Hey guys, So I was talking to a friend of mine (who I practice with) and we were talking about string tension and the conversation turned towards professional players and how they manage to get incredible power even with high tension (32x34). I remember once when my coach told me that the majority of anyone's power comes from the wrist and fingers. So that brings me to my question for you guys. How could I, along with my friend, work our way up. I know it might sound stupid cause only pros go up to that tension, but I'd still love to have that extra control and still be able to generate power. Currently the tension I use on my racquet is at about 28x30. What I was thinking was to get a cheap yet strong racquet for me to string at a ridiculous tension (34x36 or something) and try playing with that every once in a while just to develop the feel for it. What do you guys suggest?
I dont think its just wrist and fingers, its mainly the overall technique, your swing speed has to match the tension of the spring to produce power. A good idea is to put a cover on the racket and practice strokes, youll develop your technique aswell as train your forearm to get more power, but you have to make sure your technique is correct.
Yes, it's more than just pure power as even pro females can play with higher tensions than us. It's also timing, racket speed, technique, and footwork to get to the bird early enough.
They play and train almost everyday. I think that counts for a lot in using high tension. Asking around, it's not uncommon for some to string at 30lbs for trainin sessions moving higher for tournaments. I asked one current pro why he still uses BG65 at 30lbs during training sessions. He said he didn't want to keep stringing his racquets so frequently.... I was expecting some exotic answer about playability, tension loss or something technical!
LOL, how do you think he got to that tension? I'm gunna do my best to perfect my technique along with footwork and I hope that it'll help me improve and allow me to go up some lbs. Currently what I try to do during practice is grab my squash racquet and practice my overhead swing (doing a backhand swing with a squash racquet is difficult..) and then I go on a court and hit a few shuttles with the squash racquet. Then I finally grab my crappy 118gram racquet and do a few drills with that, then finally grab my normal racquet and do some more drills. Does it seem alright or am I doing it wrong..
Don't be too focused on achieving high tensions as a goal in itself. It'll come gradually and naturally as you play more and improve.
That's true. Today I strung one of my crappy racquets at 30x32, and it felt alright, just up until I was trying to push up and I missed an interception and snapped the strings.. But thank you visor, I guess having high tension doesn't prove anything. I'll continue to do my best to improve. Thank you
Once you feel your technique has improved, you can try a higher tension, if you are not comfortable with it, you can always go back the lower tension and improve on that.
Would you say that technique is better then actual wrist power? Because I actually think that might be true. When you look at skinny players like Chen Long, his technique is what gets him all that power.
You just answered your own question, technique comes on top, if your technique is good but you still want more power, you can train your wrist. To sum it up: Good technique + low wrist power> Bad technique + high wrist power And of course Good technique + high wrist power > Good technique + low wrist power but that only comes after you have good technique.
You rate Chen Long as skinny? I think he has a very good build/structure.. may be LCW can be rated as skinny among the MS professionals.. And others being M.Boe, Fischer Nielsen etc..
Well the only reason I think he's skinny is from when he ripped off his shirt after beating LCW this year during the All England finals all I saw were his bones .. not really much muscle. (Not saying that he's weak or anything, he's probably ten times stronger than me )
I can never understand the obsession with high string tension. It seems to be purely a bloke thing, and especially common among county juniors. Choose the string tension to match your actual hitting capability. Don't try to "train to achieve higher tension". 28*30 is very high for an amateur player. A few amateurs can handle it, but many more just think they can, and are risking shoulder injury. 34*36 is insane for an amateur player. Most professionals use a lower tension than this. Don't screw about with this; you are putting your health in jeopardy. Shoulder surgery is not nice, trust me. If you must crank up the tension, then at least do it in small jumps (1 lb at a time). No sane player, not even Thomas Laybourn, ever went straight from 28*30 to 34*36. I always recommend to players that they start low, and increase the tension slowly to find what gives them the most power. By optimising for power, you are protecting your joints as well (think about where the force goes, if it doesn't go into the shuttle). Factually, that is complete nonsense. However, it can be a useful "coaching lie" to get players hitting better.
It's all about technique. For me personally, it's just not about wrist. In fact, i put all my body strength into my smashes.
The wrist played a much higher role before, but today's technique is mostly about rotation of your forearm. With the wrist technique, you would most definitly be able to hit the shuttle at the highest point, but you would lose power compared to forearm rotation. There are exceptions of course such as stick smashes or when you are pressed and won't be able to get behind the shuttle fast, then you would have to use more of your wrist. And what your coach said about fingers is not a complete lie but not the entire truth either. What you want is to have a loose grip (which includes your fingers) and right before impact you tighten your grip of your racket in order to gain power. It's pretty logic if you think about it. If you hold your racket in a pan grip or bakchand grip and do what I wrote you will notice that the racket will go forward by just gripping the racket.
Sorry it could be me that is wrong but this whole concept of training to be stronger, wrist or otherwise will make virtually no difference when moving to a higher string tension. My understading is that a higher string tension makes the sweet spot smaller, but more powerful. Therefore, it is actually your striking accuracy that you need to improve, not your strength. Something that a pro can do easily when hitting the shuttle 10,000+ times a day every day, but much more difficult if you only play for a few hours a week?
I have to disagree. You need good strength to strike the shuttle, as well as good technique. If you apply both perfectly together, then that's where the power will come from. Strength training also reduce the chances for injury since your muscle is more accustomed to tear and recovery of muscle tissue.
I'd say that this is only partly correct. Yes, the sweet spot is smaller but not necessarily more powerful. The strings works like a catapult effect, the lower tension you have to more catapult effect the strings get. What I mean by a catapult effect is that the strings will "go backward" on impact and then when the shuttle leaves the string beds it pushes it away. This applies for higher tensions as well of course, but the higher the tension, the less effect you get. However, since low tension tends to make the shuttle bounce a bit more, you lose control. I think most people would agree the pro uses higher tension because their technique is better than an amateur player, not because it has a smaller and more "powerful sweet spot". What makes it a powerful but small sweet spot is the technique, not the string itself.
Hi BigFC, while i do agree we should all practice strengthening our wrist, I personally don't think it will reap much reward because the main power from badminton comes from right technique...that includes pronation/supination, finger power, correct footwork, powerful core muscles used in correlation with strong legs to generate thundering smashes. The strengthening of wrist is just the icing on the cake, if you don't have all those things it gives you very little returns to just power up your wrist. Do note that I am coming from the angle of amateur players, if you are pro of course you must train your wrist more. just my 2 cents. Amateur plyr here....good luck and keep smashing !