(Video) help with technique and unforced erros

Tempo is a fun discussion. Everyone has their own preferred tempo and style of play. You play with a high tempo, but what happens when your opponent changes the tempo of the game and forces you to play slower, more calculated, and more accurately?

I watched all the footage and there indeed were a lot of errors. Some serving into the net, shots going out. How can you minimise those mistakes? I would say try aiming a bit more into the court. Aim say 2-5CM inside of the line.

Perhaps if you get your racquet in position quicker when travelling backwards for overhead shots it will improve your accuracy and shot selection / deception. See what happens at 3:35 in the first video.

Have you played half court singles before? It could be a fun exercise to help you with accuracy and a bit of defence.

Consider posting the same thread to r/badminton. You'll get more eyes on you and even more suggestions.

 

I have had a similar journey when it comes to learning to play at a lower tempo. When you play fast, the tempo of the game puts pressure on the opponent. This pressure allows you to get away with subpar shots. You can play shots that aren't of great quality and get away with it because the opponent doesn't have enough time to punish it.

You will notice when you play slower, this pressure is absent. Because the opponent now has more time, they can punish lower quality shots more easily. Therefore, the quality of your shots needs to be higher.

I like to play fast. It is my weapon. It's how I can challenge players with a better technique. But over the past few years, overuse injuries and age has forced me to change my game. I will still try to play fast when I can, because it is so effective, but I need a backup plan for when I face someone that can challenge my speed, or for when I get too tired.

When playing slower, it is more important to stay on balance, to play higher quality shots, and to be more tactically aware. Footwork and shot quality is just a matter of training, and I imagine you get plenty. If your fitness allows it, try to keep a lower, wider stance. It will improve your defence and help you stay on balance during the rally.

But the real difference is tactics. When the opponent is not under speed pressure, they can more easily punish any bad shot, but also any bad choice of shot. When playing fast it can be rewarding to play aggressive. Even if it doesn't score, it can put enough pressure on the opponent to prevent them from taking initiative. When playing slower, it is more dangerous to be aggressive, because the opponent is more likely to be on balance throughout the rally, and able to counter your shots.

Instead, the emphasis should be to stay in control of the rally, and to play shots that don't give the opponent a chance to be dangerous. Ideally, they shouldn't have enough time to play full power smashes while staying on balance. So each lift needs to be either low enough so they can't get under properly, or far enough away from them that they don't have enough time to get under properly, or perfectly high and deep so even if they can get under, it is not too dangerous for you. An important factor to ensure you are never forced to play a short lift is to challenge the net at all costs. Always try to stay in control of the net. If you tend to win net exchanges, play the net as much as you can. If the opponent is dangerous at the net, don't play shots that allow the opponent to play tight netshots. Shots further into court, or more away from him (like crosses) can be safer than shorter netshots. The shorter to the net the opponent can take the shuttle, the easier it is for him to play closer to the net as well. If you lose the net, you have lost the control of the rally. Even if you are not winning at the net, just making sure your opponent can't force you into disadvantage at the net is enough to stay in control.

Every opponent is different. I can write a book on how to play, but depending on your opponent it could all be wrong. Learn to identify how you are winning and losing points. The reason you won or lost the rally is rarely the last shot. Which shot did you play to give the opponent the advantage? Was the shot a bad choice of shot, or was it a good choice but badly executed? Which shot did you play that put the opponent in disadvantage? You can only adapt to you opponents if you ask yourself these questions all the time. If you lost a rally, ask yourself why. If you won a rally, ask yourself why. The more you do this, the better you will get at spotting patterns and adapting to opponents.

Playing slower can be more difficult than playing fast, because everything else has to be better.

If you ever wonder how older slower players seem to beat younger supposedly better players, this is how. They figure out what wins them points, and what gets punished. Then they just try to stay in control of the rally by avoiding all the shots that get punished and playing into situations that are advantageous to them.

In short: Wider stance, Stay in control of the net, Adapt to your opponents.

 

The lower your stance is, the faster you will be out of your splitstep, so it's good to try and make it a habit. However, it also asks more of the muscles, so it requires a certain fitness. Initially you will find that your performance improves, but your legs will tire faster. As time goes on, you will get used to it to some extent, but nearly everyone will revert to a more upright stance when they are tired enough.

When it comes to shot quality, certain margins are more important than others. With lifts and clears, it is more important to hit it close to the back line. Hitting it close to the sideline doesn't matter nearly as much. With short serves, net shots, and pushes, it is usually more important to hit it low over the net. It doesn't matter nearly as much where exactly they land. Of course these are generalisations, and it is good to hit shots that are perfect on all margins, but most shots do not need to be perfect, they just need to be good in one particular aspect.

At most levels, even at the top, most matches are decided by mistakes rather than winners. It is such a waste to hit a shot out because you wanted to hit the sideline, especially if you weren't under pressure. It is almost never a necessary risk. Hitting lifts out the backline is more excusable, because it is usually important that your lifts are a good length, so every now and then it will fly too far.

It good to hear that most of your limitations are mental, because it means that you can improve greatly in a short time. All you have to do is break through those mental barriers. However, it is difficult to be disciplined. You have to make the conscious decisions until it becomes a habit. It can also be overwhelming to implement many things at once.

I think the best way forward is to take the advice, choose one thing what you think will help you the most, and focus solely on that until you are happy with the result. And only then focus on something else.

 

What have they suggested you do?

Paul Stewart is an experienced coach who could help you out. I went to one of his last in person group coaching weekends last year and it was very beneficial. He does online also.

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If you want to improve accuracy, you either do the shot over and over and over again and see where the shuttles land. Hopefully with time the accuracy improves. Or you do a short ralley to put you under a bit of pressure and move, and see how accurate you are and practice that way.

Place markers or targets on the court where you are aiming at. Cardboard box, shuttle tube, small plastic cones, anything useful for the area you are aiming at. The direction the racquet head is at the point of impact affects accuracy the most.

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If you've seen Masons' megathread on the forum it's worth a view. He's a club player from usa and every few months or weeks he posts a video update like you have done. I would certainly give you feedback if you post more videos of your Journey.

 

A few things to say overall, some already mentioned by yourself and others - nice to see the awareness.

1. Slow swing - I believe this is due to incorrect use of the forearm, pronation and supination. Sometimes your stroke looks off, maybe your grip isn't relaxed enough because it seems to affect your nets and low serve. Those are a symptoms to me of not using your wrist and fingers properly to generate power & control instead of the whole arm. Work on compacting your overhead action - focus more on the supination and pronation.

2. Tactically you and your sparring partner play too many cross-court shots, maybe it's related to your mindset of finishing the rally quickly. General rule of thumb is to play 75%-80% straight, build up the points - example move your opponent closer to one corner and then play a cross.

3. Do you warm up prior to these sessions? Something simple like 50 straight clears, drops & lifts to give you a feel of the conditions and reduce your unforced errors can help lift the quality of your shots.

4. A lot of the shots being played are high and low, there aren't many flat/fast pushes or drives. Adding these in at the right time will elevate your game, smashing isn't the only way to win points.

 

Hello,

I agree with baddiechan over the supination/pronation and swing correction.
In the first three videos it looked as if you are hitting almost all overhead shots with pronation like a stick smash with your arm following towards your right thigh.

I'm not a coach so can't comment on the right/wrong way of every shot execution. You are relatively new & learning so I guess the swing would definitely get smoother overtime.

What I observed is that you hardly play shots to opponents front forehand corner. That's my favourite corner.
In my experience, it's difficult to play good returns net/long from that place. For me it sets up nice smash from my backhand corner but you will need strong legs/explosive power to put it away.

I would also suggest being more explosive and reaching the shuttle earlier WHEN you can, that will put pressure on the opponent to move faster too.
Attack his body, see If he chokes.

Cheers.

 

This can backfire in singles. Don't do it too often.
It's safer to make the opponent move and put them under pressure that way in singles.

 

I'm a quite experienced junior coach, take from it what you will, but to me it looks like your errors are mainly due to your preparation and grip issues.
You are preparing with your racket low, and the back court swing upwards has become a part of the actual clear motion. It's clumsy and takes extra time. Your wrist is locked sideways in your preparation with the palm glued to your racket, as if you're afraid of dropping it. You're also holding the racket too far up the grip. You have a little bit of the supination preparation tendency, which is quite common, but can be difficult to correct.
You're mainly generating whip power with the wrist, when it should be the forearm into the fingers. The wrist is not irrelevant, but it should be used to help the fingers find better angles to cut and slice. Because of your grip issues you don't really know how to slice, which is why you struggle with the deep corners a lot.

The footwork looks good to me, of course it's not perfect but for your level it's not what's holding you back.
What to do? You can practice slices and other softer back court shots with a relaxed wrist, enabling the power to transfer to your fingers by leaving space between the palm and the racket. Make the shots feel playful, don't stress power, don't whip until you get the correct feeling. Preferably use a thinner grip than you're comfortable with. Also practice the correct preparation motion (you know how it should look) without a shuttle, don't make it stiff, make it nonchalant.

*edit* I just saw the post was half a year old, oh well

 

Even top international players so highest level, can have a low racket prep, but it just means they start the swing earlier. When there is less time, then they'd do a high racket prep. And many might do a high racket prep regardless.

I once had some coaching involving low racket prep and one can even start the swing as one moves back.

Can you point to anywhere where he took the shuttle late because he had a low racket prep and started swing too late? Or because he had a low racket prep and there just wasn't time to have a low racket prep?

Watching this video of his v=Dw5u6gLTQck at 3:19 (first video the 5:30 one)

Anyhow, height of racket prep aside.

What I see is not really a low racket prep, but more significant than that, I don't really see a particular racket prep position.. so that might be an issue.

For example

if you look at LCW here




LCW has gotten into a racket prep position.

And it's not going to be low in that scenario with a round the head and that footwork. (There would be other cases of a low racket prep).

But my point is, there is a racket prep position there.

Whereas if we look here



that's not really a racket prep.. that's mid swing.

OP does take it early very nicely, as LCW does also early








Whereas OP's swing starts here or even a moment before!




It's really skipping out on a racket prep position

If a low level player were to do what OP did, they'd often end up taking it a lot later. But OP has some skills and did that while timing it all well and managing to take it early

But even LCW does a racket prep there. And it would make it easier to be more consistent.

i'm no expert though so don't know if others agree with me on that..

EDIT- A point just incase somebody reads this and gets confused. Nowhere here am I saying low racket prep is optimal or that low racket should be done instead of high racket prep. And nowhere here am I saying that low racket prep is better than high racket prep. On the contrary, high racket prep is easier. I am also not claiming that the OP is even doing a low racket prep. And besides that, most of this post isn't even discussing height of racket prep. More about simply doing a racket prep, which isn't exactly a controversial idea, and is part of what others have said too.