Timing of Exertion

[Kokai]

Hi all,

I watched the video below, and it got me thinking about the point of exertion.



I think we can all agree that you want to exert/tighten at the closest point of contact but I've seen in it described in two similar but different ways.

1. Exert very close but BEFORE the point of impact and relax after. The exertion causes the racket to flex and propel the head forward and strike the shuttle. The momentum of the flex will cause the follow through/the motion that is 'imitated' as described in the video.

2. Exert AT the point of impact and follow through. The force from your pronation and contact with the shuttle will cause the racket to flex and carry through to the bird.

I believe that 1. is correct since 2. sounds more like 'muscling it'.

Would like to hear some thoughts about this.

 

[Ballschubser]

Take a table tennis and try to smash a shuttle, doesn't go far, does it ? So, as you said, the racket stores the energy of your swing by flexing the shaft and not only when tightening the grip, but already by swinging the racket (watch some slow motion badminton videos and take a look how much the racket bend).
Next step is the handle. To store more energy it must rotate with more force than what the bending racket want to release. If you would stop immediatly , the racket head would swing forward, but when you get only slower, the racket head would lose energy or even swing forward.

So the basic idea is, to try to store as much energy as possible in the racket before you slow down and the racket is able to swing forward and transfers its stored energy to the shuttle. But the problem is, that if the racket swing is still ongoing, it is really hard to store more energy , because the racket want to get back into its neutral shaft position but you are not able to hold up the necessary speed to add more power. Therefor, if you put too much energy into the racket 'long' before it hits the shuttle, this energy will be wasted (over time).

Eventually you should add most of the energy you can provide as late as possible, therefor the general advice to hit it hard, but only in the very last moment before you hit the shuttle. Leg movement, body rotation, arm swing etc. all add to the energy, but you can't really delay it. Arm pronation is less of a power supplier but more of a technically requirement to hit the shuttle with the racket face in the right direction, this is the time where your swing loses most of its speed and the racket will swing forward and releases its energy.

Coming to finger power, this moment when you tight up the grip to add an extra little power. This can be delayed to the last moment , just BEFORE hitting the shuttle, better said, before or even while the racket head rushes forward.

But don't overthink this (like I did ), most of the energy (=speed) comes from your arm rotation and body rotation (really long levers compared to just tighting your grip). Using finger power will not hurt your smashing speed, but it will not ruin it either if you don't do it in the right way.

 

[Kokai]

Take a table tennis and try to smash a shuttle, doesn't go far, does it ? So, as you said, the racket stores the energy of your swing by flexing the shaft and not only when tightening the grip, but already by swinging the racket (watch some slow motion badminton videos and take a look how much the racket bend).
Next step is the handle. To store more energy it must rotate with more force than what the bending racket want to release. If you would stop immediatly , the racket head would swing forward, but when you get only slower, the racket head would lose energy or even swing forward.

So the basic idea is, to try to store as much energy as possible in the racket before you slow down and the racket is able to swing forward and transfers its stored energy to the shuttle. But the problem is, that if the racket swing is still ongoing, it is really hard to store more energy , because the racket want to get back into its neutral shaft position but you are not able to hold up the necessary speed to add more power. Therefor, if you put too much energy into the racket 'long' before it hits the shuttle, this energy will be wasted (over time).

Eventually you should add most of the energy you can provide as late as possible, therefor the general advice to hit it hard, but only in the very last moment before you hit the shuttle. Leg movement, body rotation, arm swing etc. all add to the energy, but you can't really delay it. Arm pronation is less of a power supplier but more of a technically requirement to hit the shuttle with the racket face in the right direction, this is the time where your swing loses most of its speed and the racket will swing forward and releases its energy.

Coming to finger power, this moment when you tight up the grip to add an extra little power. This can be delayed to the last moment , just BEFORE hitting the shuttle, better said, before or even while the racket head rushes forward.

But don't overthink this (like I did ), most of the energy (=speed) comes from your arm rotation and body rotation (really long levers compared to just tighting your grip). Using finger power will not hurt your smashing speed, but it will not ruin it either if you don't do it in the right way.

Interesting bit here about how the arm is not a supplier. Never really thought about it this way.

Sounds like to me, if I want to transfer the most amount of energy I want to ensure that I am no longer exerting at all when the racket flexes and the head is going towards the shuttle. Is this 'non-exerting' phase a sudden stop or should it be eased?

I'm trying my best not to overthink this but I actually got a rotator cuff injury. I'm think it's from over swinging and letting my racket arm across my body during the follow through. Basically trying to smash harder using my muscles as opposed to using the racket.

 

[SnowWhite]

Interesting bit here about how the arm is not a supplier. Never really thought about it this way.

Sounds like to me, if I want to transfer the most amount of energy I want to ensure that I am no longer exerting at all when the racket flexes and the head is going towards the shuttle. Is this 'non-exerting' phase a sudden stop or should it be eased?

I'm trying my best not to overthink this but I actually got a rotator cuff injury. I'm think it's from over swinging and letting my racket arm across my body during the follow through. Basically trying to smash harder using my muscles as opposed to using the racket.

You are trying to smash harder using your shoulder muscles as opposed to using the muscles in the whole chain of power. The muscles that should definitely be contracting hard on the hitting point is your forearm and your grip. The full chain of power happens in a very small time frame, body rotation, shoulder, elbow, forearm, grip, in quick succession, but with some overlap of these movements. If the latter stages; forearm and grip, are lacking, it is natural to try to compensate with the earlier stages; rotation, shoulder, elbow. But this is ineffective and puts strain on the shoulder. If for any other reason you have trouble generating power, like when string tension is too high, or when the shuttle is too slow, the same thing tends to happen.

 

[Ballschubser]

Interesting bit here about how the arm is not a supplier. Never really thought about it this way.

The arm is a supplier kind of, but not the pronation of the forarm so much, it is more or less the inner shoulder rotation. These guys are much better at explaining the current state of research: