Forehand: Snap Wrist or not?
- Thread starter Theseed
- Start date
Yes, "comfortably" is indeed the keyword. I felt like my hitting improved tenfold by doing one adjustment: I lowered the contact point a little. I think it was a problem for me before, that I tried to hit the shuttle too high, forearm almost fully extended. I feel a lot more relaxed when I hit the shuttle a bit lower. Is this correct?
visor
Regular Member
Yep, it should be relaxed ie comfortable.
Next thing you got to work on is a little jump to get a higher contact point. Then as your timing improves, keep increasing the height of your jump and you'll eventually get to a good jump smash.
Wingu
Regular Member
Hi,
12 o'clock is where you want to hit the shuttle, but when you were told that you are supposed to hit the shuttle at the "highest point", you should probably think of it as "highest point possible" with the right technique rather "highest point my body is able to reach". As I wrote in my post, it's impossible to extend your arm fully for a correct forearm pronation overhead shot. And as visor stressed, it's important to be comfortable. And no, I don't think you should stop using your wrist even if you are using forearm pronation for overhead. If you lift your arm and imagine you're gripping a racket and then let your wrist rest in it's original state, you'll notice that if you do that, your racket will basically be in line with your shoulders, as in almost completely horizontal. You need to angle your wrist some upwards, otherwise you won't be able to reach a high contact point. Also, I would recommend to use your wrist slightly to increase power right at the impact.
Another important thing is not to be lazy and only use your arm. You want to insert your whole body if possible, otherwise you will have to rely too much on only your arm. When I was a beginner, I used to basically only use my arm in my deep forehand corner, but that resulted in me getting pains in my upper arm and shoulder.
Thank you for answering.
I have learned my new technique from this video, which you have probably already seen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNVC5PVJyPQ. It is clear that the racket is not pointing straight up (12 o'clock) when contacting the shuttle. Is Jimmy Lin's technique 100% correct? If I want to reach a higher contact point I have to bend my wrist outwards (https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/...2-vFVRQ34aoPCC_ts2Qi1it8k0fQsElrBw89qasM-j_Zw) but it doesn't feel natural and I am worried it might damage my elbow again.
So is the racket like this: http://www.clker.com/cliparts/1/1/1/f/11949867991913087944badminton_racket_brice_b_01.svg.med.png
Or this: http://www.badmintondoubles.com/wp-...1/Badminton-Racket-Yonex-ArcSaber-Z-Slash.jpg
In the first picture the racket is pointing at 11 o'clock and in the second one it's pointing at 12 o'clock. Does it depend from the situation? If so, can you explain when the racket has to be in the latter and when in the former position. Sorry for being so pedantic but I really don't want to get injured again because of a bad technique.
I have learned my new technique from this video, which you have probably already seen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNVC5PVJyPQ. It is clear that the racket is not pointing straight up (12 o'clock) when contacting the shuttle. Is Jimmy Lin's technique 100% correct? If I want to reach a higher contact point I have to bend my wrist outwards (https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/...2-vFVRQ34aoPCC_ts2Qi1it8k0fQsElrBw89qasM-j_Zw) but it doesn't feel natural and I am worried it might damage my elbow again.
So is the racket like this: http://www.clker.com/cliparts/1/1/1/f/11949867991913087944badminton_racket_brice_b_01.svg.med.png
Or this: http://www.badmintondoubles.com/wp-...1/Badminton-Racket-Yonex-ArcSaber-Z-Slash.jpg
In the first picture the racket is pointing at 11 o'clock and in the second one it's pointing at 12 o'clock. Does it depend from the situation? If so, can you explain when the racket has to be in the latter and when in the former position. Sorry for being so pedantic but I really don't want to get injured again because of a bad technique.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNNM5XRa5DM
I tend to smash using more wrist, as demonstrated in this video. During the slow motion, would Zhao's racket be more in the 12 o ' clock position or in the 10-11' o clock position
I tend to smash using more wrist, as demonstrated in this video. During the slow motion, would Zhao's racket be more in the 12 o ' clock position or in the 10-11' o clock position
considering your arm will not be vertical, having your racket vertical like 5:37 in that vid is fine. It looks like there is a bit of ulnar deviation used to get that angle - ulnar deviation will better for accuracy, worse for power due to how it interacts with pronation.
So, last night I played and I think I have way more power now. I am pretty impressed. To understand my situation you need to know my history.
2 years ago
I used to do only pronation to smash. I had ok power but no control. I think i used to slice the bird a lot and when the bird is on my backhand side and I used the overhead smash using a big scissors kick, i used to get more power that way because I didn't slice the bird. I always had problems smashing on my forehand side.
Last Year
I got about 5 lessons from Lee Jae Bok and I started to know about wrist. I was very impressed and I thought I was getting a lot more power (it's all relative, I mean more power than before consistently, keep in mind, I said consistently). I think I wasn't slicing the bird. I watched his videos over and over again. And personal one and one lesson from Lee helped me to get the wrist smash working better. I didn't know about the wrist at all before. I thought we are only supposed to use pronation. Anyone here tried Lee's method to smash and can you get a lot of power from it? I am curious is someone else has tried this method and what's their thought on this.
After reading this thread and researching few videos on the internet I think I am getting it. Here is how I learned.
1. Wrist Movement
2. Smash Snap
(The sound he generates at 3:40 and pre-load position is very very important, to feel the arc and pull). One important thing I learned or at least worked for me is to from the side way position, I turn my hip, and that creates a tension to my core, chest, shoulder and arm (I only move my hip and feel that tension and rest kind of follows). I only focus to turn my hip and be very relaxed, by turning my hip I get the natural body rotation. It generates the pull to turn my core, chest, shoulder and arm. I get some added power from this. And this is very surprising when I experienced this first time. It's hard to explain without a video. I was very confused when people talked about transferring power from your legs to hip to core .... all the way to arm, wrist, hand, finger and racket. So, in the beginning I only focused starting my power from hip (by turning my hip first to get to the preload position) and oh boy I tell you, I can get lot more power. I can effortlessly do a super high clear without trying to swing fast, the next thing I tried was to jump up from my racket leg (without any bird) and get my hip to move. My goal was to add the leg power to it. I still can't do a high jump smash but I jump my leg up (3 to5 inches) to get power from it, (the goal is not angle, it is power, may be later I can jump higher when I am used to the timing). I practiced it many times in front of a mirror. Watching this video and trying to get to the preload position. So, I jump up and turn my hip (that’s the only thing I think in my head) and get to the preload. That’s all I practice at home and it does help a lot on the court. Once you are comfortable with the preload. I think I have still a long way to go but discovering power from leg and my hip is great.
3. The whole body rotation
4. Something else to look at
One thing I noticed though using the wrist and pronation combined i get way more control on the shot, placing, angle, smashing on the line. I think it is very important to know the wrist. Also using the wrist I can do a punch clear without any swing at all and people don't usually expect that kind of shots. I know people said this over and over on this thread that the combination is important for control and it is very true.
Question: I would like someone to clarify a bit what Peter is doing at 3:40 on the second video.
2 years ago
I used to do only pronation to smash. I had ok power but no control. I think i used to slice the bird a lot and when the bird is on my backhand side and I used the overhead smash using a big scissors kick, i used to get more power that way because I didn't slice the bird. I always had problems smashing on my forehand side.
Last Year
I got about 5 lessons from Lee Jae Bok and I started to know about wrist. I was very impressed and I thought I was getting a lot more power (it's all relative, I mean more power than before consistently, keep in mind, I said consistently). I think I wasn't slicing the bird. I watched his videos over and over again. And personal one and one lesson from Lee helped me to get the wrist smash working better. I didn't know about the wrist at all before. I thought we are only supposed to use pronation. Anyone here tried Lee's method to smash and can you get a lot of power from it? I am curious is someone else has tried this method and what's their thought on this.
After reading this thread and researching few videos on the internet I think I am getting it. Here is how I learned.
1. Wrist Movement
2. Smash Snap
(The sound he generates at 3:40 and pre-load position is very very important, to feel the arc and pull). One important thing I learned or at least worked for me is to from the side way position, I turn my hip, and that creates a tension to my core, chest, shoulder and arm (I only move my hip and feel that tension and rest kind of follows). I only focus to turn my hip and be very relaxed, by turning my hip I get the natural body rotation. It generates the pull to turn my core, chest, shoulder and arm. I get some added power from this. And this is very surprising when I experienced this first time. It's hard to explain without a video. I was very confused when people talked about transferring power from your legs to hip to core .... all the way to arm, wrist, hand, finger and racket. So, in the beginning I only focused starting my power from hip (by turning my hip first to get to the preload position) and oh boy I tell you, I can get lot more power. I can effortlessly do a super high clear without trying to swing fast, the next thing I tried was to jump up from my racket leg (without any bird) and get my hip to move. My goal was to add the leg power to it. I still can't do a high jump smash but I jump my leg up (3 to5 inches) to get power from it, (the goal is not angle, it is power, may be later I can jump higher when I am used to the timing). I practiced it many times in front of a mirror. Watching this video and trying to get to the preload position. So, I jump up and turn my hip (that’s the only thing I think in my head) and get to the preload. That’s all I practice at home and it does help a lot on the court. Once you are comfortable with the preload. I think I have still a long way to go but discovering power from leg and my hip is great.
3. The whole body rotation
4. Something else to look at
One thing I noticed though using the wrist and pronation combined i get way more control on the shot, placing, angle, smashing on the line. I think it is very important to know the wrist. Also using the wrist I can do a punch clear without any swing at all and people don't usually expect that kind of shots. I know people said this over and over on this thread that the combination is important for control and it is very true.
Question: I would like someone to clarify a bit what Peter is doing at 3:40 on the second video.
captivated
Regular Member
Could you further describe on this? Cause I'm having the same issue now. I have been trying to contact the shuttle at 12 rather at 10. Thus, most of my smashes would end up to the net, unless it's cross-court. I was wondering do we actually contact it at 10 rather than 12 whenever the shuttle is in front of us. But when it's at the side, my smashes are pretty strong, and pretty comfy to smash. So, mind enlightening me on this? Have been struggling to figure out the issue.
Sorry for reviving an old thread