Winning Badminton Doubles

JAKE DOWNEY Photographs by Louis Ross

Contents

Part One: The Game

Chapter 1 Structure of the Game Page 14 Tactics and the principle of attack The situations in the game The moves in the game The logical structure of the game

Chapter 2 The Framework Page 19

The charts Rearcourt situations Midcourt situations Forecourt situations

Chapter 3 Comments on the Framework Page 28

The contents of the charts Rearcourt situations Midcourt situations Forecourt situations Comment

Part Two: Playing Doubles

Chapter 4 Ladies' and Men's Doubles Page 56 Introduction Doubles formations in attack and defence Attack formations Rearcourt situations-front and back attack formations Midcourt situations-sides attack Forecourt situations-front and back attack formations Defence formations Ways of defending- attacking the smash Positional play Centre defence-deep defence-forward defence-diagonal defence Summary

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Chapter 5 The Work of the Players in Attack Page 74

The functions of the players Rear hit-player-front hit-player-rear set-up player-front set-up player-comments The players in attack and defence Examples-active and passive defence-channel attackwedge attack-sides attack-all-court attack

Chapter 6 Serving and Receiving Service Page 91

The server Low serve-flick serve-drive serve-high serve-serving from the side The receiver The stance-receiving position in the courtreplies to the low servereplies to the flick servereplies to the drive servereplies to the serve from the side Playing mixed doubles Development in play from the low serve The lady serves to the lady-development-the cross-court move- manoeuvring the opponents out of position-the replies to the cross-court move-the lob to the rearcourtthe attack-the defence-the low serve: the man serves to the lady- the low serve: the lady serves to the man-the low serve: the man serves to the man Development in play from high serves Serving to the lady- the replies of the lady in the rearcourt-the flicks serve to the man - receiving the flick serve Conclusion

Chapter 7 Mixed Doubles Page 106

Part Three: Performance

Chapter 8 Your Performance in the Game Page 128 Performance as a pair Individual performance Performance and standards The components of performance Skill - fitness - attitude

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Part Four: Training and Practice

Chapter 9 Preparation and Training for Play Page 154 jointExercises for flexibility How to perform a slow stretching exercise-the neck joint-the trunk-the shoulder joint-the hip joint-the knee the ankle joint Exercises for speed Fast feet and legs-explosive start-trunk and shoulder twists-hip swings-fast hands Exercises for power and strength Two-feet take-off- single-foot take-off Exercises for agility Fast feet-diagonal push-offs Exercises for quality of movement

Chapter 10 Practices Page 174

Technical practices Practices for attack: 1- practices for attack: 2 - midcourt situations: `defence and attack' practices- serving and receiving the serveTactical practices

Appendix Page 204

Attitude in competition Deception In what ways can you be deceptive? - Learning deception Teamwork Analysis of opponents Thoughts for the future On planning and play

Glossary Page 215

Preface

Winning Badminton Doubles has two main purposes: first, to explain clearly what goes on in doubles; second, to show you how to become a better doubles player and achieve more success in competition. This book is concerned with ladies' and men's doubles (level doubles) and mixed doubles. As far as I know there is no other book devoted solely to doubles play. One reason why such a book has not yet been published may be that there appear to be too many variables to include them all in one volume; this was the opinion of one of England's world-class doubles players when I was discussing the project with him. He was right in suggesting that there are many variables, in the sense that there appear to be numerous situations with many moves possible in each situation; but in fact doubles looks more complex than it is. When you watch doubles it appears to be a frenzy of activity as the players constantly adjust their positions to hit the shuttle that hurtles across the net at speed, and it seems difficult to sort out what is going on and to distinguish the various patterns that occur in the game. Actually it is quite easy to do this. Doubles can be reduced to simple situations and patterns of play-when you read Part One of the book I am sure you will agree with me that this is so. Part Two takes a closer look at the situations in level doubles and includes a chapter devoted exclusively to mixed doubles. In the situations examined in doubles I look at and discuss the positional play, the various attack and defence formations, the stroke-moves and the replies the players can make. Part Three explains what is entailed in your performance in the game with respect to skill, fitness and attitude. Finally, Part Four provides a wealth of practical information on how to develop certain aspects of your fitness, and suggests numerous exercises which you can select from in order to develop your flexibility, strength, speed, power and agility, and all of which relate specifically to badminton doubles. The last chapter deals exclusively with practice and includes a long list of practices designed specifically to improve your technical and tactical play in doubles.

Preface

I have written this book in such a way as to help you to follow the development of play in the game in simple stages. For that reason I would suggest that you read through the book from beginning to end to obtain a general idea of that development. After that you can `dip in' anywhere to read about situations you might experience in play and for which you need some guidance. For those readers who prefer to be more selective, I would recommend reading Part One and Chapter 4 before looking at the other sections that interest you. When using the book, please bear in mind these points: 1. I have assumed that all readers are right-handed players. Readers who are left-handed should reverse the descriptions when appropriate. 2. The noun `man' and the pronoun `he' are used for general discussion. All the comments about `he' and `man' in doubles play apply equally to women unless specific reference is made to male or female
the attacking player the defending player represents the direction the player travels in the court the length of the arrow indicates the distance the player travels

Example of players travelling while adjusting their positions in the court The attacking side is in the top half of each diagram unless otherwise stated

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shuttle position in the court

direction of shuttle pathway side defence stance front defence stance

The diagrams of the court positions have been drawn with the minimum of lines and symbols for the sake of clarity and on occasion have been supplemented with photographs. I am pleased to add my thanks to friends who read through the text for me and made many helpful comments: Paul Whetnall, Sue Whetnall, Nora Perry, David Pegg, Eve Preston David Eddy and Gillian Clark