I feel I have a lot to work on, but where should I start first?
- Thread starter precrime3
- Start date
precrime3
Regular Member
Lol I'll have to record some footage, perhaps there was some lexical ambiguity. I meant that yesterday my experience was so good, that when I record later today and upload it, it should be good! Not that I have some already recorded.
Talking very abstractly, the video of smashes showing the shaft bending, given your new powerful shaft bending skills.. whether it was done or is planned and Coming Up Next! ;-)
precrime3
Regular Member
The Real 2/26 Update
So to be honest... I've been lacking on my footwork drills as of lately - not having birdies will do that to a player I would imagine. Regardless, I'm still practicing smashes, drives, and footwork shadowing for warmup. We need more birdies and I will go back to practicing footwork lol. Anyways I digress.
The real start of the show lately as been my powerball (a forearm trainer) and my weighted racket. 120g was good starting weight because its heavy enough its a challenge but light enough I can realistically use it 100% of the time. Perhaps I'll get a 160g I only use for drives or something.
Anyways, as I've mentioned before it makes it harder so when I use my real racket the game is easier. The shot quality of everything is much better, particularly my backhand. backhand clears are getting much better, and my backhand lifts are getting to the back of the line. But the lighter weight helps with defense, and of course, everyone favorite - smashes. I feel like I'm unlocking more potential out of my racket and really growing into it.
I did notice perhaps my grip is getting a bit worse - switching between the two. They have different grips on it and I have my index finger up much higher (near the energy boost cap) compared to when on the training racket. I'll have to keep an eye out for that and see if it's just me being hyper-vigilant or if it's affecting my game.
Training/Warmup
Warmup is same except of addition of powerball. I carry it with me everywhere, and just try to always be using it. Not sure if it'll help, but it's fun lol. For morning dry strokes, I use my training racket now, virtually everything I did my astrox with I use this now for.
Training today was playing with some people below my level to get used to the racket more, then playing against Mehkan, which you've seen a couple of times. I only recorded our 3rd match (i won the last two, he insisted on another one) and this match was using my astrox. My shot quality was much better, and I got too cocky and lost a couple of points due to wanting to smash when I would've played a tactically better shot.
After that half-court of what I wanted to do - 10 minutes of just clears, smashes, and drives. CLears weren't recorded but the rest (and attempting 4 corners) was.
Additional Notes:
Need more time using the training racket to see real results. Like I've stated before I think it is helping my smash and overhead stroke - i hope that's not just my mental and it really is. I do notice my arm is a bit sore in weird places, and probably body getting used to a heavier racket. Will have to watch out and take it easy if it becomes an issue.
I prepare my smashes a lot differently (or it felt like) today. left hand out, bring the racket back, even have my right foot up on a pivot, and try to really imagine the kinetic chain starting from the hips to the fingers. I try to follow through to the side naturally, and really focus on use my forearm for power rather then wrist.
My jump smashes are lazy, I end up doing more of a half china jump than a full on jump smash. Need to work on that mentally as well.
Video Links
So to be honest... I've been lacking on my footwork drills as of lately - not having birdies will do that to a player I would imagine. Regardless, I'm still practicing smashes, drives, and footwork shadowing for warmup. We need more birdies and I will go back to practicing footwork lol. Anyways I digress.
The real start of the show lately as been my powerball (a forearm trainer) and my weighted racket. 120g was good starting weight because its heavy enough its a challenge but light enough I can realistically use it 100% of the time. Perhaps I'll get a 160g I only use for drives or something.
Anyways, as I've mentioned before it makes it harder so when I use my real racket the game is easier. The shot quality of everything is much better, particularly my backhand. backhand clears are getting much better, and my backhand lifts are getting to the back of the line. But the lighter weight helps with defense, and of course, everyone favorite - smashes. I feel like I'm unlocking more potential out of my racket and really growing into it.
I did notice perhaps my grip is getting a bit worse - switching between the two. They have different grips on it and I have my index finger up much higher (near the energy boost cap) compared to when on the training racket. I'll have to keep an eye out for that and see if it's just me being hyper-vigilant or if it's affecting my game.
Training/Warmup
Warmup is same except of addition of powerball. I carry it with me everywhere, and just try to always be using it. Not sure if it'll help, but it's fun lol. For morning dry strokes, I use my training racket now, virtually everything I did my astrox with I use this now for.
Training today was playing with some people below my level to get used to the racket more, then playing against Mehkan, which you've seen a couple of times. I only recorded our 3rd match (i won the last two, he insisted on another one) and this match was using my astrox. My shot quality was much better, and I got too cocky and lost a couple of points due to wanting to smash when I would've played a tactically better shot.
After that half-court of what I wanted to do - 10 minutes of just clears, smashes, and drives. CLears weren't recorded but the rest (and attempting 4 corners) was.
Additional Notes:
Need more time using the training racket to see real results. Like I've stated before I think it is helping my smash and overhead stroke - i hope that's not just my mental and it really is. I do notice my arm is a bit sore in weird places, and probably body getting used to a heavier racket. Will have to watch out and take it easy if it becomes an issue.
I prepare my smashes a lot differently (or it felt like) today. left hand out, bring the racket back, even have my right foot up on a pivot, and try to really imagine the kinetic chain starting from the hips to the fingers. I try to follow through to the side naturally, and really focus on use my forearm for power rather then wrist.
My jump smashes are lazy, I end up doing more of a half china jump than a full on jump smash. Need to work on that mentally as well.
Video Links
two suggestions..
Great that you are preparing more and it is helping with power. And it's interesting how you found that use were able to use your training racket not just to get more power, but that you found it helped you hit through and that it helped you avoid injury by feeling the slight soreness when doing it a bit wrong and adapting to ensure that you hit in a way that you didn't feel sore. It's great that you are sensitive to that. ..
- do you have a tripod? you could put the camera on a tripod and perhaps get both feet and the whole racket even when the camera is behind you.
- you could practise the forehand stick smash at some point.. that will really help to get you to see usage of forearm rotation
after contact., the elbow doesn't drop with the stick smash
You don't have to do it with a jump.
Look at that whip like action that it involves
you don't have to jump out like he is, but you could just practise the hitting action.
Great that you are preparing more and it is helping with power. And it's interesting how you found that use were able to use your training racket not just to get more power, but that you found it helped you hit through and that it helped you avoid injury by feeling the slight soreness when doing it a bit wrong and adapting to ensure that you hit in a way that you didn't feel sore. It's great that you are sensitive to that. ..
- do you have a tripod? you could put the camera on a tripod and perhaps get both feet and the whole racket even when the camera is behind you.
- you could practise the forehand stick smash at some point.. that will really help to get you to see usage of forearm rotation
after contact., the elbow doesn't drop with the stick smash
You don't have to do it with a jump.
Look at that whip like action that it involves
you don't have to jump out like he is, but you could just practise the hitting action.
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precrime3
Regular Member
1. I use tripod, but sometimes there’s a court setup behind my tripod so I can’t go far enough to record feet. I’ll have to move to different court...
2. Yeah! Training racket helps ton with form.
3. I will practice stick smashing to help with forearm rotation usage.
4. mason suggested i work on split step and I agree. Footwork is slipping which is likely because of not doing drills as diligently as before. I’ll amend that and also it should help produce better shots because I’ll get to shots better.
Yes your shot is only as good as you getting to and generally behind the shuttle. Get your split step down and it’s the first phase of properly getting behind the shuttle.
As you play against better players will be more and more an issue if you do not split step.
precrime3
Regular Member
When I go train today, split step all the way. Stay tuned for todays update
precrime3
Regular Member
Thanks for this visual - i will use it as a benchmark when I play from today and moving forward.
As for steps, I need to take one more step back and get more behind the shuttle is what you're trying to say, right?
I think that's a good way of explaining.. i.e. with the image from the video, showing the timeframe. as you have. And drawing over the image like that(as you have), is good. It can be good to include the title of the video in the screenshot too, I see it's "After Training Racket Match Mehkan 2-26-20"
You always want to be returning to the right position / your base, after a shot, so you're ready for a shot coming back from your opponent.
I'm no expert, but Jumping back to hit it(which is what you had to do at the shot in the screenshot he showed), isn't generally/really seen as ideal or even good, when avoidable e.g. when you could have been behind it. I suppose it'd take longer to recover if you have to jump back to hit it than if you were already there.
And I suppose that if they hit it to the back of the court again, then it's not so bad, but they might not, they might hit it quite far in front of you, and then having had to jump back, you're quite disadvantaged.
And I suppose possibly you also get less power into the shot if you're jumping back than if your weight is coming forward. I suppose it's still possible to get your weight into it even if jumping back, but you could get more into it if you are already there and don't need to jump back.
Err. No. Nothing about taking extra steps.
I am just saying, at the same time you take the first step backwards, you need to put your right forearm in that position. I.e. the initial right leg and right forearm movement into that red line position need to be done at the same time.
For the left arm, if you want really nice technique and want to look good, stretch it up higher at the same time.
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I had to use MS paint in windows 10. It wasn’t so convenient to resize. I need to install some other freeware for resizing.
To be honest, it’s not a big issue to have the title because OP has this inefficient movement every time he lifts the racquet up for an overhead shot.
Some people might wonder why I am pretty focused on this small detail of raising the racquet up fully behind the body on the first movement, especially when not all pros do it. It’s there to train good foundations in overhead stroke technique. If a beginner can do this movement correctly, then the potential improvement of the player is greatly improved. There’s no way to avoid it if a person wants to get past knock around social badminton.
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I always noticed my stroke was better when i listened to your advice of keeping the racket up and behind !
Glad it helps and continues to help. As you get more familiar with watching games and observing the players around you, you will probably see the lower level players don’t raise the racquet up behind them so well.
Hopefully, it will help @precrime3 . It would feel very awkward initially.
@precrime3 , this movement that I describe is so fundamental, that I haven’t gone beyond it except for observing your grip is pan handle style. I don’t disagree with what others have advised you. Just like @Mason mentioned in another thread of his - you can’t try to do too many things at one time. Correct and alter one thing at a time.
yeah I could tell.. mspaint is good for that eg drawing the line/shape
Cheung said:
Would the following work for you..
mspaint has a zoom function, you can zoom in and out.. that's a bit like resizing.. And then when it is the size you want on the screen, use can use the windows snipping tool aka snippy. With that you can take a screenshot of an area of your screen, and get it into the clipboard. Then, you can paste onto imgur and get a link and insert the image into your post. It can be done very fast/efficiently.
Cheung said:
I totally agree, and it is indeed standard coaching advice. If somebody thought it strange then they've not even had even a few coaching sessions. Pros can get away with not having their racket up so early... But yeah, early racket preparation makes all the difference, it is absolutely crucial.. I don't think there is a coach under the sun that doesn't mention that in a session and almost all beginners make that mistake and need to be prompted on it.. Coaches hammer it in.., and rightly so, particularly to new players that keep getting it wrong, to have the racket prepared, and early.. But people don't often see what they look like from the back if they don't have their racket prepared, and are not conscious of it.
And the early racket preparation applies to so many shots..(and of course looks different for different shots), there probably isn't a single shot where that doesn't apply..e.g. going for a net shot, or ready for a net kill. I knew one guy that actually used to say "Hussein Bolt" as a cue for people to get into a ready position for a forehand overhead. Even though the position isn't exactly as per the famous Hussein Bolt picture.. the racket prep for it is undoubtedly a key stage. And the whole thing can go wrong with late or poor racket preparation.
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The racket preparation he mentioned is fundamental, and should not feel awkward, it is something you can easily practise anywhere in the house , with or without a racket, though preferably with, such that it feels more natural. If anything, it should feel awkward and wrong when you don't have good racket preparation! Good racket preparation will also bring a consistency to your swings that removes awkwardness('cos how can you swing right if you are starting from a funny position, or from a different position each time, or a wrong position each time). The starting prep with racket back like he said, and very sideways on is absolute bread and butter when doing that full swing. You don't want your forearm pointing off to the side like he showed. Some beginners wrongly drop their elbow as low as their hip, people do it wrong in different ways. But his screenshot with timeframe showed you very well what you're doing.. and where it can be improved. You should develop a sense just looking at that that it looks awkward/not right!
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