Badminton Doubles – Rear Court Player

Written by on in Blog Posts, Doubles Articles, Strategies & Tactics 
Featured Image: Anthony Stanley

The Concept of Attacking

The primary role of the rear court player is to hit the shuttle in a downward direction from the rear court. Attacking is all about putting pressure on your opponent and forcing errors and weak replies from the opponents. To do this you have to force opponents to lift the shuttle.  We have already discussed how to get the lift from your opponent from the serve and return of serve. Now that you have achieved this you are in a strategically advantageous position to win the rally. As you’ll see, the smash from the rear court is the way forward!

Attacking Formation

I am assuming that many of you reading this are familiar with the basic attacking position. However, I will briefly cover it below.

The rear court player plays shots from the back of the court, hitting the shuttle in a downward direction. The frontcourt player intercepts weak replies and plays shots to help set up another attacking opportunity for the rear court player. This is the most common attacking formation on the doubles court. There are also attacking formations from the mid-court and with two players coming forward.

Rear Court Player

The rear court player has two main roles.

1. Set up a weak reply from the opponent that can be killed off by the frontcourt player.

2. Set up a weak lift that can be killed off from the rear court.

Many players assume they can win the rally from the rear court. At certain levels of play, this is true. Weaker players might struggle to return smashes or not be able to reply to them at all.

As you play against players of higher levels, the opponent’s defences become much more solid. Therefore, your smash starts to lose its potency. It will become more and more difficult to win straight points from the rear court. The hardest hitting professional players will still find it incredibly difficult to win a point off their smash alone.

The most important thing to remember is doubles is a team game. It’s not about one player winning points but working in tandem to achieve this.

Shot Direction Of Rear Court Player

Players need to have tactical awareness of which direction to hit their shots from the rear court.  As a rule, attacking shots from the rear court should be played straight or to the middle of the court. A fundamental tactical error is playing cross-court too often. It should only be when there is a clear opportunity to win the point.

Why Is Cross Courting a Bad Idea?

The cross-court opens the whole opposite side of the court for your opponent to play into. Whatever your shot is, if the opponent reacts well to it, you are immediately under pressure.

In particular, if you play a cross-court from your forehand side, a straight reply puts you on your backhand. From this position, it’s very hard to continue the attack.

Depending on the shot they play you might be able to salvage the attack but it will be less potent because you will be moving across court rather than hitting from a stable balanced position.

In addition, the shuttle takes a longer time to travel crosscourt so the opponent has more time to react to the shuttle. It will also be a little slower due to the aerodynamic properties of the shuttle which slows as it travels.

Lastly, it does not involve the frontcourt player as much. It is easier for the frontcourt player to anticipate straight returns at the net. By smashing cross-court, the opponent is better able to direct their return past the frontcourt player, effectively cutting them out.

Ultimately a cross-court shot pulls you and your partner out of the attacking formation, puts pressure on the rear court player and loses you your attacking advantage more often than not.

Attacking Straight and to the Middle.

Playing to the middle or straight is the most strategically sound option when directing your attack. I have listed some of the benefits of both options below:

Straight

  1. Gives your opponent less time to react. The fastest route between two points is a straight line. Remember, you’re trying to pressurize your opponent, so by giving them less time you are forcing them to react quickly.
  2. Frontcourt players can predict the returns of the opponent more easily. A good smash will mean your opponent will not be easily able to change the shuttle’s direction and therefore can only play a straight reply. In this case, the frontcourt player can intercept any replies to the net with more confidence.
  3. Keeps you in control of the rally. Similarly, the reply is likely to be a lift if you have a very good smash. When smashing straight it is easier for your opponent to lift back straight than cross court. Therefore, you can play this to your advantage to maintain the attack.

Middle

  1. Hitting to the middle limits angles of reply. Many players will defend biased to taking the shot on their backhand side. When you smash to the middle (assuming two right-handed players), it’s quite difficult for them to manoeuvre their racket in such a way to play a shot with much angle.
  2. It can cause confusion between the two players. Players will often get confused who should take the shot. This hesitancy causes players to delay their shot or play weak returns. Players may be reluctant to take the shot at all in case there is a racket clash.
  3. Frontcourt player can predict the returns of the opponent more easily. Due to the two above factors, by smashing down the middle of the two players you allow the frontcourt player to get more involved.
  4. Less room for error. You are very unlikely to hit the shuttle wide if you’re hitting it down the middle of the court.

Summary Of Rear Court Player

I hope from the above you better understand the attacking role of the rear court player. The objective is to set up the front player for an easy kill and to force the opponent into an error. It is not their primary job to hit winning shots. The types of shots they should play are downward shots forcing the opponents to lift the shuttle again and again until they eventually crack. For another great article on the rear court, check out Paul Stewart who is a great inspiration for badminton improvement. Also, check out this article for shot choice from the rear court.

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