there are a couple of threads concerning with footwork going from front to back court. here is a motion sequence of Xia doing it. notice he went from net shot, hop back one step, then "fei bo" back to the back of the court to do a crazy winning jumpsmash. effectively, two hops between net tumble and jumpsmash at rear end of the court!
Leg Strength! Leg strength and core strength are very important in doing the two hops to the back court.
wow... for those who may not realize this, but when he does this, his right feet never (or barely) touch the floor (5th-9th frame), a la a triple jumper, that is he pivets with his left feet (twice). Don't know anyone does this among top players. what benefit can this have, has anyone tried this?
good move and everything but the lift by wong ch seem kinda short tho...maybe thats xia was able to hit a winning smash..but nevertheless, those r the kind of moves only pros can execute , takes a long of leg strenght
It appeared WCH had to lift from a very sharp Xia net shot. Even so, the smash still had to be executed near back court.
yes. very good observation. for more description on this footwork, look at the following thread when Cheung describe the "fei bo" (flying steps). essentially, it is a footwork to the backcourt that let you rotate body (from racket side in front to racket side behind). more importantly, notice that between frames 6-8, not only his right foot never touch the ground, his left foot hopped back by a foot or two. the gain of distance between rotating the right foot from in front to behind plus the left foot hop covers the majority of the distance. the rest is covered by the last jump back with immense leg strength. http://www.badmintonforum.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8685&highlight=fei+bo
the lift is actually quite decent. here is a snap of the instant of contact. you can see that Xia is just around the double service line, and considering the shuttle is moving backwards. the shuttle would land inside the rear alley.
The last few shots and the overhead show that he has covered about 2-3 ft by jumping backward to take the shot and still managed to get this body round to face the correct way to recover to play the next shot. Must have been some scissor kick and smash to counter the backwards jump!!
nice snap shots Hey Kwun, how did you capture all the snap shots from the video? It is definitely a good way to learn. But I think this footwork is useful for surprise attack, it would be too tiring to do it for regular backcourt rally. Maybe studying how he moves back on regular clear would give you a good comparison.
Re: nice snap shots we are talking about Xia and WongCH here. attacks don't come with surprise, attacks are the norm.
foot work My coach also came from China, he said it is usually not a good idea to jump with both legs like how Xia doing here. He said most of the time we should be jumping with one leg and do the scissor kick in the air to help us come back to the center.
Lefty, we are discussing on the 'fei bo' (flying step) in the 5th to 9th frame of the sequence. That would the movement Xia makes from the front to the middle of the court. Are you referring to the jump that Xia makes for the jump smash (9th to 14th frame)?
This tread makes me think of a problem i have with the footsteps back from the center to the backhand corner for a 'round the head shot: it seems that there are two ways. One is to first split step towards the back, then turn the body so that the right leg goes back first, then do a step. Another one is to first turn the body, then do two steps. I have watched the pros, and both ways are praticed. What is your method?