How to be compatible with doubles partner

Seems like it's just a matter of more communication and more practice. Yell out "mine" if you need to during a rally.

 

First off - similar skill level normally means more clashing. With differing levels, the weaker player normally plays shots when the shuttle is near them, and generally gives way to the stronger player in any situation as they will generally feel the stronger player has a better shot, regardless of position.

With similar skill there will always be overlaps in reach, where both of you can not only play several different strokes, but you'll both feel you can play good shots from those positions. Particularly in doubles, it is not only the current stroke, but the next stroke that needs to be covered by either of you. That said, let me give you your example from a different pair's perspective. Note that this isn't the "right" way, as there is no real right way - there is only consistency and understanding between you and your partner.

"In our offensive position, he would come from the front and to the back and try to kill the birdie when I'm positioned all ready for the kill shot"

As the front player, let's say I play a good net shot and I see my opponent reaching low, so I know it's a net shot or a short lift. I bring my racquet up ready to kill it, and my opponent plays a rubbish lift instead of a net shot. The shuttle would land in midcourt, and in 1 step, I can comfortably move back and attempt a kill. I know my partner is behind me and could also play the same stroke but I want to stay in the front attacking position rather than move to the back.

On the other hand, maybe I prefer playing in the back; in this case I will move out to the side to allow my back partner to play the smash and run forward to cover the net. I then move round and cover the back. If it's a midcourt lift, I should avoid staying in the front, otherwise my partner won't have any room to run forward into.

You can see that it's not so clear cut already! Whatever the front player decides, the back player can see what the front player is attempting, therefore the back player MUST give way if the front player attempts to take the shot.

In the above scenario, there are two ways of playing. As you get better, you will have more and more overlaps in different places, but what is critical is that you each understand what your intentions are. Even if it results in losing, if you both are trying to accomplish the same thing and it fails, no problem. You should be more wary of trying to accomplish different things and still winning, as the better doubles pairs will soon reveal where you don't agree with your partner, and will ruthlessly exploit it until you are shouting at each other!

 

IMO if the front player can't reach the shot and need to move back to take it, instead of leaving it for the backcourt player, the positioning of the front court player is to close to the net or he is taking something which is not for him.

A front court player shouldn't stand for each situation at a fixed point and should vary how close he stands to the net depending on the replies. If my partner smashs, I stand towards mid court to cut out any fast and flat returns, I'm still able to get the block at the net from this position by moving forward. If my partner hit drop shots, I move closer to the net and stand at around service line.

For the OP problem, could it be that your partner stands 2 close to the net?

I would solve the situation different compared to DarkHiatus. If there is a short lift, which I can't take as the front court player I would leave it for my partner at the back court. If he needs to come closer to the midcourt to smash it, I would rotate and my partner turns into the front court player and I move to the backcourt. To explain visual what I mean, I attached this video.

@venuez Maybe this video helps you and your partner to communicate better for certain situations and add advanced rotations during attack instead of this firm front/back and side/by side scenario, because even during attack it is necessary to rotate and maintain the attack. Otherwise you will get under pressure and need to give it away.

 

There are few ways to approach to OP's concern.
1) Play with more random partners, different players have different mentality to the game. Knowing how to cover for your partner is fundamental to win game. It will improve your skill overall to control the rally.

2) Better in court communication (at least do your part) will avoid clashes. Call the shots you want to take and shots you want your partner to take, call in your partner if you want to switch formation. Not all of us a professional double players that we know how our partner attack / defend shots and make rotation from front/back ; side/side formations.

3) Enjoy the game, have fun, unless you are professional playing top dollars or BWF rankings. It's okay to have your partner take the lead on offense. If you partner still decide to run to take every shot coming to your face, then you may as well play with different partner.

 

I'd say get a few sessions with a coach, or film your games and go over them together. Seeing it, or having an outside perspective is always much more helpful than a in-the-moment argument. And working on skill and strategy with someone on the outside, like a coach, helping you is always better than one partner trying to tell the other what to do (since that can lead to resentment.)

 

Hi there! I have also some questions about how to be in sync with your partner albeit my issues are a bit different from OP.

I have joined a club recently and had my first games today and was made to play MD and XD which i both dislike compared to MS.

I know the basics of postionning in MD at least, less in XD but today I struggled a lot due to the skillset of my partners. Both of them were unable to attack from the back court which means that our opponents could just pin them in the back with clears and lifts. My MD partner tried some drops but all failed and smashing was not an option.

How do you behave in such a situation? I must admit that i got very frustrated and felt helpless at the net as the opponents just played to my partners until they cleared back and had a smashing opportunity.

I'd be grateful for any advice.

 

No advice is possible in this case. You need to find players with more equal skill.

 

How should you behave? You just take the loss like a man. That's it.

When partnering with a very weak player and I know we're not going to win, I like to practice the stuff that I needed more practice on. Like cross net shot or deceptive shots or some footwork stuff. This way, I get something out of the match.

 

Well I was suspecting that there is not much you can do if you play with a player who is unable to attack from the back court. My question is more about how I should behave in the front court to make try and help my partner.

 

If your partner cannot create an opportunity from the back, and your opponents do not play it to the front AT ALL, then you need to either be more proactive at the front e.g. intercept flatter lifts/drives, or consider rotating.

Remember you are a team - some opponents will struggle against his type of attacks, and others will struggle against yours. Personally, I'm good at smashing flat to shoulders/chest/heads reasonably powerfully, and my partner is much better at steep smashes/hip smashes. That means we both need to learn to rotate to the back, because we never know what our opponents are weak against.

The common thing for both of us is that we are both useless if the shuttle has to be taken at waist height instead of as an overhead stroke - this should only really happen if the front partner does not cover the midcourt and front adequately or if the smash was badly placed e.g. crosscourt smash then a defender defensively drives it straight.

The standard of play matters a lot, and it strongly depends on your relative abilities between you and your partner, and also against your opponents.

Remember that attacking from the back is not a problem as long as you are truly attempting to attack, not just retrieving from the back. The MD strategy is the idea that if you are attacking and you fail to break a defence, boohoo, you lost the attack and now you are defending. If they are defending constantly (i.e. lifting all the time to your partner), then if they fail their defence, they lose the point, not just losing the attack. As long as your friend does not lose the attack so badly that your opponents are directly able to counterattack, then it's not too much of a problem that his attacks are 'weak'.

 

Also, MD and MS are very different games so I'm sure it's hard for you to adjust. My coach tells me (I play mixed doubles most, and I'm female) that I should find a men's single player to be my partner. he says for mixed doubles a male partner who plays single is better than a male partner that plays men's doubles.

I say avoid men's doubles if you don't like it. (and I know often a singles player doesn't like doubles as much). Or if you have to play doubles, try to get a female partner and maybe that will be better because you can be in the back more often.

 

I disagree here and unless you don't play the chauvinism mixed, where the woman camps with a chair at the net and the man must dig everything out, a MD at equal strength of the MS player would be always the better choice. The tactics are too different. The return of serve, bringing partner into the game, rotations, tactics, flat play etc. are closer to the reportoire of a MD player compared than a mainly MS player. Also MD player are used to trust in partner, give them responsibilty instead of trying everything on their own. As long as both types are same level the MD would be IMO the much better choice for a female which want to be worshipped equal. FME I beat a lot combinations in training of a female at same level and much better singles player than me, which also not as good as me in MD. The building up of their game couldn't be more different than mine.

 

I disagree with your disagreement! haha. Are we just gonna disagree about everything in different threads?

I don't mean someone that plays only singles with maybe one doubles game a night. I assume most clubs are like my club and more than half the games are doubles with singles being played only late in the night when most people have left and more courts are free. So someone that prefers singles but plays doubles regularly is what I mean.

And it actually totally plays out. Yes, a doubles player is more used to trusting and having a partner, but singles players are more flexible, in my experience. MD and XD are very different and most guys that play exclusively MD are pretty crap at XD because they have trouble changing game tactics and forget their female partner has different reactions to a shot than a male partner would. Some guys pick up XD play in a game or two, but some are so entrenched in MD, and play XD so rarely, they can't get used to a different style.

I also disagree about equality. Men's singles players, in my experience, are much more equal partners and are happy when the woman takes more responsibility in a game. And I am 100% talking about the male partner of a mixed doubles team. I think a woman who plays singles would have a VERY hard time playing mixed doubles. It's very different skill sets and I can see why a great female singles player would have trouble with mixed doubles. (They would be better off playing men's doubles style if they have a male partner.)

But the OP said he had trouble playing men's doubles, so my suggestion still stands. Since he is a guy that prefers singles, when he must play doubles I'd suggest choosing a female partner and see if the game isn't better than men's doubles.

 

You are talking about MS players, than saying MS player who play more doubles and than switching back to MS players. What do you want to tell? I can just loose every discussion and argumentation against people who twist everything until it fits their arguments.

So MD player have trouble changing game tactics, because every MD is the same? MS players not? You mean the MS player who play more MD and has more experience in MD than in MS? I'm totally confused with such a declaration. Another white rabbit out of the hat. What makes XD and MD more different comapred to MS and XD? MS have totally different major points which you play to compared to MD and XD. Also shot selection. I also disagree on the reaction part. XD females have normally a superb defence, are fast and good in anticipation. Otherwise they wouldn't play XD and I wouldn't pick as a partner.

The OP, if you mean @rulebavaria had the problem that his MD and XD partner never attacked and got pinned in the back and he couldn't get involved, which means that both partners, regardless if female or male where unable to apply pressure on the oppenents. I can understand that this wasn't enjoyable. I would also choose playing unloved MS compared to such crappy games. If he choose a female and play XD, he will also face the same problem if the female can't apply pressure with overheads. It's no gender issue. A single flick serve to the lady will make him struggle the same. So my advice would be to not to choose beginners as partners who struggle with overheads and can just play a mediocre clear and get outplayed and pinned with lifts and clears because they are lacking to play more than 1-2 options. My suggestion to the partners of @rulebavaria were if they can only play a clear and are not confident or unable to play a decent drop shot or smash, they can try to clear between the opponents slightly flatter, to get a decent length or should learn a cross clear, which both will bring rulebavaria as a partner better in the game, because the chances that he can get away from the net and get a reply to his side are better than a straight clear duell with the weak partner and him stand at the net or on his side waiting for reply which wouldn't come.

 

Imo, you're both right...it depends what level of play we're talking about.

In high level play, regional/county minimum, MD males play XD stronger than MS males do Imo. The tactics for taking a shuttle early, trying to get that shoulder height crosscourt past the female is important in applying pressure. That and the females are much faster at reacting, so the MS drops, slices, punch clears, and other deceptive shots have much less use compared to a reliable smash, drive, and push shots.

At club level, which the majority of players fall into, XD play resembles MS more than it does MD, due to the fact that you can still take shuttles lower/late, you can still receive, and you can still win points through clear battles for example (especially if the female is at the back).

I think for most of us, its best to play with as many people as you can to see and experience what different combinations feels like, and what different disciplines feel like. I know plenty of people who started of MD fanatics, then started really enjoying XD/MS once they developed the retrieval skills.