10 things I keep in mind when playing badminton

Every Sunday, I play drop-in badminton at the YMCA - usually with another friend. After playing many singles and doubles games, playing competitively in high school and then playing recreationally in university, I have learned a few things about the game which I should write down and keep track of. My blog is a place to share knowledge but it's also a nice place for a knowledge dump so that I can check back on it in a few years and see what new things I've learned and anything that I might have missed.

Singles:

In singles, the lines are labeled on the court above as shown. During both the serve and the game, the back line is used (the single serve line) and the second line from the widths are used (labeled 'Singles'). I wouldn't say I'm anywhere near a professional but I do think that being aware of some of these ideas will make you a better player.

1. Never serve short 50% of the time

If you play with your right hand, never serve short when you're on the right side of the court and likewise if you're left handed (never serve short when you're on the left side of the court). The reason for this is your opponent can easily clear it to your backhand and force you into making a great backhand shot (like a drop, smash or drive) or a backhand clear (which can then be smashed). Generally, all player's backhands are weaker than their forehands and that's why you see many of the top professionals frequently reaching over their head to clear a shot when a backhand would be much easier. They don't always do this but generally if they could choose between a somewhat awkward forehand and a comfortable backhand, they'd probably choose the forehand no the grounds that they can get more power on the shot if they wanted.

Again, remember that I'm not a pro. If you do watch the pro's, you'll notice that they don't follow my advice. Any time they can serve it short to force their opponent to clear it for them, they will do it and since they have great movement (and backhand shots), they can get away with serving it short even though it might leave them exposed to making a great backhand shot (which they do make almost all the time).

2. Make your opponent play shots deep in their backhand side.

This idea is linked to the first - generally opponent's have weaker backhands than forehands so making them hit backhands deep in the back of the court will almost always guarantee either a bad backhand clear or a shot close to the net - either way, it's a prime opportunity for a winner (either in a smash from the clear or a shot on the other side of the court).

If your opponent surprises you by hitting a clear from their backhand (a difficult shot but possible!), you can tire them out by continually hitting deep to their backhands and forcing them to clear.

3. If you smash, be prepared for a quick return

I've both noticed this myself for my opponents as well as done this myself: my opponent clears it, I notice empty court on one side of the badminton court and decide to smash it hard on that side. My opponent immediately reacts and miraculously drops the bird at the net and either I'm left at the back of the court or I run up to the front of the court and miss the shot anyway.

It's really simple: if you're going to hit it quickly at your opponent, you'll have less time to react to his counter shot. Think about a clear - you have a lot of time to react because the bird is traveling up and over and then back down again to the deep side of your opponent's court.

That's why it's useful to develop the instinct in your mind that if you smash or do a half-speed smash, you shouldn't leave your front court too exposed.

4. If you serve, serve it deep (between the singles and doubles serve line) and near the center line

I've had a lot of time to experiment with different serves and I find that the safest one is to serve it deep. Yes, you'll be opening up to attacks from your opponent's but if you're a pretty good player, these won't bother you too much since your opponent attacking you from the back of the court is generally more desirable than your opponent attacking you in mid-court.

The reason for serving it near the center line (instead of say, the corners) is so that your opponent doesn't get the angle to attack you from. When you serve it deep into one of the corners, your opponent has several options: smashing it down the line, smashing it cross-court, dropping it cross-court, dropping it down the line and of course, clearing it. I've found that I've often lost points from serving it deep into a corner because the number of possible shots I have to cover is too vast and I end up being out of position on a smash that I expect to come down the line but ends up going cross-court instead.

Serving it to the center will limit your opponent's options - your opponent can still do all the shots that I have listed above, but the angles won't be as dangerous to you.


5. If you're out of position, clear!

A clear is a defensive shot - earlier I alluded to the fact that because it has such a great distance to travel, you won't get as quick of a counter shot on it as you would if you did another type of shot. One of the worst things that can happen is when your opponent has made a deep drop shot and while it may be tempting to drop it back, there's been too many times where I was out of position and once I've dropped it, I got a clear back from my opponent and couldn't make it back in time for a proper shot. Again, this doesn't apply if you have great movement around the court but a lot of times when you're out of position for whatever reason, a clear is a safe shot to make to get back on track and not let yourself get into worse and worse positions / shots.

Doubles:

In doubles, the game is quite a different beast than singles. Firstly, the service lines are different: it's the widest of the lines and the double serve line in the diagram. Immediately after the serve, the court lengthens so that during regular game play, the single serve line is in effect as the boundary of the court. Obviously with the addition of two more players, this type of game doesn't rely on position / speed as much as placement and outworking your opponent.

1. Serve short and serve low to the net as often as possible

In doubles, the game is won with attacking shots and anything low to the net and close to the net forces your opponents to make a clear - at which point, you can begin the attack by smashing. You are further aided by your partner since in singles, although you might be able to return it by dropping it to the net, you now have a partner at the net who can make subsequent shots at the net to win the point.

I say to serve low as often as possible since you do have to mix it up a bit to keep your opponent's from guessing your serve. If you always serve short, your opponent can get the jump on you by reacting before you serve and then make a winning shot because you are caught off guard. By serving long a few times during the rally, you keep your opponent's from always jumping on your short serve and really, make them think twice about reacting before you serve since at any point, you could serve it long and they would be completely out of position.

2. Return shots to the backhand or to mid court

Again, just like in singles, players generally have weaker backhands than forehands and thus, returning shots to the backhand will either force your opponent to clear it for you (in which case you can then attack) or make a great net shot / drive. Of course, since you have two players on the court, this makes it easier to attack the second type of shot since you both have half a court to cover.

In one game against an experienced doubles team, I was covering the back (my partner was serving). Our opponents kept on hitting it to the sides of mid court and it was getting extremely frustrating because neither me or my partner could get those shots even though we both anticipated them going there. To this day, I'm not sure if its the front or back player's job to get those kinds of shots but in any case, it showed us that even when playing doubles, there are holes that we both need to be aware of.

A combination of the two works best against experienced opponents since you may start off by returning it to their backhand and then switching to mid court shots. It all depends on your mid court shot as well as how far back they seem. If you're smart, you won't do the shot that frequently but only when it looks like your opponents are out of position: if the back player looks like he's favoring his backhand (as in, standing closer to his backhand then normal), you should hit a cross drive to the mid court; if the back player looks like he's standing in the middle, either of the shots will be good and lastly, if the back player looks like he's anticipating the mid court shot, you should hit it to the backhand.

The same advice goes for the front player if he / she is the one getting the shots. It's a little hard to fake but if you can, fake a mid court shot and instead, drop it to the net.

3. Any time its cleared to your opponent's, stand side by side on the court. If you're attacking, take front and back positions.

I've been with enough partners to know that when you're defending, you should be standing side by side so that you can cover as much of the court as possible. What you're really defending against are the smashes because when you're standing in front and back positions, the sides of your court are not safe against smashes. Of course, the opposite is true when you're attacking - you are the one forcing your opponent to make good shots against you and having someone in the back smashing and another in the front to take any poor net shots makes for a quick game. If you watch any of the doubles games from top professionals, you'll see that good teams will transition back and forth between attacking and defending depending on how they're playing the shots.

4. Smash at opponent's who are moving backwards

This is something I learned recently - it's hard to hit shots when you're already moving. Imagine that you are in the back and your opponent, reacting to your drop shot, has just cleared it to you. You want to smash it but to who? Frequently, I will smash at the opponent who just cleared it. Good opponents will be moving back from the front so that they can cover their side of the court and since its so hard to return a shot when you're already moving, you'll often get unforced errors or a poor return from that opponent even if he does get the shot.  If they're not so good, then being at the front of the net will not help them return the smash at all and you'll win the point easily as long as they don't somehow magically return it.


5. Always be ready for the shot, even when you know its not for you

This one definitely takes some practice. If you're in the back and your partner is in the front and your opponents have just made a drop shot, yes, it's not your shot but you should be ready for the shot even if you aren't the one responsible for it. I've developed a somewhat bad habit of just watching my partner get most of the shots instead of stepping in to get shots whenever I know my partner can't get to them in time to make a proper shot. Of course, if you're always ready for the shot regardless of whether its yours or not, you'll definitely be ready for the next time a shot is made and it is yours.


Badminton is a great game which mimics interval training (high intensity in a short period of time, then rest for a bit and then high intensity and rest once again). It's a game of anticipation and more importantly, movement. There's something extremely satisfying with guessing your opponent's shot (like for instance, knowing its a drop shot and rushing to the net to smash and win the point) but there's also something mesmerizing about top player's movements around the court as they try to hit shots to get the other player out of position.

What about you?  Do you play badminton? Do you keep in mind anything when playing badminton?

Don't look at the things that don't change

Back when I was still at UBC in residence, I got hooked on playing texas hold'em poker. As a student of the game, I absorbed as much information as possible in order to improve my own game. One thing I learned was that when the flop comes (the first 3 cards) and really, the subsequent turn and river (1 card each), you should not be looking at the cards, rather, you should be looking at your opponents to read their reactions.

Poker may be a game of betting, a game of cards but most importantly, it is a game of information. The more information you have, the better decisions you can make on how to play your hand (or the opponent's hand). I learned that once the flop is out, the cards don't change but you only get to see your opponent's reaction to the cards once. If you're just staring at the cards when they come out, you'll miss out on a vital piece of information.

Perhaps with a little too much zeal , I decided to apply that to other areas of my life. In particular, during conversations, I look at the person speaking 60% of the time but the other 40% of my time is spent looking at others and seeing what their reactions are. The people that notice tell me I'm creepy and I suppose it is, but again, information is king.

Here's a situation that happened to me recently where I picked up some valuable information by not staring at the things that don't change:

A few days ago, I was at the library waiting in line to get membership. Ahead of me was an older Asian gentleman who, I gathered from the card and books in his hand, was trying to check out the books. The librarian at the desk pointed him over to the self-checking out machines. Much of the checking in and checking out processes for the books were facilitated through RFID tags - it's a very modern technology. In any case, the gentleman headed over to the self-checking out machine and read the instructions on the screen which read "Place your card down on the machine top with the bar code facing up".

The man tried several times to place the card in the right way but try as he might, he could not get the card to scan through. At that point, many people would probably continue looking at the man but as if by instinct, I looked over to the librarian. I'm not sure if it was because I was looking or if it was a natural subconscious move on her part but she rolled her eyes and had that look that said "Oh God". Now I'm not trying to say that the man deserved it or that the librarian isn't very good at handling clients but you would miss out on this if you just stared at the man trying to scan in the card.

Next time, try looking at the things that you know won't change and look for the things that can change and perhaps you'll catch something you didn't catch before.