+ When you smash, you often don't land in a stable position, often even taking one or two steps backward. I see this in my club too. It works kind of in doubles, but it is a bad habit. The reason is, that you want to smash, even from a bad position, which puts you under pressure on the next shot. When you are too late, don't try to play an attack shot (drop/smash), a clear could help a lot ot reset the rally. This is more a tactical than a technical issue.
In one of your videos you were doing some "dense strength program" exercises, I would recommend doing plyometrics instead, to train for explosive muscles which you need for badminton. Sent from my SM-G988W using Tapatalk
It’s your moving out and landing for the shot over to the forehand side. You have the lower half of your body disconnected to the upper half of your body - basically your body moves one way and your feet a different direction. You cannot recover balance quickly and therefore , you get a suboptimal start to move to other parts the court.
i sound like a broke record. but i think once again it is having racket in hand that is the culprit. if you were doing those movement on court throwing a shuttlecock of a tennis ball, i would wager that you wouldnt be falling all over the place, off balance, or disjointed biomechanics (or at least not to the same extents) (or am i stating the obvious?) i am erring on the generalisation that all americans can throw, be it a baseball, american football.... film yourself doing the backcourt v-shape footwork movement first with a racket, even better to have someone feed you clears for you to relax clear back. then repeat the same movement throwing a shuttlecock. take note and compare the positions and movement of your feet, legs hips, your take back, shoulders, elbows. take note of the feeling of the throwing arm, where power begins and ends. take special note of the position of the release point of shuttlecock when throwing; how far to the side and in front it is from you, that is where your racket gripping hand should be at the point of impact if you were hitting the shuttle with racket, and your actual contact point would be a racket's length away, slightly to the inside, assuming you do not put your wrist in extreme ulnar deviation to make the racket 'look' straight at contact. neutral wrist position is best for fluid stroke. you like badminton insight, look at greg, look how wide he is from elbow-to-elbow when hitting shuttle. the contact point is actually further out to the side and in front that you think. where you release the shuttle cock is also where you grip hard on the racket (not before or after - once again relate the feeling when throwing a ball or shuttlecock). afterall you are throwing the racket at the shuttlecock without throwing the racket away. another cheesy analogy, hi-five-ing is your friend, you racket face is an extenison of your palm. for game play and rushing between shots, aside from shot placement and techniques that ppl have already mention. there is no hard and fast rule that you have to do jump smash and/or scissor kicks with every shot, some situation just calls for a hop to the side for quick drop down the line or to the middle that leaves you in balance and being able to recover to the middle quickly.
good that you know, so may be thats where to tackle the issue before racket swing or footwork. didnt realize this thread goes back a few years...looking at some old video 2018? where you were feeding yourself shuttlecock on driveway, the swing form was fair bit better.
I have been recording my badminton games and my best shots every week that I have had a chance to play. Although there were many months it not playing because of the lockdown, and there were other weeks that I just didn’t have a chance to play , I have posted video logs each week of me playing. I have been doing that for 104 weeks or a total of two years! I am now starting my third year of doing so. My progress has been very slow but steady. I had a very sharp increase in improvement after getting coaching from Greg and Jenny at Badminton insight and I continue to try to apply their coaching. Staying relaxed will continue to be my top priority as it seems to have the greatest carry over into my game and all of my strokes. Back backhand grip, serves and defense will also be a priority. On a strategic side I am going to try to play more shots based on placement and make sure that my recovery footwork is worked on. I looked forward to seeing another 52 weeks of progress ! When it comes to physical training I am working with the ATG system of the knees over toes guy programming which should help me to be the most athletic I have ever been at the age of 38!
What a difference from the start! As you said in your post I would focus on your placement while playing doubles especially in the back court, it seems like you are standing too far forwards (imo) causing you to move back while playing a smash, which opens the whole court for the opponents for the block. A good rule is never play a power smash while moving backwards, unless its a clean kill. One more thing i noted in your smash is that you need to raise your non racket hand higher in the preperation phase, aswell as keeping your racket arm a bit higher to achieve the "bow structure". VA talks about it in this video: I like your footwork and your speed is actually really good! Be sure to implement some speed-work while doing ATG like skipping rope
One of the things that badminton insight told me to do was to be more further forward when I was in the rear court. The reason being is to be able to cover mid court replies better. They said when I go against better players this will be important for me to do.
They are probably correct, but... There is no one spot on the badminton court a coach can point to and say "This is the perfect position for you to be". The perfect position depends on many things. where your partner is, where your opponents are, what shot you or your partner just played, what shot your opponent is able to play now. If your opponent turns around to play a high backhand, and you know they don't have a backhand clear in their arsenal, your ideal position is to move forward to get (or kill) the dropshot. If your partner just played a netshot and the opponent has to play a shot from well below net height, it will be near impossible to effectively play the midcourt, and since your partner covers the net, you can freely move backwards in anticipation of a lift. If the lift is then short, it's easy to move forward and smash it. If you are attacking effectively from the backcourt, the opponent will hit the shuttle well below net height, and will be forced to lift it back to you (or risk a block to the net for your partner to kill, or block back to force another lift), then you can stay further back, just like before. If you are in a flat exchange, or a fight for the net where everyone is hitting it at net height (more common at higher levels), or even just below the tape, then you will have to move forward a bit, because the opponent is in position to play to the midcourt effectively. If you are in the aforementioned situation, and you have adjusted your position to cover the midcourt, and they play an attacking lift instead, then you have a few options. You can just play a high clear; if you were off balance, at least now you're out of trouble (if your opponent doesn't have a monster smash), but you do give away the attack when you might not have had to. You can also go for a full power smash, but if you're off balance, then you're likely to make a mistake, produce a subpar shot, or get counter attacked. The purpose of your shot shouldn't be to get out of trouble, because even though you might not be in the best position, you are still playing an overhead shot that could be a good attacking shot. The purpose of your shot also shouldn't be to play a winner, because it is far to risky (unless you're sure it is in fact going to be a winner). The purpose of your shot should be to create a situation where you can try to go for a winner on the next shot, when you are better positioned to play the smash. So, what you want to play is a shot that forces them to lift it back to you (now that you're ready for it). Focus on placement and angle. Try to find an open space, or hit between the players. It doesn't have to be a power smash. It just needs to go in a downward direction. A fast dropshot maybe. Too slow or loopy and they can take it high at the net so that's no good. Too fast or floaty and they can counter attack it. Or you can play an attacking clear. If they can't intercept it, they will likely have to play a high clear to get out of trouble. Summary: 1. Your positioning on court depends on what shot your opponent is in a position (and has the skills) to play. 2. Depending on your own positioning, the purpose of your shot changes. If you are not in position to go for a winner, don't try.
I played much better today. I was more relaxed and my form in all shots felt better. I was pretty consistent on my defense and my return of serve. I have to start working on my footwork so that I can move around the court faster. I noticed that I push In too far forward after many of my shots which lead me to be out of position and opens the court up too much. Also I noticed Im not hitting the shuttle at the highest point on my mid court forehand drops and Half smashes. Overall though a great night of badminton !
