You would have read earlier about the forehand flick serve which can prevent your opponent from anticipating where the shuttle will land. The same shot can be executed with a backhand technique as well. This would look like a typical low serve but instead of dropping in the service box, goes to the rear court area, displacing the opponent’s movement and catching him off guard.

While playing singles, the flick serve can go up to the back line, whereas for doubles, it must land within the inner doubles service line. The right way of executing the backhand flick serve involves taking care of your posture, position and technique. Here’s what Abhijeet Naimpally has to say about it.

Posture and Grip

Your stance can be either left foot forward or right foot forward, but close to the ‘T’ in your court. Here too you would employ the short thumb grip, similar to backhand low serve. However, the grip can be a little longer for the singles serve as compared to the serve in doubles.

Position and Technique

Hold the shuttle by the feather with your free hand and place the shuttle on the racquet head. Take a short backswing and push the shuttle, flicking it out of the hand before bringing the racquet back to ready position. The important thing to note here is that this serve has a little more follow-through than the backhand low serve.

Perfecting Your Serve

Knowing the technique behind a shot is the starting point. Practice is what gets you to flawlessly executing it every time. This exercise can help you work on improving your backhand flick serve. Place a few shuttle tubes together, making a box and set your target. The objective is to make the shuttle fall inside it. There’s really no shortcut to this. You just need to keep at it until you improve your accuracy.

The backhand flick serve is quite popular in both singles and doubles matches, with the only difference in execution being the small variation in your grip. You’ll find it quite useful in your journey to master this sport. In the next post, you’ll come across an interesting shot that can force the opponent to come forward, towards the front net area. Read on to learn the backhand net shot.