Hi, I've been having trouble thinking of ways to return this serve: http://imgur.com/FOTWovg The serve is an underhand serve and is played so it is not high enough for me to smash or hit a clean shot and comes too fast for me to adjust my body for a clean forehand shot as it is served generally to the left side of my body (I am right handed). If I stand too far back they serve it short (which I can sometimes get to); if I stand too far forward the shuttle goes past me before I can even move my legs meaning a failed/weak return. So far I've only been able to return it via weak drops (because of awkward body positioning) or by standing more to the right of its trajectory and then going for a backhand clear (which isn't the best move as it can be smashed). I've been experimenting/thinking for a few months but to no avail... How would you return it and where would you position yourself? Thanks
edit: Okay I just realised I messed up the illustration of the court but hopefully you get the gist, right?
You need to move faster then. When someone serves this way to me 90% of the time I hit a stick smash right back at the server's body. Note that you need to move/jumpe on your partner's side of the court to effectively do so.
It is important to adjust your position when retrieving this serve accordingly to get both, the long and the short serve, well enough to hit a good shot. Depends on your abilities, either you are faster getting to the back or faster returning the short serve. The best option is to smash the flick/drive. If you are not fast enough or too late to the shot just play a lift to the servers backcourt. Normally they (serving team) are way out of position when doing this serve. If you are fast/flexible enough take the shot with your forehand, but sometimes it's easier to just play a backhand clear/lift.
I used to smash this kind of serves with overhead forehand into the middle of the court nearer to the server or directly at him. You really need to position yourself and also bend and jump over to your partner's side of the court. Be it high or drive serves, if you are agile and fast enough.... Please practice this and if you can't, better think of something else instead of insisting on taking the serve. Do not risk getting injury if you can't. I was trained to do only overhead forehand instead of using backhand when I was a kid. Those days, using back hand was a bad and weak stroke. So my trainer thought me that. However, few years also, I tore my left knee ACL and that stopped me from doing that. I started to learn how to use back hand. Personally, I do serve that way sometimes driving deep into the back of the court. inexperienced players will having problem figuring out what to do with the serve. Some even thought the serve is probably out but at the last moment before the shuttle touch down, it just flying into the right side of the court. My dad used to serve that often in his hay days. He has his way of countering the return attack. But too bad, he has already retired from playing and into his 80s. I wonder have you watch any youtube video? Recently, on our free sport channel, it shown a female single player bending all the way from centre of the court to her backhand using the overhead forehand to retrieve the shuttle. Few other doubles players do that too. I think I have seen LYD and his former partner (retired) did that too
I've see this often at club level against inexperienced players but very rarely during matches. Most Right handed players will stand with their left foot forwards in preparation to attack the net. Problem is that this rotates the body to the right which makes a round the head smash rather awkward. Try standing a little bit further back with the right foot forwards & you'll find it much easier to intercept & hit the round the head smash. Once you've established that you can hit a round the head smash the servers partner tends to stand a bit further back and then you can simply play a drop shot . . . Cheap points won if the opponents don't know how to deal with it. Cheap points lost if they do. . .
If you are unable to get back to smash this then you are probably standing a little too far in to your side of the court and could do with moving a little closer to the T. Of course this may leave you a little open to the acute low serve so it's about getting the right balance and anticipating the possibility of that acute low serve.
