Tactics in Badminton

Badminton can be thought of in many ways, tactically.

Every shot we play, we can think of from a tactical perspective.  Thanks to Kenneth Larsen, here's what I believe is a useful framework for considering the tactical situations we may find ourselves in:

Total Offense
Constructive Offense
Initiative Fight
Constructive Defense
Uncontrolled Defense

I think these are quite self-explanatory, if we pause to think.  Every shot we play can be considered as played from one of these tactical situations.  Often they can be thought of as a scale or a ladder.  We are trying to elevate ourselves to the next rung in the ladder, and at the same time to move our opponents down the ladder.  There are exceptions of course; one of them is a counter stroke, which moves players from one of controlled defense to one of constructive offense or total offense.

This, or any other, tactical framework provides a platform to figure out if a shot that is played is contributing to winning or losing a particular rally.

In doubles at club level, many players may be familiar with the situation where they get a high lift that is short of the base line.  They choose to straight smash the shuttle and the straight defender play a crosscourt drive that lands on the floor.  What happened? Well, straight away we can see that the tactical position has deteriorated terminally in that rally.
This is where we may depart from the simple framework and examine the shot, or rally, in more detail.
So, the player smashed.  The straight defender played a crosscourt drive, which the smasher, or the smasher's partner missed.  There may be numerous reasons for the error but we can make some guesses as to why the shot failed.  The most important reason that the shot failed is because the player's partner was not in a position to intercept the crosscourt drive.   This is fundamental as the player's partner may also be referred to as the forecourt player.  Just as in bridge, doubles badminton is played in pairs.  The forecourt player's responsibility is to call the shot that the rearcourt player plays.  It is the forecourt player's responsibility to determine the extent of the attack, if you like.  The forecourt player has to, in a very short period of time, interpret the situation and position themselves accordingly.  The rearcourt player, for their part, is to play for their partner.  That means playing the shot that most suits their partner, and their partner should be aware of the smasher's limitations.
The other critical reason the shot failed is that the smasher is not attacking at the level he thinks he is.  He could be playing a smash that is suitable for the Total Offense situation but is not fast enough, steep enough or positioned well enough to elicit a poor response.  The forecourt player in this situation should know that the smasher is not up to the challenge and cover the crosscourt.