I personally just say "stik" and people generally know what I mean. I know "stik" itself doesn't have any relevance to the actual shot, but that's just how it is...
They don't really have a good name for it as far as I am aware. A clipped steep smash is the closest.
Probably one (or more) of the Danish commentators used the stick translation of stik many many years ago. And I imagine they still do. It's normal for Danes to just translate in to similar sounding words if those words reminds them of something they have head before Danglish we call it. Good at it too!
I am not sure how I first heard it. Perhaps it's a term from the 80's? Definition of clip from Freedictionary - "Informal A quick sharp blow: a clip on the ear." i.e. it's a quick sharp strike on the shuttle.
But Lin Dan (who I suppose the thread is about) is not attacking so much in the games I saw him play. A few full power smashes, and a few point smashes, but often electing to play a longer rally even when in a position where he could attack. As I stated first (which started this spin off), I honestly believe he is building up over longer time than usual. For the ultimative goal. And I think we'll see him get strong er during next 6 months and start to transformation his game a bit.
A bit like he's trying to be less explosive. Partly to protect himself, partly to build up base form (controlled correct movement patterns and longer rallies).
I have my doubts. He didn't play the 2013 World Championships at full pace but then again, you can argue he came back from a long lay off.
But a clipped smash. Wouldn't that be a cut shot (racket not square to the directory of the shot at impact) That's a "Cut smash" in Danish or "Cutted smash" - not exactly the same shot as the other one (which is clear but less power). Varying the cut. to deceptively vary the speed of the shuttle in your attack shots, is important to learn. The big advantage with the stik-smash is that your opponents will make errors or bad returns when they have to put varying speed into the shuttle, not work with all of your speed all the time. Shorter lifts and missed/unprecise blocks are the most common return advantage you get. This is something I often feel that a lot of Chinese MD pairs and especially younger MD pairs fail to do (they tendens to go full hammer all the time). Where as Dae & Yoo and Boe & Mo uses it more often. Full force worked great for Fu Hai Feng back in the golden years, but defences have improved.
But he played it at more pace then most of his matches today. He also got better during the tournament I feel. And he probably gave more of himself (worried less about injury than he do now).
No. A "cut" implies to me that it is a slice smash - not the same as a clipped smash. With a slice smash, the shuttle slows even more at the end of its flight due to rotation.
He did have that knee injury and effusion, so yes, it is possible he is protecting himself and only going to step things up closer to the Olympics. Six months is about the time frame to start really building up the physical side of the game, then closer to the actual tournament, move more towards the skills training.
Yes, in that 2013 WC tournament he was already a different player than before, more rallying and stroke play, much less sudden injection of pace, still many flashes of his former brilliance though. But now in 2015, he's become a completely different player, whether in speed and power, attack and defence despite trying to be more attacking the last six months or so, a far cry from what he was in his heyday, almost unrecognisable to me. Right,his knee injury with multiple effusions sustained after the Incheon AG last August played a large part in his transformation, or rather transition, to a completely different player. I'd like to believe Cheung and Featherblaster are right about Lin Dan wanting to protect himself from any injury, taking all precautions, and slowly building up over a longer time than usual towards his ultimate goal, come Rio 2016.
Stik/stick, or sting, or point,or clip smash, I suppose we're talking about the same thing ? A kind of half-smash executed with less power but with more accuracy,faster recovery time,and with the element of surprise, to elicit or create a weak or loose return if not gain an outright advantage (point scored) , allowing one to follow up with an easy put-away ?
But both have no or almost no body rotation, that's why they might be confuse. In Chinese there are differentiated as well, the sliced smash being 劈杀
I remember during the last Chinese national games, a veteran, now coaching a provincial team, got to the final, I can't remember his name, and he was relentlessly attacking. The commentator was an ancient player and he was explaining that this style of play is not used anymore, though very effective. Using it with talent and you can beat anyone ; the problem is that it is difficult to sustain for a whole tournament, and of course even more for a whole year, so the players just drop this type of play to avoid injuries and exhaustion. This must be what is in LD's mind since some years now.
Let's have a poll!!! (a) stick smash (b) stik smash (c) sting smash (d) spot smash (e) point smash (f) clip smash (g) cut smash (h) sliced smash
