De-mystifying the Badminton Serve
For those who are new to this sport, the badminton serve is executed at the start of the rally. Simple but yet, it’s not so simple! If you’ve been playing for some time now you would’ve probably realized the importance of a good service.
Service is a HUGE chapter to learn, so let me warn you, this page is going to be long to cover so it’s okay if you don’t cover it in a day!
Service is a HUGE chapter to learn, so let me warn you, this page is going to be long to cover so it’s okay if you don’t cover it in a day!
But before you start watching the videos I compiled for you ( Yay videos!) , I need you to understand why something is so ‘simple’, so important? To summarize them into points, with bad service or good you will end up with the following.
Advantages of a Good Serve
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Consequences of a Bad Serve
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What Should Be My Focus Now as a Beginner?
Similar to the gripping of the racket, my advice is practice, work on helping your muscle remember the way you serve. Once you’re familiar with a type of service, you’ll need consistency! Because every mistake is a point gained so no room for errors! A good benchmark to aim for is 8/10 successful serve!
After which, then you can focus on different types of service, which i will cover soon, and then the process repeats, until you’re familiar with all the different types of service!
After which, then you can focus on different types of service, which i will cover soon, and then the process repeats, until you’re familiar with all the different types of service!
Different Types of Serve
There are three different and one ‘unofficial’ type of service
- High Serve - Short Serve (Called low serve too!) - Flick Serve - Unofficial Drive Serve(Will tell you more later)
It’s hard to properly show you how they’re done so I’ve handpicked some of the best service videos ( Didn’t make one myself as it’s time consuming and why not make use of available resources out there!)
- High Serve - Short Serve (Called low serve too!) - Flick Serve - Unofficial Drive Serve(Will tell you more later)
It’s hard to properly show you how they’re done so I’ve handpicked some of the best service videos ( Didn’t make one myself as it’s time consuming and why not make use of available resources out there!)
High Serve
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Forehand High Serve by Badminton EnglandForehand high serve by Badminton England
Detailed breakdown and explanation of the High Serve! This saves me a lot of trouble haha! |
Low Serve
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#Example 1 By Lin DanSimple, Short and excellent video by a World Champion. No flaws here! (Duh!)
Translation Summary He talks about the very first reason he uses backhand serve is because world class players all use this serve. Steps to Serve 1) Racket Head move backwards 2) Use the strength from your thumb (More power & control) 3) A big advantage is the flick serve ( Opponent dare not stay too front) 4) Demonstration of Flick Serve |
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#Example 2 by Lee Jae BokThis extremely informative video (Thumbs up!) has several flaws i believe I should point out to you all. At 9:40 when he show you the change in the angle of the short serve, he actually consistency commit a fault service ( wasn’t faulted back then but the new rule states that at point of contact, racket head must be below the grip).
At 11:27 he then shows a slice service (which is faulted in the new rule) because it puts the receiver at an unfair disadvantage as well. Additionally in my opinion I feel he restrictive of creative elements of service,because a good serve is about effectiveness there is no one 'Right' way. |
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#Example 3 By Badminton EnglandAnother professionally done video on how to do the short serve. This video is the forehand short serve. You don’t have to practice both forehand and backhand short serve, just one will do, but make sure you do that one well!
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Flick Serve
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By BWF & HowCast Respectively
Two well done videos explaining what the flick is all about. One explaining the forehand, the other the backhand flick serve.
Unofficial Drive Serve
So why do i call this an unofficial drive serve? This is not to be confused with the flick serve! Because personally it’s a underhand trick people use to win that i definitely don’t endorse that causes unhappiness among players. The problem with this serve is that it causes an unfair advantage to the receiver not because of good strategic serve or tactic.
Whenever a player does this in competition, it often results in 1) Service Faults 2) Opponent complaining to the umpire. And during friendly matches, it spoils the atmosphere because you come across as ‘playing dirty’ and this may result in angering your opponents and/or causing them to use the same trick on you.
So although I see people out there teaching this ‘Serve’ I personally don’t see why we need to rely on this form of serve in order to win Cheap points, hence a ‘unofficial’ technique.
Apparently I am unable to find a proper video of the drive serve (many were just simply flick serve termed wrongly).
Whenever a player does this in competition, it often results in 1) Service Faults 2) Opponent complaining to the umpire. And during friendly matches, it spoils the atmosphere because you come across as ‘playing dirty’ and this may result in angering your opponents and/or causing them to use the same trick on you.
So although I see people out there teaching this ‘Serve’ I personally don’t see why we need to rely on this form of serve in order to win Cheap points, hence a ‘unofficial’ technique.
Apparently I am unable to find a proper video of the drive serve (many were just simply flick serve termed wrongly).
This video explains the drive serve but demonstrates the flick serve half the time, only the lady did the drive serve (Not a good one for you to see the ‘cheat’ in it sadly)
Guess that someday I’ll have to find the time to make a drive serve for you all you all to see! (Finally seeing me huh!)
Guess that someday I’ll have to find the time to make a drive serve for you all you all to see! (Finally seeing me huh!)
** Note that by difficulty I meant the difficulty in consistently achieving its intended objective compared to the other types of serve
What’s a ‘Good’ Serve
Of course when I mentioned about good service earlier on it’s not just the ‘normal’, serving the shuttle into far into the back or front near the net and that’s it, it’s more than that! A good serve is one that has a clear objective and is a strategy for the next shot.
To give you a very very basic example (for those new to badminton), when I serve to the back of the court, making sure all the shuttle falls at the double lines at the back of the court is simply serving.
A good serve would then be adjusting the height to that the shuttle is just over your opponent’s reach (so they have no choice but to move to the baseline to take the shuttle) so that they have less time to do a full jump smash ( Hard smasher maybe?).
Of course this are very advanced serving tactics/techniques out there which I won’t cover just yet (Maybe soon!) because my aim here is to get the basic idea of service correct to help set you up to learn on your own effectively.
To give you a very very basic example (for those new to badminton), when I serve to the back of the court, making sure all the shuttle falls at the double lines at the back of the court is simply serving.
A good serve would then be adjusting the height to that the shuttle is just over your opponent’s reach (so they have no choice but to move to the baseline to take the shuttle) so that they have less time to do a full jump smash ( Hard smasher maybe?).
Of course this are very advanced serving tactics/techniques out there which I won’t cover just yet (Maybe soon!) because my aim here is to get the basic idea of service correct to help set you up to learn on your own effectively.
Improving to the Next Level
This paragraph is specially (Going to be a little more technical here!) for those who have been playing for awhile now, after you’re able to consistency serve over so what’s next? Well now you need to analysing every time you serve, can I form a particular ‘rule’ or notice a pattern?
A basic example, in doubles if you do a short serve near the T and often realize people flick the shuttle just above your head, then raise your racket up and try to intercept the shot. If they keep avoiding you and netting straight, then after the serve, re-position yourself to go for the straight shot!
As you analyze more frequently in all aspects of your game, you’ll analyze faster and sharper and eventually you’ll even notice certain habits that are very common among groups of people, e.g same club, those playing a certain style, and that’s when you’ll be able to give them a surprise counter-attack to their trademark moves!
A basic example, in doubles if you do a short serve near the T and often realize people flick the shuttle just above your head, then raise your racket up and try to intercept the shot. If they keep avoiding you and netting straight, then after the serve, re-position yourself to go for the straight shot!
As you analyze more frequently in all aspects of your game, you’ll analyze faster and sharper and eventually you’ll even notice certain habits that are very common among groups of people, e.g same club, those playing a certain style, and that’s when you’ll be able to give them a surprise counter-attack to their trademark moves!