Post videos of yourself playing

First things I noticed are technical issues - you dont use your right arm a whole lot, when it should balance your left during a stroke (i.e. raised up almost in a mirror position during preparation and then counter-acting your swing, there's some good footage of Fu Haifeng to look at, pay attention to his right arm....to put it bluntly, yours hangs down and flops around a bit like a tired fish on land
Secondly, your follow-through on overhead shots, especially smashes, should go much more towards your right, instead of going to your left side as it currently does. Example at 2:02 - your smash is considerably weaker if you go straight down compared to a motion crossing over your body. A little trick that helps me be more powerful on smashes is to really think of the whole movement as a rotation of your body, where you first rotate your upper body and at the last possible moment throw out your arm as an extension of that rotation - drawing it to your right hip/ribcage region should involve your chest muscle a lot more and enable you to use upper body rotation to power your shots. It's also much easier on the shoulder.
Your grip is also quite panhandle-y, should be more neutral on many forehand shots and you don't appear to use a thumb grip on your backhand at all, at least I saw a couple instances where you didn't.

The one thing I noticed that hasn't got to do anything with technique or shot quality (the level of play in this video is at a point where almost everything is about shot quality, and less about shot selection) is your stance at the front, you seem to be quite 'dug in' when you partner hits the shuttle at the back, and while these guys couldn't use that to their advantage, against better defense in fater play it would probably make you a bit immobile in your movement, even though it frees you up to take some shots overhead.
Your feet are also almost never parallel to the net, watch out for muscular imbalances! I know I'm prone to putting way too much weight on my racket foot, and it's screwing with me in several ways.

Just out of interest - are you having a laugh with mates? Because you certainly seem to be way more active on court than they are. Very different movement.

Well. That got lengthy. Have fun reading all that

 

Yeah the arm thing is difficult, my right collar bone moves and can make things very tight if I have my arm right the way up for overhead prep.

At 2:02 we both went back for it so I was hesitant about my body positioning. Focusing more on singles I've always been more cautious about being on balance. Like if I do a full rotation jump smash, I'm worried if they flick crosscourt, that my recovery will be too slow to retrieve it. I prefer to try and elicit a weak response from my opponents, or put the shuttle into a position where I can get that weak response.

Is the backhand bit at around 5:00? Those weren't full backhand shots, just blocks really. I didn't use a full backhand in that game.

You reckon I should twist my grip clockwise or anti clockwise? This is my usual starting position.


Muscular imbalance is no problem, my right leg is still stronger than my left.

With regards to being dug in, maybe you're right. At the moment, from this position, when I go low by bending one leg inwards, I still have plenty of mobility to jump for kills. I'm not very heavy, but at least for now I can get away with it. I do this because I'm not all that confident if my partner is going to play a drop or smash, and if they play a drop I feel like I have to be ready to retrieve.

They were trying.

My doubles definitely lacks confidence. I get lots of instances where if I hit a smash or start driving, my partner will be absolutely unprepared. I feel like I have to play a pretty safe game and not put my partner under pressure. There's one instance close to the start where I hit two net shots, expecting the guy to go back. When he doesn't I have to quickly try and rush back.

 

Yeah, the way you're standing you put more weight on your right. Kinda looks like you're right handed, and still have that footwork (the instinctually imbalanced stance favoring the racket leg) ingrained in you.

Regardig the grip, it looks fine in the picture as far as I can tell, but a bit too far towards the panhandle in the video. Twisting the racket a bit counter-clockwise would fix that (maybe you unconsciously do it differently than in the picture when playing, or one of the media is misleading and I'm misjudging it).
Rotating your upper body shouldn't affect your recovery much, even on low-powered shots you should do it to be more consistent and less readable. It also takes away some of the stress on your shoulder, as it should reduce the necessary ROM (or, with the the same ROM and stress, increase your power output). If your footwork doesn't change, your recovery shouldn't change (much). I'm not saying you should always smash with 100% and damn the consequences, but turning your body into your overhead shots is definitely going to help you.
Exceptions would be shots where you just tap down the shuttle, for example when you intercept at the apex of your jump and can't do much with it except play a controlled drop shot, but any smash and clear should involve upper body rotation.

 

It might just be that I have small hands... But yeah, it's perfectly possible I'm doing it subconsciously. I haven't done drills in forever, and could really do with having a proper training partner. Maybe that'd help get a more fluid motion, people here aren't too training oriented though.

Ironically enough when I worked with a coach recently they said I needed to push off more with my right leg is it just at the front court or are there other areas that are sticking out to you about right leg dominance?

 

Is Natsir a leftie? I don't watch much of the WS players. I would look at Marin, but god help me I just can't.

Anyway, I think with the grip thing, the thickness was making it look substantially more pan handled. I just de-gripped, de-taped, shaved, and regripped the racket.

 

Lilyana Natsir? Olympic XD champion? XD

Marin is not rhe player to watch if you want to improve your technique. Ratchanok Inthanon amd Tai Tzu Ying are your top choices there I'd say. Also, maybe have a look at Son Wan Ho, he doesnt do too much crazy 'only elite athletes can hope to do this' kinda stuff

 

I'm looking at TTY, It seems something that would substantially improve my racket prep is much earlier supination? It seems they point their racket directly up, in line with the body, before beginning their back swing. I always thought this seemed too tense and restricting, which might explain my overly relaxed prep.

Anyway, when you say my footwork is different to the others, is that a good thing?

 

Yep, you're more active and seem more mobile.

 

IMO you try to avoid your backhand too hard. When the shuttle is not really deep in court and between midcourt and backcourt, you try hard to use your forehand without beeing in good position to play a quality forehand shot. Just my opinion. I could play with my backhand in this situation more options with more control, but without knowing your backhand, this is just an observation than an advice.

Generally your footwork into the backhand corner could be improved to be in better position. When you defend you could lower your stance a bit more. You could turn your upper body a bit more in the backcourt.

You had been using more flat game and fast pace. Your opponents stand often after a clear front-back. I had exploited that hard.

The error rate of all guys on court made this video not great for advices. Sorry to say. With longer and more intense rallies, with more pressure, I had observe more issues. No offense, but never had the impression that you get caught in a difficult situation with confusion and struggle.

For the video:

A better angle would be nice. I also got the impression that the game was more a relaxed game. The error rate was maybe the culprit. It also don't had the fast pace and flat game which I had awaited for a doubles match, but maybe it was just a relaxed game and the displayed time verify it.

 

Ya? Be more open to the backhand? I don't want to give up the initiative with a backhand clear though. I absolutely get you, but a backhand clear is just gonna have them waiting at the net, and bh smash is hard to be consistent with.

Defence I agree, they don't usually get great angles, and they love to clear, so I wasn't defending well or properly there due to bias.

Agreed on error rate, maybe it's part of why I like singles.

 

I tend to watch lefties these days. (Bring back Momota!)

I started doing this last night, changing my racket prep position so that the racket goes more directly upward, supinating the wrist earlier to point it up.

I don't know about the handle, as I showed I shaved it down, and thinned the grip. It's more natural in my hand now. I had thickened it because it was slipping/blistering my hand. I'll record some more play in a few weeks (probably 4 weeks again, that seems like an alright time scale to adjust things - also have exams and work to do.)

 

Regarding the grip thing, we do a lot of stuff unconsciously in rallies. For the longest time, I was unaware that I spin my racket after some shots, and even did it in drive duels. Bad habit, but I do it less these days....still unconsciously though

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Hey Charlie, first of all I agree, if can take any overhead shot with the overhead forehand, this is the way to go and a backhand brings just downsides. So I agree that you shouldn't use your backhand, when you have time, to use your forehand properly.

Sometimes it's absolute necessary, to have a good backhand. Depending on the situation, you don't have all the time, to cover both backcourt corners well. This reduced time is sometimes not long enough to have the time to use the forehand and play a quality shot. With a backhand, you can take early, you can cover more court. I don't recommend to use it all the time, but when you don't have the time, to get in good position for a quality forehand shot to play the shuttle in all 4 corners safely + recovery, you will get a problem. Sometimes you have a sitation, where you can't avoid it and should do it instead of the forehand.

I also stated that this is an observation instead of an advice. I normally think that in the following situations the backhand is a solution with better recovery, you don't need to move so deep into one side an beeing commited.

I don't know your backhand, but from my observation the shuttle is not deeper than the doubles service line at the back, maybe 1-2 feet infront of it. I could play a backhand clear to each corner and into the middle. Same for drops and also could play a weak longline smash and maybe into the middle. Backhand in the deep corner is a different topic.

My observations at 0:34, where you nearly duck or crouch into the forehand, 2:29 and 4:56 the same. My impression is that you don't recover there well. No sciccors jump, no body rotation to get ready. It looks like the forced forehand makes you off balance and rooted. The shot is flat, you have not much time. In these situation where you took the shuttle not just around the head, even infront of your forehand, make me think that the backhand would be the better choice. Tbh at these 3 timecodes you was unable to hit a decent and quality forehand shot in all corners, so I had use my backhand. It looked like you are doing the forehand too hard, because you are not confident with your backhand. In perfect position forehand > backhand, but in these 3 cases, you could only play a shot cross or middle and not long line, which had been an advantage for you, because as a lefty on the backhand side, every rightander has longline also his backhand. So I have seen in these 3 cases that IMO the backhand had been the better choice for several reasons.

Just my 2 cents and though how had taken the shuttle in these situation.

 

Mm yeah, I agree.

My backhand isn't the worst, but there are some issues with it, and I'm not sure how I can address them.
Issue 1) I find it difficult to backhand clear from this position. I find it easier to backhand if the shuttle still has height but is wide. I find it difficult to get the timing and body movement when the shuttle comes in this flat. This results in high, but often too short, bh clears.
Issue 2) Usually if I bh smash or drive from this position, if the reply is straight, my partner doesn't intercept it. I have to run forwards quite quickly, but as there's also the possibility they can push crosscourt, I have to be ready to pick up that shot as well. It leads to me being very rushed and having to cover a lot of court.

I don't want to play the backhand drop from here because I feel I would have to play it straight, and that creates a lot of angles for the opponent. I use a middle push to take those angles away from my opponent, and put enough confusion in that it doesn't get attacked.

 

Played a doubles tournament 2 weekends ago. This is the third match, any input on my play and performance is welcome (green shirt/black compression sleeves).

 

not aggressive enough.
not controlling the net when given the opportunity.
not creating opportunities to control the net.

when defending a smash your elbow is too close to your body, and racket is too low, which causes the poor hip shot returns that eliminate any wrist action.
get your elbow off your body and the racket out in front of you to meet the shuttle sooner.