Do you find it difficult to return the flat drive serve?
Well in this video not only are we going to give tips on how to get it back
we're also going to give tips on how to play a good shot from it!
Hello and welcome back to Badminton Insight, if you're new to the channel we're Greg
and Jenny we're two professional badminton players releasing a new video every Sunday on all things
badminton :) So how do we effectively return the flat drive serve? Well let's get straight into it
So the most important thing when returning the drive serve is your ready position
now as we've mentioned on previous return or serve videos you want to be stood similar
to this with your non-racket leg forwards and most of your weight going through this
so that you're ready to move either forwards or backwards and there are then three really
important points that you need to consider, starting with your racket position! First you
want your racket to be out in front of you like this and nice and relaxed. Not tucked in
or with your arms straight out in front of you - this is a common mistake we see! Secondly you
want to be in a neutral bevel grip not waiting in a forehand like this or in a backhand like this
Both of these points mean that you're able to react to any serve whether that's a low serve, a
drive serve, or a flick serve to your forehand or backhand side now what happens if you've
done both of these points and you still struggle? Jenny, any insight?
The third and final part to get right in your ready position is where you're actually standing on the court to receive the
serve. As the server it's often easy to hit this drive serve if someone is stood too far to one side
so we'd recommend simply moving your position to cover any gaps whether that's further over
this way or further over this way and different opponents will vary on how much they use the drive
serve and some will even have a favorite side they like to serve to so you need to be mindful of this
if you find that you're getting caught out quite a lot down one specific side
then you can move your position to cover this more and you can also move your racket position
as well to help you out on this, but do be careful that this could expose further gaps on the court for
the server! So now you've got your positioning right what's next?
Well the rest is relatively easy, it's reliant on having some good reactions and a fast racket but also having the awareness that
this drive serve can come at any time so whilst you need to be ready to get the low serve and
move back for the flick serve you should always be ready for the drive serve!
How much you need to be ready may depend on who you're playing you should also try to spot differences in the technique of
your opponents to try to give you a clue when they're playing this drive or flick serve as
opposed to a low serve! This might be that they have a bigger swing or they stand further back!
Now what shot should you play in response to this drive serve?
Well naturally you will always play a hard return if you're able to hit it and often this is a good choice
especially if you make good contact with the shuttle! However lots of people will only be
expecting this hard return from you so they'll be on the back foot waiting for this so a soft shot
into space is also likely to be really effective but this is a very hard shot to do!
Or you could just ignore everything we've said so far and just stand there and swing around your back like this...
We wouldn't recommend that but all jokes aside with the new service rules this serve is a lot more
common in the game, so you better get used to it!
Hopefully this video has helped you if you want to go and learn how to return the flick serve then check out this video here, or if you want to go
and learn how to do this drive serve then check out this video here If you've enjoyed today's
tutorial please give it a like SMASH the subscribe button if you haven't already and go and check out
our video from last week where our giveaway is still open and we'll see you on another video :)