Not exactly. The way I move my left foot is actually the easiest on the foot, ankle and knee, so the only thing I can do (and actually do^^) is to get back into strength training so my right leg can hold those lunges easier and deeper. That way I won't drag my foot quite as much. Flexibility is also on the list of things to improve, as I dont get the right leg quite as far in front of me as I'd like. It's a long list
I'd agree that that much weight loss will make you very quick compared to what you used to be, can you pass it on in a letter to me or something? I check in at 88 kg now . Hoping to get back down to near 82 to improve my quickness. (I was over 90 when i stopped playing/ training). I go through shoes every 6 months, they don't break, just the soles get squashed beyond elasticity. If you want flexibility, do stretches after every match 15 seconds minimum per hold- it helps your recovery the next day so much. & Your court mobility improves even more, 75% people can't even squat properly.
Actually I'm a tad slower because 1-2kg are muscle... But to remain positive - I can get that back, and hopefully not the blubber Oh, and AimUK - what helps me is eating nothing but quark/curd cheese with fruit after training (which is late in the evening - if you train earlier, this doesn't apply^^). Gets you the protein needed to recover without anything that could find it's way to your hips
asics gel blade III most indestructible shoe I have had so far. I nearly put a hole in some yonex budget shoes after 3 sessions with my back leg drag.
Also no side support whatsoever around the ankle^^ Had to change after 2 months, more and more pain in the ankle and surrounding tendons...but very high durability. Probably would've lasted 5-7 months (can see some wear in that front area already^^)
Interesting you say that. I've just pulled an achilles whilst wearing asics. I've never paid attention to anything other than grip level before, but now maybe I will need to. (fyi yonex > asics for grip)
They're low-fitting and very soft around the heel area. Yonex&Victor shoes are much more stable and also higher.....interesting that no one other than Li Ning has even one model like Lin Dans Basketball-like shoes.....btw, that might be worth looking into. Quite a few ppl, especially bigger guys, like to wear Basketball shoes (both because they are available in decent size and usually offer good stability and grip), Nike Kobe VII look interesting. If I wasn't so happy with my SH9000, I'd give those a try by now Very disconcerting though that Germany is the only country paying premium prices for them. In the US and HK they cost 130USD as opposed to 130-140€ here
A training session with a coach, doing some drills. I'm the one with the green t-shirt. I had some problems with timing with some of the drills, but other than that, it shows pretty much how I play. Comments are welcomed, of course. [video=youtube_share;VCHIItQH8xw]http://youtu.be/VCHIItQH8xw[/video]
I made a separate video in slow motion of the smash drill part: [video=youtube;Vgtj1nFtsIM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgtj1nFtsIM[/video]
The slow motion part makes it quite easy to see that you are not hitting the shuttle in the right position which results in your arm not being able to travel correctly. You need to hit the shuttle above your head, not ½ meter to your left. You should to a chopping motion bringing your elbow downwards not sidewards. Look at this video where to hit the shuttle and how the elbow should move: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNVC5PVJyPQ When smashing you are often landing with the wrong foot forward, making it to harder to get fast to the net. When doing the smashes in this exercise your should land with your racket foot forward.
hi jajvirta just a few remarks about your vid: 1. you often hit the shuttle too low when doing overhead strokes (smash, drop). like that you take away a lot of momentum and the possibility to play better angles. always try to hit the shuttle at the (almost) highest point possible. 2. you seem quite stiff on court. try to relax a bit more. (it's hard when you think about the movement, concentrate on hitting correctly, ... you easily get stiff with all these things in your head. but still: try to stay relaxed, try to have some fun and move smoothly...) 3. in addition to 2.: you don't rotate enough! when you do an overhead stroke, your hip should rotate first (and explosive!!) and then the arm follows (almost) automatically! 4. one thing with your footwork (you can see that in the end when you do that clear-smash-drop routine...): you often raise your right foot too early when you do the smash. it is physiologically almost impossible to rotate your hip explosively and thunder a lightning smash with one foot in the air. like that, you're always out of balance, and being in balance is maybe the most important thing in badminton (and sports in general...) (there are of course some good things i could mention, but it probably helps you more if you get some help with your weaknesses instead...)
One thing I picked up on was during your push shots after smashes. You make all the movement necessary to get to the shuttle early, but negate it by leaving the shuttle till it is close to your chest. You take the shuttle later, which means your shot quality is reduced by playing the shuttle tight to your body. You can obviously see the shuttle well, but it seems you chose to wait until it gets closer to you, whereas what you want to be doing is taking the shuttle as far away and as early as possible. As a tall person you can save alot of energy by using your long reach rather than moving your body, so don't turn it into a disadvantage for the sake of all us tall people out there. It's more common than you know, alot of people think they are being deceptive with this kind of shot but in reality just getting there earlier will increase the shot variety and make you a much better player Hope this helps, Andy.
Thanks for the comments. Some of the points I've realized myself, some was pointed out by the coach and some are completely new to me. How to fix them is a whole different matter.
And now you 'get' to see me play singles in decent shape - and what a treat that is! Recorded some during our last match, and uploaded games 1 and 3. Suffice to say, there is nothing worthy of any attention in game 2, where the average rally lasted 4-5 shots (normally my 2nd shot ended the rally one way or another). I guess I see how even at the top level, players lose games against clearly inferior opponents - no matter what the opponent does, you gotta stay focussed. Not always an easy task! If you wonder why I celebrate the 19-13 in the 3rd game so vocally - when I walked around before the point, one guy on the bench said "You nearly got him - he's getting nervous now!" so that I could hear it. I had to answer that 3rd game starts around 9:18. [video=youtube;x3Da7EUDtKI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Da7EUDtKI[/video]
i like that match... only watched the 3rd game. it's pretty good. you really control the pace of the game: nice defensive play and slowing down the pace when your under pressure and then attacking and good speed when you have the opportunity. just two minor things: 1. have you tried high serves? i have the impression that you sometimes get under pressure with the short serve. on the other hand, you have good defensive skills, so that a smash after a high serve will not harm you. (at least when the opponent ist not haifeng fu...). 2. don't you guys coach each other in breaks? i think it helps a lot when teammates help each other during breaks. sometimes you see something from outside the court and give some advice. sometimes not, but you're still there to help your teammate and give him the feeling that he's not alone on the court... just for my interest: which league is that? (haven't played in germany for a long time, so i have no idea what niveau it actually is...)
We do - but you can see the scoreboard, I had a comfortable lead at that point. Also, I walked over to my teammates as I had left my water there...I had also done exactly what my doubles partner had told me to do - not showing my anger too much, and actually using my speed advantage (in the 2nd game, I had let my speed of movement drop, so that I did not take advantage of the sloppy returns to my sliced dropshots). Their advice was "keep it up" It's Verbandsklasse - 1 class below Landesliga (state level). Unfortunately, an error on the first day of competition resulted in both matches being counted 8-0 against us, so any aspirations of moving up a division are pretty much gone (especially since my doubles partner doesnt want to ). And as always - thanks for the feedback!
Nice game. One thing I noticed is that after you've done a low/short serve and he returns serve to your backhand rearcourt you mostly use your backhand. However during a rally you nicely use a round the head movement to get into a forehand position. It wasn't too risky using a backhand in this game as he didn't tend to pressure the net after he turned you into the backhand.
[video=youtube;45tSB8Xe5sw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45tSB8Xe5sw[/video] I start on the far side in red and black, recent 2012 XVII Pan American Badminton Championships down in Lima, Peru. Played Rodolfo from Guatemala in round of 32. Lots of unforced errors on my part unfortunately but am still happy with how things are progressing in my game. Lots to learn and improve on, just have to keep pushing forward and training/working hard. I need to work on putting pressure on my opponents, cause he wasn't really pressured by me at any point during that match.
Nice to see one of your matches again Let me preface this by saying that I really enjoy watching your games, and that everything I write is NOT critique, but rather my attempt to help you in that never-ending quest that is improving one's game I think there are two things missing that prevent you from putting much pressure on him. First: physical strength. You are very nimble, and rather quick (especially considering your stature), but imop you would really benefit from a little more muscle. You are not as quick as your opponent in changing directions, and even though you anticipate very well, sometimes he still gets you - and sometimes you have to play a shot going backwards, and your coming forward afterwards is a little slow. Second: you seem a little too relaxed, or a little too mindful of shots coming back. You had several opportunities to kill a shot at the net, and instead of pushing yourself forward as quick as possible and thundering it down you lunged forward, keeping your balance rather than leaning forward. While that is of course much better should the kill actually come back, it prevents you from taking the shuttle just that slight bit earlier and often causes errors or time loss as you let the shuttle drop just a bit and either fluff the kill or have to play a different shot. That is a problem that is far more pronounced in my game and thus I have every right to point it out here Examples would be 9:30 (where you dont make an error, but dont put much pressure on), 10:27, 10:52, 11:08, 12:15. That is just a question of mindset - you need to be aggressive all the time, and after playing a good shot to the net and anticipating a short reply, all you have to think about is KILLING that shot, not getting it back. Of course once in a while that won't pay off, but generally, that should win you considerably more points than it costs you Also, you seem to go crosscourt from your forehand corner an awful lot - you should use your smash a little more, if you get behind the shuttle, it is very effective! Now that I got all that out of my system, let me say once more that I really enjoy the games and all I post is not nit-picking or an actual belief I could do better, but an attempt to help a fellow (if much better) Badminton maniac So humor me like you would a slow kid trying to teach you math
