Where should you hit your attacking shots in men's doubles? When should you rotate? And how do you do
this effectively? Well in this video we're going to be answering these common questions plus a lot
more so that by the end you know exactly what you should and shouldn't do when playing men's
doubles yeah and this advice is applicable for all levels no matter if you're a beginner intermediate
or Advanced player so let's get straight into our first section attacking in men doubles okay so
before we talk about what you should be covering in attack and what shots you should play you first
need to be in an attacking formation often people will find themselves in a side-by-side formation
in a rally and this is good when you're in defence but the aim is to get into a front and back
formation as this generally helps you to take more shots above the height of the net and maintain the attack
and this is where most of the points are won in men's doubles! Now you won't always be in
an exact front and back formation in attack but we'll discuss this more along with how to actually
get the attack in the rotation section later in the video! So when you're in this front and back
formation what shots should you both be covering? Well the rear court player should generally cover
this area here and to be able to do this they shouldn't be stood too far back and the net player
should generally cover this area and to do this they should be stood around here if you look at
the professionals they typically stand quite far back but they're also very quick to move forwards
to get the block if you aren't the fastest player then you might need to stand a bit closer to the net
but don't stand too close because then it's almost impossible to intercept shots past the
service line and this is a common mistake we see. So that's where you should be on the attack but
what shots should each player actually be hitting to keep the attack and hopefully win the point?
Well we'd recommend the rear court player to hit a variety of shots because as much as people like to
think that hitting only smashes will be successful at the next level up your opponents will have
better defence so if you keep smashing you'll become predictable and probably tire yourself out!
So by using a variety of shots like drop shots, half smashes, steep smashes and full power smashes
your opponents won't know what's coming and your attack will therefore be much more effective and
we've just listed a lot of different shots there so how do you know for every shot you play in a
match what the right shot is? Well we have four tips to help you with this firstly you need to
consider your partner's strengths if they have a great strength of intercepting shots on their
forehand side then you as the rear court player should play shots to encourage your opponents to
hit to this area and how do you do this? Well you could smash straight down the tramline
because as long as your smash is good then it's really difficult for your opponents to play
a cross-court shot from this position or you could smash down the middle of your opponents because a
common reply is them trying to move you as the rear court player but your partner can hopefully
anticipate this and intercept it. Where you attack to will determine where you move to after but
more on this in the rotation section to come! The second tip is to look at your opponent's strengths
and more importantly their weaknesses for example if they're slow then you might play lots of Drop
shots and even some clears next if your opponent has lifted right to the back we wouldn't recommend
trying to hit a full power smash as unless you have an insane smash or your opponents have
really bad defence you're likely to put yourself and your partner under pressure but if you're in a
really good position and your opponent has lifted short then you should of course go for the smash
winner and this could be straight down the tramline, down the middle or even cross-court! Now
as we mentioned earlier the rear court player should also be covering the mid-court and what shots you
should play from here depends on your position so for example if you're striking the shuttle above
the height of the net and you look threatening then you have the advantage here we'd recommend
either playing a soft shot like this to make your opponent move and set up a short lift a hard
drive to engage in flat and fast play or maybe even a deceptive over-the-top shot to send your
opponent the wrong way but if you can't take the shuttle above the height of the net then you can
either block or push it into space to keep the attack or if you're really Under Pressure then
you should lift and move back into a side-by-side formation. So now let's move on to what shots the
net player should be playing to keep the attack or win the rally! Well you ideally want to be keeping
the attack by applying pressure or winning the rally and whatever you do it's really important
to be active constantly adjusting your position depending on where the shuttle is. Getting advanced
you as the net player can purposely leave areas of the court free to entice your opponents to
play up and then at the last second you move over to intercept the shot this is something the best
players in the world do really well and like the mid court if you're under pressure at the net and
taking it late then you should lift especially if your opponents are ready for a net shot. Now some
of the biggest questions we've been asked are how does a net player know when to move back to
help the rear court player? How does the rear court player know when to move forwards? And how do you go from
defence into attack? Well let's move on to how to rotate in men's doubles and this also does
apply to women's doubles to make this section as simple as possible we're going to go through
the five most common situations where you should rotate the first situation is when your opponents
have played a good maybe flat lift putting the rear court player under pressure and the net player
rotates out to the other side to help them. In general they should move back when the rear court
player hits a shot with over 70% power as a soft block from your opponents is unlikely the likely
shot is the whip Cross Court which the net player can then intercept and play a much better
shot than the rear court player would have been able to. But the net player shouldn't always do this
if the rear court player plays a drop shot from this position then they will probably stay in to cover
the net as hopefully the rear court player has played this to give them time to get back on balance and
a soft block is more likely and also if the rear court player hits their shot straight down
the tramline then the net player might stay into Channel attack because like we mentioned earlier
it's really hard for the defender to hit cross from this position! It's also really important
that the net player shouldn't get impatient at the front and try to force the rotation. If your
partner isn't under a lot of pressure then it doesn't matter if they're playing several shots
from the back and we also have lots more tips to improve your coordination with your partner later
in the video! Now this all changes when the lift is short in this situation the rear court player
would Smash and move forwards afterwards the most likely reply from a straight smash will be a loose
shot into the mid Court which the Smasher can be moving forwards into and hopefully finish
it off! The net player has to notice this short lift and start moving back on the other side
to let the rear Court Player move forwards and they'll also be covering the cross court shot
this is important because if you hit your smash to the middle or Cross Court then the most likely
reply is to the other side and your partner will be in a better position than you would have been
this rotation works so well because it applies maximum pressure onto your opponents and also
means that the Smasher doesn't end up hitting their partner and it's important to mention that
when doing these first two attacking rotations that you need to think about the placement of your
shots like we said in the first section of this video so situation number three is where the net
player is pulled out to one side and hits a hard shot because they're quite stretched they likely
won't be able to get the next shot which is often a reactive shot to the other side the rear Court
player should therefore move forwards to fill this gap and get the reactive shot! This rotation from
the rear court player not only helps the net player out but also means you can continue to apply
pressure onto your opponents! If your opponents do manage to play a lift over the top of both of you
then fair play but you'd hope that they won't be able to do this if you're properly committing to
a net kill and choosing to play it at the right time and in the worst case scenario that you're
taking the shot below the height of the net and can't play a net shot to keep the attack then
you should lift and move back into a side by side defensive formation and this moves us nicely onto
our fourth and fifth situations where you're in defence but you want to transition into attack
So if you're in this side by side formation and your opponent smashes straight at you a great
way to get the attack is to drive it straight back at them if your drive is good then you should move
forwards as the most common reply is your opponent hitting it soft this is because they've played a
smash which requires a bigger follow-through so it's really hard to recover in time to generate
enough power to lift it over your head and if they do manage to do this then your partner
should move back as they see you moving forwards so that you can instantly get into this front and
back formation yeah and it's important to mention that you shouldn't drive and just move straight
to the T as you're then leaving big gaps down both sides of the Court, instead you should be moving to
where you think the most likely reply will be by looking at your opponent's body and Racket positioning!
Our fifth situation is when you can turn defense into attack by blocking and following
it's really hard to do from a full power smash or slow drop shot but you can basically do it in any
other situation after you've lifted. The ideal situation is where your opponent is off balance
and their partner is starting to move back like they should be this then creates space for you to block
either straight or cross. Generally whoever plays the block would move in in the direction they've
played to and their partner would quickly move around to cover the back half of the Court as
long as it's a good block your opponent should be taking it below the height of the net which means
you now have the advantage now if one of you in the partnership prefers the net then they might
look to move in after the other person has played a cross-court block but there is a caveat to this
if both you and your partner are right-handed for example then you might not choose to play a block
cross-court from the right hand side because then if they move forwards you might not have
enough time to move back and cover the lift of the backhand side. That is such an important point and
another important point is that you should only move in if it's a good quality block a quick tip
to help improve the quality of your block is to be always moving forwards with your body weight
so you can then continue this movement forwards and if you realise it's not a good block then you
can hold your position and before we move on to potentially the most important part of this video
if you're not sure on defensive positioning or how to defend then check out our doubles defence
playlist which we'll link up here for you to watch after this video! So how do you actually coordinate
with your partner to know what each other are doing? Well we have five tips to help you with
this tip one listen to the sound of the rear court player's shots this is something we've talked about
in a mixed doubles video but it also applies here to situation one and two if you hear a loud smash
off the strings you would stay back because it's more likely for your opponents to hit 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 doing this means you shouldn't need to look backwards which not only risks your eyesight but
also means you can't see what your opponents are doing and being able to see your opponent's body
and Racket positioning is so important! Tip two you need to make clear and obvious moves
and don't hesitate! To get better at not hesitating you need to improve your understanding of when to
make these moves which hopefully this video has helped you do but to really help you understand
this then you need to follow tip number three and this is watching more badminton especially
top level badminton where these rotations happen all of the time and if you're wondering how you
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surfshark for sponsoring this video! Okay tip four is to communicate during the rally this might be
shouting to your partner things like yours mine stay in or rotate! And if you notice your
coordination has gone wrong a few times then we'd also advise communicating in between the rallies too
Tip 5 be adaptable there might be times where your opponents do play different shots
than you or your partner are expecting and even if you have made a move you might still need to
change the direction to retrieve the shuttle also in some situations there's no definitive right or
wrong move so you might both end up in the same place - it even happens to the pros occasionally!
But with the tips we've given in this video hopefully you'll reduce the chance
of this happening and increase your chance of success but if you're finding you can't
put these tips into use because you always lose the point on the first three or four
shots of the rally that you might want to check out our videos on the best serves and
returns to do in men's doubles here and if you've enjoyed this video please give it
a like and SMASH the Subscribe button if you haven't already as we'll be releasing videos
on routines you can do to practice all of these rotations at some point in the New Year, bye :-)