The sound of hitting a bird!!!

[john]

Just a few days ago I heard a clear snap sound from my racket, can anyone tell me how to achieve this sound because it is very good as to what my coach said. How?!?!?!? And what part does it hit the racket to make this sound?!??!? Thanks to does that help

[SystemicAnomaly]

the best way to achieve this sound is to hit the bird squarely, rotate the forearm and racket so that it hits the stringbed straight on (at impact). if you impart any extra spin to the shuttle, you will not get that crisp sound.

i'm not sure if u have to hit the sweetspot on the stringbed or higher up (closer to the tip). the sweetspot is located near the middle of the strings, it can also be slightly lower (toward the shaft). you will get the most bounce off the strings at the sweetspot. however, it the racket is traveling thru an arc, then the tip of the racket is traveling much faster than the sweetspot. for smashes (& possibly clears) you want to hit closer to the tip (but too close to the frame).

note too that feather shuttles yield a crisper sound than most nylon birds. it has to do with the aerodynamics of the skirt as well as the nature of the cork material.

[john]

What do you mean by hitting the bird squarely androtate the forarm and so on in the first para graph

[SystemicAnomaly]

initially, as the racket comes up from behind you to contact the shuttle (on an overhead shot) the edge of the racket rather than the strings approach the racket. as the racket head gets closer to the contact point, the forearm & racket are rotated (pronated or supinated) so that the stringbed faces the bird at contact. if the strings attack the bird straight on (squarely), no extra spin is imparted to the the bird; the racket faces is traveling perpendicular to the flight of the bird just before at after impact.

if, however, the racket face cuts across the cork at some angle it is not traveling perpendicular to the flight of the bird. more spin is imparted to the shuttle in this latter case. does this make any sense to you?

[SystemicAnomaly]

the last sentence of the 1st paragraph above should read:

...the racket faces is traveling perpendicular to the flight of the bird just before AND just after impact.

[john]

thx gregr i know now, but is it really hard to achieve this standard

[Slanter]

Aethetics are fine, but what was the actual effect of achieving this sound? If it was a dramatic increase in power then you, as gregr says, managed to strike the shuttle with the sweetspot of a racquet that was travelling along the shot-to-target line with the raqcuet face square at impact. Congratulations. If you can do it every time we will see you at the All-England next year!