Hello and welcome back to Badminton Insight :D If you're new here we're Greg and Jenny two
professional mixed doubles players and we're also creating weekly content on all things badminton!
Yes so mixed doubles tactics, something a lot of you have asked us about and on our Instagram and
YouTube community tab we asked you what you guys wanted to know and we had over a hundred questions
so we've decided to break these down and answer them in a three-part series! Yeah so in this video
we're going to cover everything you need to know about the serve and return of serve situation, it's
going to be a good one so get your notepad out and let's get to it! Okay we're going to start by
making a generalisation so we don't have to keep repeating ourselves throughout the whole video
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
So firstly some basics so that we're all on the same page - when the man is serving the woman is
going to stand in front of him so that you're able to start the rally in your preferred formation
with the man at the back and the woman at the front. If the man isn't faster or more powerful at
the back of the court like Jenny just said there's actually no need to set up like this! Now one of
the most asked questions was which side should the woman stand on when the man is serving and there
is no definitive right or wrong answer to this it really depends and even at the professional level
pairs will opt for different setups so what you choose to do is dependent on your strengths and
weaknesses. As a female think about your strengths so if you're really good at intercepting on
your forehand then you should favour standing on this side, as a man you might have a really weak
backhand so you might need your woman to protect this area and stand on this side to cover it!
We'd really advise trying out both sides and then deciding on your preference together
it is most common for the woman to stand opposite the man like we've just shown
however as we've said there is no right or wrong and whilst we're talking about the
woman's positioning it's important to not stand too close to the net when the man is serving
otherwise it's more difficult to intercept shots but you also don't want to stand too far back
as you'll be later on to any net shots so ideally standing around this position HERE
Of course if your opponents are returning to the same place every time and you can't get it from
this position then you can adjust where you stand for example you might move one step over if they
are returning soft on your backhand side every time or you might move back a step if they never play
net shot returns and mainly try to avoid leaving too big of a gap for your opponents to play into!
A quick tip is also for the woman to have your racket around head height to give you the best
chance to be early on to the return and also look threatening right from the start of the rally!
Okay so we've got the woman in the right place but where should the man stand when serving? Of course
if your woman is standing in front of you and you've got to cover the whole of the rear court
then you can't also stand on the service line to serve! You might be laughing but we've seen people do it!
You might see some professional men stand as close as around half a metre but they have the
speed to quickly move back to get behind the lift and they're also fast onto any mid-court returns
In terms of how far back you should stand as we've said don't obviously stand too close
but we also wouldn't recommend standing any further back than two racquet lengths from
the service line to your front foot. This is because standing too far back will give your
opponent more time to react and move to where your serve is going so a good position is around here
Yeah and similar to the woman you might also adjust your position depending on your opposition
and also you might adjust your position depending on the conditions of the hall
so if you're playing with really fast shuttles your opponents might not want to lift so you might
stand a little bit further forwards and really put pressure on their mid-court returns, I also
vary how far away I stand from this centre line as this can slightly change the angle of your serve
don't stand too wide though as it may open up the angles leaving you to cover big gaps on the court!!
So hopefully that covers the positioning and setup for the serve in mixed we'll now move on to where
you should serve too and where you should move after the serve! The biggest piece of advice we
can give about where to serve to is to keep it varied - if you only ever do a short serve to the T
then your opponent can move their starting position forwards and be earlier onto your serve
but if you occasionally do a low wide serve, a flick up the line or a flick out to the tram lines
then they'll be more uncomfortable returning your serve and this is the same no matter if you're
serving to the man or to the woman! And of course if you're serves to the T or one specific area
are going really well then keep going with this but if they're not then remember to mix it up!
Okay so you're in the correct setup and you're both varying your serves but where a lot of
people get confused is what to do after you've served! This all depends where you serve to, let's
start with short serves and then we'll move on to flicks. Firstly we'd highly recommend communicating
with your partner where you're serving to this might feel uncomfortable or weird at first but
it hugely improves your organisation so you're not looking for the same shot or
leaving huge gaps in the court! As the woman most often you'd either look for the net shot
or to intercept the push down the middle or the push down the side you're standing on like this...
which shot you look for will mostly depend on your opponent's habits but also on your serve
placement as this can determine what shots they can or cannot play and as the man you need to look
for well... everything else! But for example if you find that your opponents always play it flat into
your backhand corner then you can ask your woman to stand further back to try and cover this shot
she would therefore be sacrificing taking it earlier at the net however she can always lift
out if they do play a net shot :-) This situation was actually one of the most liked questions
on our YouTube community tab so hopefully we've given you three solutions to try out;
the first one is to vary your serve so that your opponents can't easily hit it into your backhand
so maybe by serving slightly across them like this or even flicking them
The second option is to move back so you have less distance to travel to your backhand corner
and the third one is to ask your woman to help you! Now what should you do after either of you flick?
well firstly it's really important to mention that the flick should be used as an attacking shot
it can create so many opportunities and expose a lot of gaps in the court if you use it well
and are organised! So generally after either of you flick out wide to the tramline the man will
cover the shortest distance as he has more time to react and the woman will cover the longest
distance. There will be some caveats to this though for example as left-handers if Greg flicks out
wide from the right box and I'm stood on the left hand side then I'll actually cover this left tramline
as the natural swing for a right hander is to hit it cross so this will likely go to Greg!
Now if you flick down the line hopefully it's a winner like this... but if it's not an outright
winner then the woman would remain roughly in her starting position like this and then the man would
try and anticipate where the shot is coming to by quickly analysing his opponent's body and racket positioning
he can then play a block or drive into space to either get the attack or even win the
point out right, happy days! As we mentioned earlier the flick should be used as an attacking shot so
like with other areas of the game your positioning after the flick will depend on the quality of
the serve if it's good then you should be in a more aggressive position with both your racket
and body but sometimes you might just do a rubbish flick and your opponents are completely on balance
here the woman should just do her best and the man should move back into a more defensive
position like this... as we've said throughout the video there is no definitive right or wrong
just make sure you communicate and after the flick you both don't just cover the shot down the middle!
And lastly we would say you should generally flick the woman more to get her to the back
of the court and your opponents in their least favourite formation however if the man struggles
returning the flicks then keep flicking him or if the woman stands really far back and easily gets
the flicks then short serves might be the best option! Okay that's the setup and serving situation
covered we've just got one more section to go and hopefully by now you've realised why we've split
this topic of mixed doubles tactics into three videos!! Yes it's a huge topic and if you do want
even more explanations and match analysis then we've just started doing this on our Patreon page
last week we actually did a live stream for over an hour analysing two different matches;
one of ours and one of our patreons and we'll be doing much more of this over the coming months
So if you want to join these live streams plus get access to lots more exclusive perks
such as our Discord server and q and a's or you just want to support us and the work we're doing
on this channel for as little as the price of a cup of coffee a month then we'll include a
link in the description and pinned comment below on how to join :-) There's also now the option for
an annual membership which gets you 10% discount and thank you in advance to anyone who does join!
Anyway on to the third and final part of the video, returning the serve. Firstly and this
might be a bit controversial with some people but the woman doesn't have to start the match
returning the serve, it should be whoever has the best return - we're here to win right?!
Exactly! Actually the woman rarely starts returning at professional level! And it's also the same for
who starts serving, if the man has a much better serve than the woman then he should serve first
Praveen Jordan is a good example, she doesn't even have a bad serve he's just got a really good serve!
So yeah have a think about this and hopefully we'll see less tradition from now on and people
actually trying to win matches! Okay let's move on to where you should return to and move to after this...
So one of the most asked questions in mixed doubles is where should the guy return to and
where should he move after this? And this is where a lot of people go wrong so here are a few options
for you to try out...from the short serve you can play a net shot where you would either stay at
the net and your woman take the back, or you can move back straight away and let your woman take
the net as she should already be stood relatively close to the net. Which of these two options you
would do really comes down to how comfortable your woman is at the back of the court and of course
you should discuss this with your partner so you don't either both stay in the net or both rush
back leaving a massive gap in the court. Another good option for the man is to play returns down
the sides of the court either hard into the corner especially when the man is serving or soft returns
down the tramline. After this you would usually move back to cover the whole half of your court.
If your return puts your opponent under pressure then your woman can stay in at the net as it's
unlikely they'll be able to play over her head but if it's not she might need to move back a bit.
Okay so there were a few options for the man but what should the woman do off the short serve? Well she
can also do these returns we've just mentioned but instead of moving back she would tend to stay at
the net afterwards. It's just really important to focus on the quality of these shots to give you
the advantage and make it difficult for your opponents! Now what happens if your opponents flick you?
Well the man should try to attack the flick serve, of course if you're completely off
balance then you don't attack and you'd clear out instead so that you don't get easily whipped
but if you're only slightly off balance then try to attack with good placement this brings your
woman into the game for the fourth shot whilst you recover, the benefits of having a partner right!! :D
And of course if it's a bad flick and you're on balance then just smash it on the floor!
Another highly asked question was what should we do as the woman if we're flicked? Well we'd recommend again
trying to attack it but not with 100% power unless it's a rubbish flick as this could put you off
balance and may allow your opponents to whip the shuttle into space as it will come to them quicker
instead shot placement is more important than power and after you've played this return of
serve it's then the question of whether you should stay at the back or rush forwards to
the net however this falls under the huge topic that is rotations so we'll discuss
that in next week's video along with everything else you need to know about mixed doubles attack!
If you've made it to this point in the video then well done to you we hope that notepad is full
leave us a racket emoji in the comments below so that we know some people actually made it to this
point and leave two if you're gonna watch this video again!! AND if you appreciate the 10 hours
it took us to prepare it plus our whole lives learning this stuff, five hours to film and around
20 hours to edit then please give it a like, SMASH the subscribe button if you haven't already + don't
forget to check out our patreon page and we'll hopefully see you on next week's part two of mixed
doubles tactics, or if you're watching this more than one week from now it'll be here for you bye :D