" is that the smasher rushes straight to the net for a kill, while the front person goes back. There's no "right or wrong" in this case, it's up to you and your partner to decide what to do in these cases -- rotate or not? The merits and shortcomings of both methods have been extensively discussed before in this thread.
It's better if this situation was videotaped or else it's very hard to answer. Or better yet a simulation with Kwun's new idea on 3D modeling with moving models.
Rotation is the area in which players need to build most understanding. There are many variables as Cheung outlined: variables like Left hand/right hand partnerships will have different considerations, in such partnerships the rear court player may like to play crosscourt from his fhand more than normal knowing the straight return is to his partners forehand. If one player is stonger at the back or net than any rotation may be biased towards keeping /getting into that formation The speed of the respective players and their ability to come back from the net versus the speed across the rear court Having said that the basic systems could be for dealing with high lifted returns: You could have a system in which whenever a rear court player is moved across the back into the extreme corner the front player will adjust his positioning so as to cover the lift to the opposite corner A more loose system in which players will only swap if the rally becomes long and the rear court player is struggling A system in which the front player will go back and intercept anything he can at first opportunity Whichever system it is important that as mentioned the forecourt player is the one to make the decisions. Other situations in which rotation may occur: the shuttle is driven /lifted low past the net player, the rear court player hits down from the midcourt and continues to move forwards , the net player having moved to the opposite side. The net player jumps out to the side to intercept, the rear court player moves up to cover the opposite side net/midcourt area
DLP - badminton guru! BobbyG the key is agreeing within a partnership on attacking tactics. These tactics are likely to change depending on the relative merits of you and your partners attack and your opponents defence. There are two major choices - channel or rotation. Channel attack is the easiest option and can work well against most club and county opposition. In the situation you describe you would be positioned just to the right of the T, your partner would smash to the straight defenders forehand (right-hander). The defender is left with two options and the shuttle will mostly be returned to your partner to smash again or to you for the kill. Rotation is more advanced and better suited to higher level play where the rallies are significantly longer. The net player is positioned further left and maybe a little further back. This positioning allows the rear attacking player space to smash with a view to creating an opportunity for them to approach the net and for the net player to move to cover the lobbed return to the backhand corner. Rotation is a difficult skill and requires a great deal of quality practice within a partnership. The benefits are that it allows attacking players to take turns at attacking during a long rally, it prevents a weaker player from getting 'pinned' in a rear corner against a skillful defence and permits the rear player more attacking options as the cross-court driven defence is to some extent covered. There are a number of variables to consider when deciding on which tactic to use in any given situation. Channel attack is particularly effective against a weak defence or against a player who consistently defends straight. It is also recommended for situations when the strong smasher is in the rear court and the skillful touch player is in the forecourt. Rotation is more effective against a skillful defence and a player who consistently defends cross-court. It is also an effective way of moving the weaker attacker in a partnership to the forecourt.
