Badminton’s survival-mode sitting duck spritz returns | Badminton News

For want of formal anointing, let’s call the shot, or flurry of shots, badminton’s ‘sitting duck spritz’.It is highly unlikely that coaches train shuttlers in simulations of these ridiculously stunning reflex shots. But 2024 was replete with doubles badminton primarily, witnessing gobsmacking moments of the ‘sitting duck spritz.’
No Indians in Top 10s of a BWF year-end selection for ‘Best Saves’. But you can be pretty sure a Lakshya Sen or Tanisha Crasto or Gayatri Gopichand & Treesa Jolly might’ve had their moments fending off in fast-paced rallies with this totally unrehearsible shot.
So here’s what happens. Sitting ducks are supposed to be vulnerable, defenseless languishers, with no hopes really of escaping the torrent of attacks unleashed on them from a relative vantage. The term owes its origins to hunters targeting stationary ducks, who were chilling and swimming calmly in their ponds, minding their own business. Later, WW2 obviously saw a tragedy to match the game-hunter’s hob: sitting ducks was used for ground targets that cowered but had no cover from aerial enemy fire. 1940s are sure to have some cackling German equivalent to describe such hapless targets.
Indian badminton player Lakshya Sen. (FILE)
Badminton has no such querullous intentions, but players may occasionally find themselves coming under a barrage of smashes, and keeping the shuttle alive can tipple you off balance especially after many low retrieves. To the effect that you fall and find yourself plonked on the floor, while the opponent senses a kill smashing right at you in that sitting duck state. And then you hit right back – out of habit, out of survival mode. One shot, two, three, even four returns. Like a spritz shooting upwards.
In BWF’s compilation, Korean Shin Seung Chan toppled forward chasing a retrieve and ended up with her feet folded under her, before she struck a sitting hitting stance. And won the rally.
Chinese Tan Ning drew out commentator Gillian Clark’s trademark “i don’t belieeeve it!” exclamation after she dove forward for a low retrieve and on the next return was on her back, striking the shuttle in an almost sleeping stance from behind her head.
Olympic men’s doubles champion Lee Yang got called the ‘Harlem Globetrotters’ of Badminton when very early in a rally – like the third shot – he ended up on his back, then pivoting on left hand and foot, he moved about the court like an iguana, sending back four returns in various phases of an imbalanced sitting-dance, to win the point. Eye popping was how from those 4 sleep/sit duck spritz shots, he sprung up with imperceptible flexibility to stand up and Wang Chi-lin and him played 5 perfectly normal returns after the floor acrobatics and win thereafter.
Just because they seem like helpless quacking ducks, from a standing vantage, players who find their opponents slumped awkwardly chasing after steep shuttles, assume that the sitting duck will not flap. They end up peppering them with gnashing smashes. But Badminton has turned easy targeting of sitting ducks on its head, and this ground defense often sees the targets make perfect use of the shuttle directed right at their crumpled forms to stick up a racquet and counter from the floor.
With each passing defense, the rival tends to get more frustrated and continues striking on the heaped figure, instead of the rest of the court, often to their detriment.
Lopsided battle
It’s difficult to pinpoint what qualities help develop the sitting duck spritzer game. Flexibility of course, a never say die attitude, pure reflex and composure to direct shots from that sitting position without feeling bad about having landed in that lopsided battle with an opponent towering over you and looking down at you.
Shuttlers don’t sneer usually, but badminton’s solitary sitting ducks need raw nerve to extricate themselves out of that position against an opponent with the obvious advantage. Most times, they need to stand up again, and fight the regulation running battle in the rally. But if they can parry off from the ground, opponents lose confidence.
What helps? Gymnastics. Floor wrestling. Roller skating (as the Chinese are known to do). And imagine yoga, having unintentionally picked a spot with red ants to sit on.
Women’s doubles sees plenty of these, even bang in the middle of 100 shot rallies, after which players carry on as if nothing so incredible happened.
Audience loves it, and badminton might be one of the few sports where the words defense and dour aren’t clubbed together. Most times, courtside coaches break into applause too, temporarily converted into fans.
But at its heart, the sitting duck spritz returns are about fighting back after being pushed down. What spectators love is that indefatigability no matter what the odds. It’s core survival in a rally. Nothing aerial and fancy can quite match the thrill of watching someone targeted like a sitting duck, hitting right back to win the point.

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