I just don't know where to hit my attack! I feel like I'm stuck at the net and I don't know what to do!!
Now I'm stuck at the net and we can't seem to rotate! These situations along with many others
is why mixed doubles is such a tactical game so in this video we're going to try and make it as
simple as possible and break down exactly what you should and shouldn't do when attacking in mixed doubles!
As we said in last week's mixed doubles serve and return video we're going to
make a generalisation at the start so we don't have to keep repeating ourselves and this is that...
Generally the woman is physically weaker than the man and what we mean by this is that we're not
quite as quick or powerful and this explains some of the tactics behind mixed doubles! One tactic is that
the man will usually take the back of the court when attacking with the woman at the front so
let's start by discussing what the man should be covering and also what shots he should be playing
So looking at this court graphic the man should generally be covering this area here however this
might change depending on what shots you play. So what shots should you play? Well if you're not in
a really good position then the main focus should be keeping control of the rally and to do this you
need to use a variety of attacking shots and this will help you in two ways; firstly it will make
your opponents feel really uncomfortable in their defence! If they don't know whether to be ready for
a drop, slice, clear, high smash or steep smash then they'll likely be later to reach your shot and in
a worse position as a result - this might mean they make a mistake or play a loose shot so that you
can finish the rally and I just listed a load of different shots there but what actually is
the right shot to play? Well that depends on your opponent's strengths and weaknesses but also your
partners! One of the main jobs for the man in mixed is to set up the woman at the net which is
the second way that using variety from the rear court will help you win a lot of matches so here
are a few examples on how to do this including one shot that Greg does so well it almost always
catches our opponents out! Firstly if you're both right-handed and your strength as the woman is
your forehand side then the man should focus a lot of his shots straight down the tramline from his
forehand corner like this... if it's a good quality shot it's really difficult for your opponents to
turn this cross this means that the woman would move over to cover the forehand ready for the
interception in what's called a channel attack. Even if they try to play a cross-court shot here
the woman should still be able to intercept as long as you're shot as the man is good!
So at this point in the video it's really important to mention that you as the man should never try to
hit smash with a hundred percent power if you're not in a good position! This might be that you're
taking it right on the back line or you're not there quite early enough and you're playing it
off balance. Yeah and you might think that you can smash from anywhere and still win the point
and yeah you might be right, it might work against the people you currently play against but if you
want to improve and get to that next level where people have better defence then you'll need to
vary your attack! Instead you can use slices which help you keep the attack and hopefully set your
partner up at the net a lot of the time in mixed doubles the defenders are sat back like this
waiting for the hard smash so hitting slices that land just after the service line means that your
opponents are reaching down to take the shot and only able to hit it in an upwards direction!
And it's a great tactic to use against tall opponents too as it takes them longer to reach down there!
So what's your shot that almost always catches the opponents out it?! It sounds so simple but it's a clear
as the man when you're in a really threatening position from the back of the court the woman
is often 100% sure that you're going to play a smash or a drop shot and therefore she's slightly
leaning forwards with her body weight and this small detail is why the occasional punch clear is
so effective it's a great shot to play cross-court to the woman or even straight if that's where she
is and it's especially great if the woman doesn't like to move very much! But remember,
if you don't look like you're about to play a smash then the punch clear won't be as effective
or if it's done at the wrong time or with poor execution then it could end up in disaster!!
And it's important to note that using your variety effectively is also heavily reliant on spotting weaknesses in your opponents!
Exactly! So for example if you can see that your opponent
defends in a completely forehand grip then smashing across their body means they'll
struggle to generate any power or even get it back! Another example could be that the man
stands quite close to the middle in his defence so there's space to smash down the tramline
And when you're in a good position you have lots of options; you can smash straight down the line,
to the middle, cross court or you can also smash to the right hip of your opponent if
they're right-handed and the left hip if they're left-handed as that's a really awkward area for
anyone to defend! If you don't have the biggest smash remember to use variety as we've mentioned
and lastly it might be obvious but attack on the player with weaker defence! Okay so there were some
examples of what the man should play from the rear court but as we mentioned before he should
really be covering all of this area which includes the mid court too and there are definitely a few
things the man shouldn't do from here! Yeah and the first one is no matter how tempting it might be
hitting hard from below the height of the net is not a good idea!! This is because your
opponents will be able to see that you're taking it late and get their rackets and bodies into an
aggressive position and be able to easily put you and your partner under a lot of pressure!
Instead you should try and play a quality shot that's tight to the net and lands around
here or even a bit deeper to make the woman move laterally across the front of the court
but if you're really late then you might lift out and we'll talk about defence more on next
week's video but DO remember that you should lift out with height to the side you're standing
on to allow your woman to move back into a defensive position! Now if the man is taking
the mid-court shot from above the height of the net then this is where he has lots of options
and I'd personally say this is one of Greg's best areas in his mixed game so I'll let him explain a bit further
So from this position you have the advantage because again you look threatening and
like you can play any shot to anywhere on the court! And like the rear court, what shots you choose
to play should depend on your strengths and also your partner's strengths so for example if your
partner is really good at brushing or killing net shots then playing soft mid-court shots like this
means your opponents can only really play a net shot or lift the shuttle back to you. However if
you both prefer a flat and fast game then driving these mid-cut shots means your opponents are more
likely to drive it straight back at you! Just make sure you're both ready for this!
A third effective shot from the mid court is a deceptive shot but that's quite advanced so maybe we'll save
that tutorial for another day! Okay so let's move on to what the woman should do in this
preferred formation and we're going to tackle this section by answering your most common questions
The first one is where should the woman stand when the man is attacking from the back? Well there's
three important things to start. Firstly as the woman you shouldn't be stood too close to the net
otherwise you won't be able to intercept or reach anything that goes past the service line
Remember, the man's area is this and not all of this! Secondly you should have your racket up
looking threatening keep a slight bend in your arm though because otherwise you'll need to bend it
before playing your shot to generate any power so not having already bent wastes time!
Being in this position you want to make your opponents feel like there's no space at the front of the court
Yes and you can't do this if you're ducking at the net which is what we see a lot of women do, so this
is our third tip! If I'm your opponent look at how much space I can see on the court if a woman is
ducking compared to now there instantly looks like there's less space on the court for me to hit into!
Okay, next question! Should the woman remain here on the court or should she change her position?
Well, yes! So if the man isn't in a good position like this then she should stand further back ready
to cover the other side if necessary and because the woman is a bit further over covering the cross
then any straight pushes are the man shot! Again, if the man is in a good position
and smashes down the tramline then you as a woman would come over and take this side in a
channel attack. This is however assuming the lift isn't short in which case the man should look to
move forward after playing his shot to apply more pressure and hopefully finish the rally!
Now if the man smashes down the middle from a good position then the opponents are more
likely to play cross so you might need to quickly recognise this and slightly adjust
your positioning and as we mentioned on our how to read the game video linked up here somewhere
if you want to watch that after this you also need to quickly analyse your opponent's body and
racket positioning to anticipate where they're likely to hit their next shot!
Next question! How does the woman know which shots to leave for the man and which to try and intercept?
and I just want to say here that the woman has an incredibly difficult job in mixed especially when
they're stood so close to the net and trusting the man behind them to play good quality shots
which he definitely doesn't always do! And you only have a split second to react! One way to help
with this and this will take some practice is to listen to the sound of the shot that your man hits
let me explain that a bit further - if you hear a loud smash off the strings
you would stay back because it's more likely for your opponents to take a hard shot back to you
but if you hear your partner hit a quieter shot like a drop shot then you'd move closer to the
net as from this position your opponents can only really play a net shot or a lift
But how would you practice this? It might seem a bit silly but try playing some open rallies
and every time your partner is about to hit their shot he shouts what shot he's about to hit you can
then listen to the sound of this and adjust your position accordingly here's an example...
One of the most common questions we had about mixed doubles attack was how does a woman not
get stuck at the net and should she ever come out to help the man well? Firstly, DON'T start getting
impatient and look back to see what's going on as well as risking and losing your head you
also won't be able to see what your opponents are doing which is really important and that kind of
answers this question, try and judge what they're about to play and be big at the net and try and
get involved at the right time so yeah the woman should come out! Yeah be brave and go for things
it's so much easier for the man at the rear court to know which shots to cover if you're
making moves plus by making these moves you'll continually learn about what's right and maybe
what you shouldn't go for in the future! And if he's not playing the right shots to set you up or
he keeps getting you both in trouble then tell him!! Okay so as a mixed partnership you're not always
going to be in your preferred formation, maybe the woman has been flicked or cleared or maybe
the man was in trouble so the woman has moved out to help him or maybe the woman is just confident
at the back we're definitely seeing women take their back a lot more in top level mixed
and this is often an effective formation but what should the woman do when she's at the back?
Our recommendation would be to hit patiently with around 70 to 80% power focusing on your
shot placement so hitting to awkward areas! And I'm emphasising the word patiently because you don't
want to get bored of hitting these shots, wait for your opponents to try and create something
and this is where your man at the front should be ready! And similar to what we said for the man
at the back hitting with a hundred percent power when you're both not in a good position means you
can easily get whipped and I just mentioned shot placement, men can be dangerous at the net so you
need to try and be hitting shots to set him up! Here's a couple of scenarios for you to try out...
You could use a channel attack like this where the woman attacks down the straight line and the man
looks for the straight reply the woman can then come round the man to take the other half of the
court and they're in this side-by-side formation :-) Another scenario is when the woman hits slightly
across the middle line so the man can intercept the cross-court shot like this!
Of course the woman can always clear it out, ideally to the other woman to get them in their non-preferred formation
and if she clears back then you could instantly shout your man to come around and take this
and you move forwards again it's all about making those clear moves! Exactly and when the woman is
at the back it's really important for the man to remain calm at the net he should be a big
presence and not feel like he has to rotate after the first shot! Forcing the rotation at the wrong
time is what creates confusion and big gaps on the court and a simple way to practice this rotation
is by the woman starting at the back with the defending pair lifting and then you have the
aim of getting the woman to the front at the right time after playing the right shot! But what happens
if the woman isn't confident from the back of the court? Here we'd recommend one simple tactic,
the woman playing one shot from the rear court and then moving forwards towards the net, no exceptions!
This way the man instantly knows that he has to cover the rear court as soon as she's played that shot!
We'd recommend this to be a downward shot to the middle if there's no one stood there
and this is to reduce the angles but again there's no right or wrong and it's really dependent on
what position both you and your opponents are in! We've talked a lot throughout this video about
keeping the attack but sometimes you might be really late to the shuttle and need to lift it
out and go back into a defensive position and from this defensive position you can either try
and force mistakes from your opponent or turn the defence back into attack! There are several ways
of doing this all of which we'll be discussing in next week's video along with who should take what
shots in defence and where should the woman stand. Last week we asked anyone that watched
to the end of the video to leave a racket emoji so if you're still with us please leave a brain
emoji as hopefully you've learned a lot and also thanks for helping the YouTube algorithm!
If you enjoyed this video then you might also enjoy our mixed doubles serve and return video or if you're
watching this one week later you might also enjoy our mixed doubles defence video here! That's it for
this one hope you've enjoyed it if you have please give it a like below, SMASH that subscribe button
if you haven't already and we'll see you either in the comments or on another video very soon :-D