You have forgotten the tactic I described of intentionally letting the opponent smash in order to make them tire themselves out. Sometimes, throw up a shorter lift to the doubles baseline and set yourself to defend. Block to the front of the court and then you clear the next shot. Make them run and watch the mistakes in their shots come. Basically, you want to keep some variation in choice of shots. Obviously, if you are in a difficult position, then you just throw up a straight lift as best as possible. But if you have the option, you can play a lift anywhere along the width of the court. What you are looking for is to a) probe the opponent's strength and weaknesses in various areas of the court, and b) make them change direction in running around the court. Look for their good shots and whether they have a couple of favoured shots. Now you can start predicting their play, return their good shots and this will put mental pressure on the opponent.
Of course...that explains why my opponents are so smash happy in the crosscourt lifts (also because a lot of them are left handed oddly enough). On the subject of moving backwards, I've noticed there are very few occasions I move my feet behind the rear doubles service line. I'm playing a rally style which means that I'm mostly trying to play clears/drops which requires less movement back to play, but do you think I should be considering moving further back to allow me to play better fast drops/half smashes? (And generally have a more threatening position) I'm unsure because my opponent's lifts are quite flat so I don't know if it is me being lazy on court, or whether there is actually not enough time to move further back. I'm personally feeling this is more of an issue on the rear backhand rth movement.
The movement is no better exemplified than by Wong Wing Ki (again) in his facebook today. He plays a routine with moving to the right side court playing a forehand overhead, recovery, and then changing his speed of movement to much faster to play the round the head smash. Can you train to change your speed in the same fashion? Rally game is OK when you have an objective. You can't exactly rally someone continually because you need options. What Wong Wing Ki shows is the change of pace to catch the opponent off guard and disturb the opponent's rhythm. You do have enough time on court, you just haven't trained that way before nor thought of the game as winning by changing pace within a rally. Previously, your only winning strategy was to try and hit the shuttle on to the floor as fast as possible. Change of pace is another option.
Another excellent video as you mentioned - included a link for those who are curious: I can see the change of pace from the forehand movement to the rth movement - should I always have this change of pace to accelerate hard into the RTH though? WWKV shows the acceleration that enables him to play a straight smash. From that position he could also play any other shot to any corner as he is there so early. I currently think the answer would be no - that most times he will still take it RTH, but not in such an aggressive manner. The resulting strokes available would be more limited, but his recovery would be tested much less. So am I right in thinking my footwork is okay for the RTH, but I also need to mix up variation in pace of retrieval?
You should always have it available so you can choose whenever to use it. To quote Personally, I try looking to use it to grab a quick point or near the end of the game.
I usually start off fine, I hit back from the back or mid court a couple of times just fine but always find myself caught out on the third shot which comes to me. By the third shot it is either too fast or powerful for me to get or I am in the wrong position for it. I struggle to return smashes. Really need to work on that. I have been blogging about my training so far. Yesterday we were taught footwork which made a huge difference to my position on the court. I am hoping to work on this and improve! www.badmintonchronicles.com
I have put the answer in another thread of yours http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/index.php?threads/when-to-use-sliced-drops.173374/page-2
