The short serve is the doubles standard. Learn to play it low just over the net, stay legal and build accuracy by counting.
The honest answer: The short serve is a low, soft serve that flies just over the tape and lands near the front service line. In doubles it is the standard serve because it keeps your opponent from attacking. In singles, many players use it too, as a change from the high serve.
It looks easy but is a real precision task. A study with eight players had each of them play ten short and ten long serves at a one-square-metre target. The result: the short serve landed clearly more accurately on target than the long serve, and the players got better with every repetition on the short serve [2]. That means for you: practice pays off especially here.
On top of that come clear rules you should know from the start so you do not produce serve faults later. Everything without [n] is coaching practice.
Grip with the thumb on the broad side of the handle. Place the racket-side foot close to the front service line, knees slightly bent, weight forward. Both feet must stay on the floor and still until contact [1]. Do not touch the line.
Hold the shuttle with two fingers by the feathers in front of you, below hip height. The whole shuttle must be below 1.15 m at contact [1]. Release it without adding spin [1].
Milestone: Ten releases where the shuttle falls straight down.
Take the racket back only a few centimetres. The wrist stays loose. Keep your gaze calm on the target area. In one study, skilled players held their gaze longer on one spot (the "quiet eye" phase), especially on the short doubles serve [5].
Push the shuttle over the net in one fluid forward movement. The rule requires that the racket moves continuously forward from the start of the motion, with no pause and no pulling back [1]. The racket first hits the base of the shuttle [1]. The shuttle should fly just over the tape with minimal height.
Milestone: The shuttle crosses the tape with no more than a hand's breadth of clearance.
Play ten serves at a towel close behind the tape and note the hits. Direct your focus to the target. When learning the short serve, 60 beginners over five days became more accurate with a focus on the target or the whole stroke than with a focus on body movements [3].
Milestone: Seven of ten serves land in the target area.
The pros' trick: prepare the short and the long serve with the same movement and decide only at the last moment. This is an inference from studies in which experts read serves from shoulder, elbow, wrist and racket [6]. If you keep your preparation the same, you give away little. Try it in training first.
Grip the racket in the backhand grip, place the racket-side foot forward, hold the shuttle below hip height and push it in one fluid motion just over the tape. The shuttle must be below 1.15 m at contact [1].
Usually you push too weakly or hit too low. If it is too high, it gets smashed. The aim is just over the tape. Count ten attempts; that is how you learn the middle way. Accuracy grows with repetition [2].
The whole shuttle must be below 1.15 m from the floor at the moment of contact [1]. That is roughly hip height. In addition both feet must stay on the floor and the racket must move continuously forward [1].
The short serve. It prevents the opponent from attacking. This is coaching practice. In singles many use the high serve, but the short one belongs in the repertoire there too.
Usually just behind the front service line, with varying direction: sometimes to the centre, sometimes to the outside. What matters is not only the target but a flight height just over the tape. This is coaching practice. Count ten attempts per target zone here too.
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