@DarkHiatus (done my edits and corrected some errors) Some good points by the others. You have definitely improved with a lot of fine tuning still to go. The difficulty is, you feel like a plateau phase because improving one aspect won't give you the same gains as before. The improvement will feel more when you improve two or three aspects of your game. Playing conditions: Not great. Slippery court. Slow shuttles. Tactics need adjusting on such conditions. General Tactics: It's harder to hit the shuttle out the back. I don't see you having adequately hit those clears enough to force him back. You must get him to play from the back tramlines. At your present level, I cannot overemphasize this point. So it needs to go high and to the back. This will make his clears less effective and give you more time. You will also find the court is 'opened' up more with more gaps appearing. In fact, Gupta does this to you. He stands very close to the front line on serving. Specific tactics There are still large gaps but overall, you lack consistency in the quality of your shots and the court sense. 0.52 is a typical example. This tap technique of the round the head shuttle is for a fast drop but instead the shuttle has made a curved trajectory. It passes over the net about three feet above the level of the net. It is simply too slow. The position on court where the shuttle is played is fine. So, you have played the right shot but the quality is poor. Can you imagine how hard it would be for him if the shuttle went into a straighter line to the floor? But the crux here is your poor quality first drop gave the opponent lots of options to play which made you feel your end of the court is very large to cover. Play a better shot and you will definitely feel the court coverage is easier. 0.53 You didn't nor couldn't anticipate his reply to your drop was to your forehand and a bit flat. That's exactly the reply you are trying to elicit. Because it is flat, the time interval is shorter and he has less time to take a step backwards. So your next choice of shot (for this rally) is going to be a straight clear or a cross court fast drop. In fact, if you were to anticipate this, a change of pace (speeding up) and playing a cross court smash is feasible. What you actually chose is to play another drop to exactly the same area of the court. There are several issues. Firstly, it is a poor shot passing three feet or more above the net. Secondly you have played it in exactly the same hitting zone as the previous shot. This is a very important point to learn. The first shot has allowed the opponent to judge the distance. If you play a second shot to the same area, he has a much better idea of the hitting zone and his reply to your second drop is going to be very much better quality 1.11 the reverse is true. you play a first drop and then a second drop. The second drop is so much better than the first dropshot. Why? Because he hit it back the reply to almost exactly the same point and you had learnt from the first drop what adjustment to make. 1.28 serve and 1.33 serve - You have tried to fake a long serve and then fake a short serve to play it long. I am not keen on that as you teach the opponent not to move until the serve has left your racquet. You won't have anything left at the end of the game to surprise your opponent. 2.02 is an excellent sequence. You have 'switched off' in playing a clear so it falls woefully short. Your mental speed is expecting a him to be hitting it from further back in the court. But in reality, he hits it earlier and changes the pace of the shot to a fast one which catches you out. Admittedly he hits a very good smash but if it wasn't so close to the line, the fact that he played a fast change of pace shot would catch you mentally unprepared. 2.09 Good quality smash - once you play a good quality shot, he's in trouble. and a lot of difficulty. 3.07 you low serve to his forehand. Now, the most likely replies are going to be back to your forehand side. So, I think you haven't anticipated this properly. Secondly, you have brought him forward and you play a drop to the same zone of the court where he is standing. It's a bit suicidal. LOL. Luckily you get out of it and get the cross court shot at 3.10 to play a straight lift. It's a beauty of a straight lift. He's off position, hasn't got many options, knows if he plays a dropshot that he has to play a perfect drop and therefore hits it out in trying to do so. 3.20 nice sequence of shot choices. Two nice quality clears that are high enough to make him move an extra step. I think you tried the smash too early and but was lucky to get away with it. 3.35 Serve was too short so not enough time to get to the shuttle. Very pleased to see your footwork after the split step. Before, you would initially step back with the left foot but this time it didn't happen like that. Success in killing off a bad habit. 3.39 I think this is the typical rally you mentioned about the attack clears causing you so much grief. He only plays these clears three quarters of the way back in his court. He can hit attacking clears without worrying the shuttle will go out the back because the shuttles are slow. He plays three clears to that corner and can recover his balance. Smart player. 4.05 You return his serve with a good netshot and go on to win the point. The issue to make is you played a good shot that sets you up to be comfortable. Another detail is that after this smash, you need to commit running into the net for the weak reply. In this rally, you hesitated to wait for the reply and then move. Don't hesitate. Must commit to running in otherwise you lose the chance of the netkill off a smash return. Technique: Finger control - holding racquet too tightly with fingers. Lack finger control and therefore fine touch. Service - poor quality low serves. Following on from @Charlie-SWUK , your serve is still awkward. If you look at the sequence, your shoulders are not fully opened. Another small difference is your right foot is almost directly behind the left foot. If your right foot is slightly to the right, even by about 6 inches, you will find rotating the hips and shoulders much easier and smoother. The hitting point is also quite far out to the side. The further out to the side it is, the less control you have on the direction and more potential for errors. Refer back to page 3 of this thread where I referenced Zhang Ning's serve. and compare the differences. She doesn't hit the shuttle so far to the side, she hits it more forward slightly closer to the net, her hips and shoulders have rotated more. This differences to your service action are not by accident and serve to increase the quality of serve. 1.50 - a very poor quality of return of serve which was duly punished. Be more alert when the service comes at you at a different angle. This was exactly the service reply that he played for i.e. low and flat. Try it yourself on other people. 1.54 sequence. Good split step and good base positioning on court to receive his dropshot. After you move and hit the shuttle, the shuttle passing three to four feet above the height of the net is just not good enough. In this screenshot, he has only one stride to take the shuttle pretty early and so you are in no man's land. 2.25 Poor quality netshot return of serve. Nice crossover footwork pattern - perfect. Last step not so good, this one needs the right foot pointing outwards and backwards. you have to play a what is called in chinese a 'bei dong' shot which means a passive, neutral shot (as opposed to an attacking shot). Difficult for the attack minded person to play so you do need more coaching in the two back corners on this. Essentially, you arrive but your racquet is still in a ready position and then you move it back for the stroke - you have to pull back on the step beforehand so that you can hit it almost simultaneously as the foot plants. If you can get this right, you will feel really strong because you have a solution to those attack clears and play back neutral shots to extend the rallies. Summary Improved a lot. Service - can be better Return of serve - very, very erratic and you need to pay extra caution and concentrate and focus properly. Only switch down mentally between points. Once the rally starts, focus your concentration better and more consistently whilst still trying to stay relaxed. Something you can work on with a training partner. Shot quality - pay attention to when you move and hit the shuttle - your shot quality goes down hugely. Needs coaching input. Defensive passive shots from the back corners - improved footwork pattern - still needs coaching for the quality shot. Experience - more games needed.
Finally managed to review your comments. A massive thank you @Cheung for taking the time to break it down this much - it must have taken a good amount of time (with the formatting too!) An emerging theme seems to be that my (lack of) shot quality is really hindering me - many of the footwork/technique problems I've been posting about have been due to the shot before. Examples: - short lift > limited diagonal coverage - bad net shot > limited net/rearcourt coverage - bad drop shot > as above - inconsistent smash > hesitance to follow up Therefore, training to recover from my "mistakes" may not be the most effective training. Training to improve consistency when given a neutral shot is possibly more important. The things I can do here is basic footwork drills and basic stroke execution - make sure my drops are not loose and my clears + lifts are going all the way to the back. The stroke timing I do need to work on too - as mentioned by @rbynck and @Cheung, my stroke preparation isn't early enough and looks rushed (because it is). I need to really concentrate on the racquet preparation as part of the footwork drills I'm doing, as I perhaps focus too much on my split step/patterns, and do nothing with my racquet until the footwork pattern is complete (which isn't how it generally works in games unless I receive high serve)...drilling in bad habits - ouch. I re-tried the Rasmussen drill after watching the video again. It seems i've somehow put bad habits into my drill. After recording myself doing the drill, it's clear I was doing it at constant rhythm (rather than explosively) - this might explain the "heaviness" in my split step that @Charlie-SWUK noticed. Finally, it looks like I need more MS game experience as there's only so much drills and reading can teach me. I'll try and get at least one game at the end of each training session to hone the tactics.
I agree. I would prefer to see the punch with a bit more follow through of the arm. I believe it is the punch technique is something learnt from the coach. So a little more fine adjustment. However, the punch is not good for dropshots or rather, it is a very difficult shot needing quite good use of the fingers. There are a couple of different ways to do dropshots so it really depends how the personal coach works with @DarkHiatus for this stroke. Don't want to give confusing advice.
Good quality singles and an obvious improvement. Well done! I haven't reviewed all the comments or looked in detail at the video. But just an observation: I think that your shot quality and your movement quality are now the main considerations. I think the tactics are fine, individual movement patterns fine, hitting technique ok (but not high quality). A bit of expansion: I looked at an example where, from a high serve, you struggled to thus retrieve an opponents drop shot. I think your split step needs to be: 1. a little later 2. more explosive (which it can be, because performed later) In terms of balance, your body is very relaxed and doesn't look very "athletic" (i.e. crouched!). So, to reiterate, I think the steps are fine, but the timing and power a little off at the moment. This is perfectly normal - you are improving and it will all come with time. But do the rasmussen drill - it will probably fix it within a month or two. Hitting technique and shot quality. I know the shuttles are slow, but your shots don't look "effortless" enough - I want to see easy power. I want to see half the effort for the same shot quality. I do not think its a strength thing, just a habit. Take the shuttle sooner, with less of a backswing, and more of an explosive, small, forwards swing. This can be applied to most shots. Even your lifts could look easier! Give that a go - see what happens if you just aim to make it look easy, as if there is no need to even really swing at the shuttle! If it doesn't help, thats fine too The other thing is your grip: I would say please try to use a longer grip at the back of the court. I can see you are holding the racket quite high, and this significantly changes your shot capability. I would probably say that in singles you want to have a long grip for most shots. All in all, very good. Good round the head movement etc etc. Now needs to be shot quality! Just take everything: 1. earlier 2. at maximum reach (prioritize hitting early versus moving more). edit: I forgot to mention the slow shuttles. Firstly, I find tipping is completely inneffective for speeding up the shuttles. Either buy the correct speed OR attach bluetac to the inside, which gives it a bit more weight, which makes it travel faster. Given we buy shuttles at our club in bulk, we can't buy different speeds - using bluetac fixes this easily. Really easily.
Just had a quick look at this. I think there are some very helpful comments. You seem to have a very short grip all the time, even in the rearcourt. This is a bad habit that saps power. It might even be worth doing the "Lin Dan bare handle" trick to stop yourself. You hit some nice shots -- particularly one straight reverse slice that won a rally. Correct. In particular, your clears / lifts / high serves need to be deeper (and high serves need to be high). Obviously some of this is down to the shuttle speed. This opponent is causing you problems with his punch clears and slow drops, because you are giving him opportunities to play them from too far forwards in court. You are much younger and in better physical shape. If you push him deep into rearcourt corners, things will change. Instead of playing you around the court, he will be late to the shuttle and struggling. His footwork/speed is by no means bad, but I do think he's going to struggle if you pin him at the back. You can see this happening already, with some of your better clears at the start of the video.
@MSeeley @Gollum I am so glad you mentioned the short grip. It was something that twigged in my head enough to go check footage of the pros. I ended up deciding the pros definitely hold it lower down in MS, but I felt that the difference would be minimal, and there were bigger priorities. I even thought I could try the LD wood thing, but it seemed extreme. Should have trusted my gut and just asked the "stupid question"!
It may not be necessary, it's just an option. I've recently stopped wrapping my grip over the cone, as I have a bad habit sometimes of playing certain shots from all the way up there. Plus it's easier to put the grip on.
I have found my shot quality has improved in doubles (where I would often hold a short grip in the mid court) by choosing to use a long grip instead. I still use a short grip when defending in doubles, but otherwise find a long grip is working nicely!
Had a go of the long grip - I can grip down by over an inch and still not be at the bottom of the handle which surprised me. Its quite hard to keep it in this position and it keeps resetting when I spin my racquet unless I consciously change it. Observations: - the long strokes force an earlier preparation, otherwise I take the shuttle late and/or I contact the shuttle badly as I rush my swing - the long handle makes it very difficult to "push" my racquet. It feels more like a weight on the end of a string now. I think this is a good thing? - no opinion on midcourt/forecourt play because I seem to habitually grip up before the rally moves to that stage. Also had a go with a faster shuttle. Guptas drop shots now land just past the service line even after shaving the net tape. Much easier to retrieve and the rallies were longer.
Definitely can see the almost "stabbing" feel on the video for a lot of my strokes - almost certainly rushed. I think I'm still swinging too late, and I'm not sure if my contact point is also too low because of the rushed swing. I've tried moving on the balls of my feet and it's more tiring on my calves, but I've noticed a positive difference - mainly on being able to move side on more easily. The problem is that I can either do heels or toes. Meaning my net lunging has me landing on my toes rather than my heel! Lots more practice needed on footwork.
@DarkHiatus Note that I'm consider myself a mid level intermediate player at causal level playing with nylon birds. So, pace is slower, and you might beat me if we were to play a game. Other have mentioned technical and a bit of tactical advice. I'll go with mental side, depend on when you play the game during the session will impact how you perform, unless you are in superb form, if you play the game at the end of the session, that quality is acceptable, because you already lost most of your FOCUS compare to when you play the game the beginning instead. For example, for me, I usually able to hit near the lines with few hiccups here and there at the beginning and middle of the session, by the end of session, my shot goes all over place even when I desperately trying to control the shot. One more point on mental is have high expectations of yourself own shot making and decide on a placement before you make the shot if given suffice time, instead of mindless hitting to random location unless your are pressured to play a shot in the game. On to shot choice, too few drops and too low and obvious on the forehand side. Start doing cross court forehand drop if you can't clear. For footwork, I still haven't able to do split step consistently yet, usually do on smash defence or I find don't know where opponent gonna hit to, else I just do small hop on the spot by strike heel to load the calves. Way less taxing than split step all the time, although slower in speed. You might find it easier to transitioning to full split step. And always land in the hell on the last step, else injury may occur. Last point is lack of deception, have at least some deception either from front or back court which ever is easier for you to pick up, instead all the trick shot pros use, by holding and disguising shot is all you need at this stage.
Mentally, I personally do best at the tail end of a session. The pressure to make my shots count makes me much more tense at the start - this is especially bad if I haven't warmed up for 10 minutes...but most people regard 10 mins as too long for a warm up. Not sure how people play well with only 2 mins warm up. Shot choice regarding drops and forehand is what I've spent the last half year addressing My drop shot quality has been improving slowly. The forehand corner has gotten stronger too as a result of my footwork improving. I am of the opinion that I should always be able to do a clear, but my technique/footwork is lacking, so I'm unwilling to bandaid it by playing a crosscourt drop unless it's tactically sound. Deception can wait a little longer. In order to deceive my opponents, I need to be able to at least play the basic strokes which I can't even do consistently yet! Finally, i think practice is the biggest thing about the split step. I'm doing a split step most times, but it appears to accomplish little. Not sure why it seems to inefficient.
For those who are curious, I've got another video of a tournament match I played last weekend (lost 7-21, 12-21). It was a disappointing match and I berated myself for not doing better. But on reviewing the footage...I think I actually played quite well and my opponent was clearly better. I find the difference in sound of the shuttle contact between the sides interesting. Really sounds like I'm hitting it pathetically from the far side, and sounds like a cannon from the near side! Will be the last video for a while as I've got plenty to work on - thought it was a good video to show my current state in tournament play. Can't believe tournament nerves are back...it's only been a summer :'( In grey for those who are new to the thread!
That is such a massive improvement! Now you look like you are constructing rallies and also be able to play extended rallies. Tactically you are not too far away from him. In order to improve you will need further work on technique and consistency. Your technique is much better than before but still lacks some insight which means you play a poor shot in the middle of a long rally. Therefore, you are unable to maintain the the pressure on the opponent. I.e. you might play two good shots in a row, but a poor quality third shot lets the opponent recover his balance, initiative and mental steadiness. I agree with the others about holding the racquet further down the handle. This will give you a little extra reach. Overall you need to use your fingers when playing shots. You grip the handle too tightly so that the whole arm is playing the shot. This, in effect, transmits your intention to the opponent so they can predict your shot much earlier. It also makes you look very stiff. With your smash, you twist your body at the same time as hitting the shuttle. It's not quite the whipping action. Try taking a side view video of your smash and overhead clear and dropshots in training. Clearly you need to up the quality to make it into a shot that can force some pressure on the opponent. (Note that I deliberatly don't say a winner) You are less clear about defence. You need to be prepared to change your acceleration when the opponent might smash. Need more experience against better players. Forehand and backhand defence must be better. At the moment you just jab your racquet head out and hope to get it back. Firstly, you need to be more aware of when a smash might come. Secondly, you need to take the defend the smash and aim to take the shuttle further in front of your body. You need to think of the defence as a chance to counter attack. Again, finger technique is important and therefore the lack of finger technique with resulting limitation in quality and consistency of shots is restricting the pressure you can place on the opponent. I think your movement is much better. The rear forehand corner does not look like such a liability. Maybe the opponent cannot recognise your previous weakness in this area. Those footwork drills have helped a lot. To take the next step up, you need to up the pace within the rally and change and control the rhythm. Bit difficult to explain. Lastly, I don't like your inferiority mentality during the match. You put your hand up to apologise for playing a good shot. You also applaud your opponent when he plays a winner against you. If you want to be polite, do this for only really good shots and not ordinary shots. Certainly not as frequent as you do in this match. Instead, you should use the time to reanalyze the rally. Then , as the next point starts, quickly get the last point out of your head and start afresh with the next point. Competition is different from your social and practice games with your friends. Since I am not at my computer now, I can't comment on specific rallies nor take screenshots.
A lot of the things I noticed seem to have already been discussed. But, I'll write what I see anyway. Grip: your hold on the racket is too high for singles. It would be fine for say, front court in doubles, but as you're aware, a longer grip will let you play more powerfully with a longer swing. Definitely an aspect which affects shot quality/consistency. Receiving service: you have a habit of twirling your racket in your hands as your opponent serves. You had plenty of time to receive high serves from your opponent, but this habit would probably hurt you if you receive low serves. There's always a chance that you twist your racket and end up hitting with an awkward grip, even against high serves Footwork: you have the basic steps. More practice will refine them and make your movements smoother. Explosiveness from the split step can be improved, and would help you get in position faster to hit better shots. Shot quality: could be improved. When you managed to hit tight drops, you gained the upper hand in the rally and forced your opponent to scramble to retrieve it. However, some drop shots were too floaty/high and gave away control. The same applies to your net shots: if you can manage to play them lower and take away time from the other players, you'll get much more use from them. I think your lifts and clears usually went deep enough, and you probably don't need to focus on aiming for the absolute back (back half of the service box) just yet.
The only time I would *ever* do this in a tournament is if when I'm beating someone so bad they're nearly crying. You should be sneering at them, making them cower! Not encouraging them to beat you. Your striking point for smashes is not in front enough. You have time to get behind the shuttle... but lazy many of your smashes he hardly has to move - your smashes have no steepness or angle to them , and they are not close to the sides either.
Haha, I think you're right - I do have a habit of going into tournaments expecting to lose. I'm personally after improvement, and having opponents test me is good for me. At some point I should be expecting to be able to heat my opponents...I guess I need to get in that mindset on any tournament sooner than later! Need to work on my tournament poker face
0.01 - first shot. This is almost exactly like an earlier match of yours. (Yorkshire senior bronze). The first overhead shot you had you went for the side tramlines and hit it out! I see a trend there. I think there are overall fewer weaknesses then before and I don't really have much to add. Be careful about lifting from the net from your forecourt backhand side. You are very weak to straight lifts and cross court shots. When you go back to base after the lift, you haven't really set your mentality to a fast first step towards the next shot. Overall, you need to up the shot quality and learn how to use finger technique. With finger technique, you will be able to take more half chances. 3.35 the netkill is an example of not enough finger technique to make a better kill. 4.29 - he plays a drop after your flick serve. This one you have to play a straight drop instead of a cross court. His drop was nowhere near the tramline so any cross court net you play has a high chance of going out (which it did). If the drop was nearer the tramline, a cross court is more likely to be in... I notice if you have to step and stretch a bit to the forecourt backhand side, you are quite reluctant to play a backhand straight netshot.
