This article will teach you how to prepare for your opponent’s serve.
Preparation is crucial. Before your opponent serves, you need to get yourself ready in a way that helps you respond effectively to any serve.
Why preparation matters
Once the opponent serves, you have little time to respond. If you are badly prepared, then he may even win the rally outright with his serve (an ace
). For example, if you’re standing in the wrong place or have your racket down by your ankles, then a drive serve can beat you completely: you won’t even touch the shuttle.
Apart from making you vulnerable to particular serves, bad preparation will reduce the quality of your returns. This is especially true for the low serve in doubles, where your attacking options are severely reduced if you are slow to reach the shuttle.
In my coaching, preparation is the first thing I teach players about returning serve. If players can get the preparation right, then the other aspects—such as how you hit the shuttle—will be easier to learn.
How to prepare well
In this article, we’ll look at the three main aspects of preparing to return serve:
These ideas apply to both singles and doubles. The details are not exactly the same, however, so I’ll explain differences as we go along. For example, your position for receiving serve should be farther forwards in doubles than in singles.
Your preparation may need to vary depending on what the server is doing. For example, if your opponent has an excellent flick serve, then you may need to stand farther back than usual (depending on your ability).
Good preparation may intimidate the server
Good preparation can present an intimidating prospect to the server—especially in doubles, where the receiver stands farther forwards and will try to attack the low serve more aggressively.
Do not underestimate the psychological effect that your preparation can have on the server! Quite often, a server will play some of his low serves into the net, because he felt the pressure from your intimidating stance and position. When faced with an aggressive-looking receiver, servers will often forsake low serves in favour of flick or high serves; this plays to your advantage, providing you have good returns of serve from the rearcourt.
What this article doesn’t cover
This article doesn’t teach you everything about returning serve. In particular, it doesn’t cover the following topics:
- How to play specific shots, such as a midcourt push return in doubles
- Footwork or hitting techniques
- How to prepare when your opponent serves from an unorthodox position
All of these are topics for future content!
Copyright © 2008–2010 Mike Hopley. All rights reserved.
This work is registered with the UK Copyright Service.