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

Deleted:

Contents

vi

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

Chapter 7
Mixed Doubles
Page 106

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

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

Contents

vii

Part Four: Training and Practice

Chapter 9
Preparation and Training for Play
Page 154
joint-

Chapter 10
Practices
Page 174

Appendix
Page 204

Exercises 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

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

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

Preface

10

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