The doubles serve is a really simple shot yet so many people have problems with their quality
or consistency or just don't use it to its full advantage! So in this video we're going to teach
you how to do the perfect doubles serve, look at the different varieties to keep your opponent
guessing and also give you some tactics to win some quick and easy points so let's get to it...
You should aim to make your serve a very simple action so that you can repeat it again and again
The bigger the action the more that can go wrong. So first we're going to look at the
preparation and we'll start with the way you should hold the racket and the shuttle
You want to start in a backhand grip holding the racket slightly higher up the grip
this is because it's a shorter lever which will give you more control
Your racket should be around a 45 degree angle not completely vertical and not completely horizontal
as this will reduce your control you should also allow some space between your racket and your body
some players like to be quite far out whereas some players like to be a little bit more closer
to their body. You should play around with this and do what's comfortable for you. You should
hold the shuttle like this with your thumb and index finger around halfway down the feather
this is so that you have a good grip but also that you can get your fingers out of the way in time
You can also hold it using your index finger and middle finger it's just personal preference just
don't hold it by the cork! The angle of the shuttle is also really important, you should hold it around
this angle. If the cork is facing downwards when you're hitting then you've got more
chance of it popping up at the net and your opponent killing it at you
whereas if it's facing too much towards your body then you've got more chance of hitting in the net
and if you face it too much towards the side then you lose control of the shuttle. The final section
of the preparation is your stance the most common way is to have your racket leg further forwards
however you can also stand with your feet side by side or even your non-racket leg further forwards
it's whatever feels most comfortable to you whilst also being ready to move as soon as you serve and
where should you stand? You want to stand as close to the service line as possible as this is the
shortest distance so your opponent has less time to react and you can quickly move to cover the net
this is of course unless you were playing mixed or singles where you would stand further back
here you have the same technique you just need to add a little bit more power
So moving on to the hitting action you want to start with the shuttle on the strings and then
go backwards and forwards in one motion. A key point for this is not to have a big backswing
or a big follow-through! A big backswing means it's going to be harder to time the shot
and a big follow-through means you might hit it too hard or just be less ready for the next shot.
A huge mistake we see lots of people make is throwing the shuttle up
as they serve you should hit it directly out of your hand
as this will massively increase the control of the shuttle and the accuracy of the serve
As you strike the shuttle you don't actually want to hit it directly in the middle of the racket
you want to hit it at the edge and this is for two reasons; firstly if you strike it in the middle of
the racket then you're more likely to hit your hand, which will decrease the quality of the shot
and secondly the string bed is firmer in the corner of the racket which offers more control
of the shuttle, so around here! You only need to use your fingers, thumb and wrist to create the limited
power required and on the flick or drive serve you simply squeeze these a little bit more to create
that additional power you need. And this is the first time the flick and low serve is different,
everything up until this point should be identical. For the low serve the ideal is that you want to
get the shuttle dipping down as it crosses the net this is so that your opponent can't get on top of
the shuttle and attack it and they're either forced to play an upward shot or even a lift!
Everyone has a slightly different serving technique but if you follow this advice
then you should get a consistent serve that you can always rely on. Now where should you serve to?
So there are 7 main zones that you can serve too; the T, the middle or body, out wide,
a flick down the line, a flick out wide, a drive down the line and a drive out wide.
So now you know how to serve and where to serve you need to think about why you're serving to a
certain area and what you expect your opponent to play from this. We love this aspect of the
game and we could talk about it for quite some time but we're going to outline three common low
serve set plays for you to win some quick points! First is a serve to the body for a right hander
this will be from the right box to their right shoulder. The natural swing would be a cross-court
shot so you can look to intercept this equally if you're serving to a left-hander you'd serve
from the left box to their left shoulder and again you'd look for the cross-court return
Second is serving to the tram line a low out wide serve the natural return would be a straight shot
and usually a net shot. The other natural return is a cross-court lift which your partner can be
ready for. If they high lift straight your partner should still be able to get this
the third set play is a simple T serve and you take a chance on the net shot return.
This is so simple but it's surprising how many times we see this at the top level!
Serve return is a game of cat and mouse, for example if your opponent just played a flat
return of serve and you intercept it then the next time they may play a net return in which you
can then get on and predict. You should also keep your serves varied so that your opponent can't guess
and jump on the serve! So we've covered how to hit a good consistent backhand serve
and also some tactics that you can use to win some quick and easy points. If you want to know more
about the service rules then check out this video here and make sure you subscribe to our channel
here so you don't miss any future videos such as our top doubles returns see you on another video