After searching some existing posts here, I still feel compelled to ask this question, for some teen age juniors, some are relatively short. Despite lots of practice, some of them still couldn't get a consistent low serve. I don't mean very tight ones that skim the net. Rather one think if their serves can get over net top within 1 inch, that should be good enough. Yet, I'm seeing inconsistency, sometimes the serves can go like 1 foot (or more) high! Would like to hear if anyone has this problem before (or coaches that have students like this), and what do you do to fix it? Practice doesn't make perfect. It only makes permanent. So please get back to me and say they need more practice, practice. They're already doing it. And their techniques are checked by their coaches, so I presume it must be something rather subtle, like mental, relaxation etc??
Do they make the bad serves only in matches or during practice as well? One of the key points in a good serve is as cheesy as it sounds to belive in your serve.
How do you get a good consistent serve yourself? For me, there are several factors. The push-tap action of the forearm, with a bit of supination to keep it lower. Contact point should be the top one eighth of the racket head. And higher string tensions definitely help with a more consistent and predictable stringbed rebound.
The serve is probably the only shot in badminton where you've got total control over everything that happens, so make use of it. Just do a million of them for practice, and when you're in a game, pretend the other guy isn't there - just look at the net tape. Oh, and have a look at this video while you're at it - it goes right down to the level of shuttlecock angle.
hello, recently I have started training my double serve as i noticed i was giving a good 3 points away from a inconsistent serve. There is a video on youtube where cai yun shows his backhand serve, he says to use as little muscles as possible. His shoulder stays in a stationary position and using the tightening of his grip and extension of his wrist to racket movement stays consistent. To practise i used a square circle and served using as little muscle as possible, at first the shuttle didn't make the service line but keep practicing and find the perfect amount of muscle needed for it to just reach the line. and practice over and over again. A little tip, say the shuttle facing down is 0 degrees tilt the shuttle cork towards you about 45 degree, this gives it a flatter trajectory. Also if the racket face is flat, tilt the racket face 20 degrees away from you, this also will help with a flatter trajectory and your shuttles won't rise as much. Hope this helps.
I used a different service action than them. I'm a lot taller also, so my contact point can be in between service line and net top. My serves would be a lot flatter. In terms of action, I use elbow/forearm motion instead of fingers/wrists that they use.
Just wonder if there's a bit of geometry involved. Not sure if the diagram (from WORD) shows up properly. Essentially, I'm trying to illustrate that if contact point is closer to net, and when you need to hit up, compared to another contact point of same height but farther away, the same angular error could be magnified for the closer contact point. The point? The shorter juniors actually are more prone to inconsistency. Taking a step or two back to serve could flatten the angle, and reduce the sensitivity of the serving height to angular error. What do you think?
Hi Raymond, need to highlight that if you take a step back essentially your opponent has more time to prepare for return of service. So essentially there is no one perfect system, all have its pros and cons. For my ownself, I find that serving using fingers/wrist is more consistent than using the arm. And it's a pushing motion instead of a forearm rotation that's driving the low serve for me.
That's true, though I'm still wondering if this would allow the serve to be more consistent (in height). As for exploitation of the extra split second, I notice most XD men, if not all, serve from behind their partners in front, thus giving their opponents extra time as well. That doesn't seem detrimental. Yes, I also recognize they've a partner in the front to cover the net. And they're pros. I use arm, but no pronation, no forearm rotation, nor supination. Not for low serve any way. Just a forward push.
There are a lot of good points in this thread. It'll come down to two factors for your students I think: 1) Cutting out variables in serving technique 2) Mental approach/feel for the shot In terms of variables: You say it might be a subtle thing and this is often the case. Have a close look at their grips - if players have a gap between their palm and the grip then it can cause unnecessary flicking motions when they serve (possible cause for the very high ones!). Additionally a very slightly un-cocked wrist can cause all sorts of problems. Also check out their contact point with the shuttle – one thing that can help is to get them to pinch the shuttle and place their thumb knuckle on the frame at the same point (I use a bit of paintwork on my racquet as a reference point). The shuttle should naturally point down into the string bed. From here they can just knock the shuttle out of their fingers. Other than that just keeping it simple - charliebadders mentioned Cai Yun using the least amount of muscles to get the job done. Mental approach/feel: Mark A and phili both had good points about this – the feeling of control and belief in the serve can make a big difference. For getting the feel of it, again I think the grip is very important. If it’s relaxed with the palm in contact then there is enough leeway that on impact with the shuttle there is a little squeeze on the grip. This should be enough to feel the shuttle impacting the strings but not enough that it’ll cause that flicking motion. Sorry for the wall of text, hope it helps!
For me it's where i focus. If i remember to just focus on the tape, my serves are good and consistent. If my focus is off then it'll either go into the net or pop up.
