first 3 shots

I played with a player tonight that when he received service he simply always lifted the shuttle high to the rearcourt for our opponant to smash it..... he did this every time and mostly we lost the point due to this, even when I respectfully mentioned this he still did the same thing.... whatever happened to learning from your mistakes !!!!

Anyway to get back to the subject, in around 1992 a survey was done in the UK with national players, I think it was also done worldwide, The survey showed that the average rally was............. 3 shots only !!!! Hard to believe as you have so many rallies that last 10 or 20 shots but then we also have serves into the net (1 shot) serves that fall short of the service line or go out past the rearcourt service line (1 shot) or sometimes you serve and your opponant kills it (2 shots) these tend to bring down the average amount of shots in a rally.

This is why the first 3 shots are so important.
1, The service
2, The service return
3. The reply to the service return.

These 3 shots should be when you look to get the advantage, i.e to get your opponant to lift so you can attack.
The service should be tight to the net and start to fall as it passes the net to minimise your opponants attack.
When receiving you should be looking to attack the shuttle as early as possible to hit down or at least avoid the lift by hitting flat or a tight net reply.
The 3rd shot should be the same, look to attack the service return as early as possible to avoid any sort of lift.
This cat and mouse situation is the basis of most services, vying for the advantage and never give it away as easily as the partner that I mentioned at the begining.

Master the first 3 shots in a rally and you will be on your way to becoming a better player.