I posted about a crazy looking stroke in another thread and wanted more attention brought to it partly because I've not yet heard any discussion on a stroke like that and was wondering if there was a name for this. You can find the original thread here. (http://badmintonforum.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1428&perpage=40&pagenumber=2)

This stroke can only be done with a small handle. I've rarely if ever see it used, except a similar version in the context of a singles serve. It's kind of like a singles forehand serve, racquet positioning wise. The racquet handle is held with the hand open. Fingers are spread far apart so as to cover almost the entire handle. The thumb is opposite to the second finger, with the left edge of the thumb pushing against the flat part of the grip. The flat part of the handle on the other side is held by the first joint (from the hand) of all four fingers. The racquet points straight up or slightly away from the body. The points straight down or slightly away from the body.

To swing the racquet, you push the fingers down while you thumb pushes up. For the card magicians out there, this is the same as a single-hand flourish ala the S-fan flourish. A slight twist of the wrist is most likely required. When I do this, the racquet rotates 360 degrees down and back up, and ending in the v-grip. The racquet face also spings 180 degrees horizontally so that the side that was facing right is now facing left and vice versa.

Pushing the pinky towards the thumb at the start of the stroke will produce a faster swing but you will end in the panhandle grip.

The ideal contact point for this stroke is about 1 feet off the floor, so it's pretty much only good for net shots. (It's hard to produce enough power for a clear that won't be smashed back at you.) While producing a lot of power might be hard, producing enough power for a netshot is quite easy. The main advantage of this stroke is that you can hit the bird to ANYWHERE along the net using the exact same stroke, but varying the amount you push with your fingers.

There's a lot of disadvantages however, and thus it's in my trick-shot category right now.
1. This shot takes a second to get into the right grip, so if you have time to perform this then you have time to perform net kill or slice.
2. you might drop you racquet. If i'm moving fast, there's a high likelihood of the racquet spinning out of hand since it's half-open duing the spin.

So I hope this post made sense... any idea what this stroke might be called?

is this a backhand or a forehand net shot?

I usually use it as a forehand shot. I suppose you could use it as a backhand shot but then you'll be hitting the bird away from the net :p

we are here trying to figure out what you are talking about but still not getting it. can you post some pics?

Here's a picture of the hand:

here's a crude frontal view

here's a crude side-view. Green = hands, blue = racquet, red = racquet motion, and purple blob = contact point.

mid stroke: this is where the racquet is pointing down with the racquet face pretty much facing the net. By controlling the amount of protonation of the arm and finger movement, the expact direction of the racquet face is decided.

I forgot to add that the way you used this stroke to serve forhand is to counter-pull the finger-thumb faster to return the racquet to v-grip by mid-stroke, and hit as normal. I find that it adds a little extra power to a high serve without having to expend much more arm effort. Useful if i'm feeling tired. (You still swing your arm as in a normal singles serve, so the arm isn't stationary here.)

Cheung and i have been trying to re-create what you are describing. still unable to figure it out though...

does it look a bit like Gade's trick shot?

I'll try to be more clear than before here... hopefully it'll make sense after this post.

Do a normal underhand singles serve. Notice how your hand makes a small circular motion? It's like that movement but without moving the arm. Holding it in a normal v-grip with the arm pointing down by racquet pointing up, you can swing the racquet down and back up again without moving the arm. (This swing will have the racquet slightly pointed to the side. Anyway that's what the hand movement should be. But it's hard to get a fast swing and hard to control the angles this way.

So instead of v-grip, the funny finger grip I mentioned above is used. During the swing, the racquet handle will roll down along your fingers a quater revolution down your fingers by mid-swing, and roll up your thumb in the final half of the stroke. This is why the hand has to be open with the fingers and thumb pointing outwards. At midstroke after a quater revolution, the racquet face is pointed forwards rather than to the side. After midstroke, the racquet's butt cup would have hit the bottom of the palm.

In order to continue rolling, the handle has to now roll up the thumb. Shortly after, the finger-thumb push would have ended, resulting in the thumb pointing upward while the fingers are pointed downwards. Just close the hand to end at v-grip. Spinning the handle faster will give it enough momentum to roll up your hand further, so just close the hands later to end at the pan-handle grip.