What's the purpose of the prestep or prejump?

It speeds up your movement because of the small push; otherwise, you'll be pulling your legs from standstill which is slow in comparison. The critical part is the timing of the prejump in combination with your anticipation which should not be too early or too late.

 

Just try it and you will reap the benefits. The main idea is to push your center of balance in the middle and be ready for the next shot. Your reacting time will be faster if you incorporating in your game.

 

They also do this in Tennis - it's called "split step" - it's great for timing and also it makes sure both your feet are on the ground as the opponent strikes the shuttle - then you can move left or right (front or back) depending on the shot.

 

If you do your split step too early, you lose your advantage of doing a split step. You get "bonus" power in your explosive movement from immediately rebounding off of the split step. If you split step too early, then you end up needing to stand and wait to see where the shuttle goes, and you lose that bonus.

If you do it too late, then you have to move more quickly to make up for lost time because the shuttle has been moving while you have been standing and watching it

The split step will make you quicker in the sense that you are able to accelerate faster at the beginning of your movement. If you split step, you are more able to push off the ground and "jump" into your movement. If you do not split step, your first move is less explosive. Try this: jump in the air once and try to see how high you get. Next, do a small hop and immediately rebound up. Does one go higher than the other?

I can't conceive a situation where split stepping is worse than not. The power of a split step is that it really helps you have explosive movement/ change direction.

 

This muscle preloading also works in winding up for a power stroke eg. smash, clear. That is, eccentric contraction.

 

http://www.optimumh.co.uk/how-to-utilise-plyometric-training-to-convert-strength-into-power/

The link above explains it very well. Although you may need to read it a few times to fully grasp it if you don't have a background in biology or physiology.

It is one of the secrets of sports that all competitive athletes should understand, since they're probably doing it already without thinking or knowing why, especially in sports involving explosive movements. Like gymnastics, sprinting, throwing, etc.

In short, firstly, muscle preload amplifies explosive movements by utilizing the stretch shortening cycle of the muscle unit where elastic energy is absorbed and stored temporarily, then released immediately.

Secondly, muscle preload utilizes the stretch reflex activation of the muscle unit, which is what the knee jerk reflex is.

Thirdly, muscle preload coordinates and recruits more muscle units to fire and contract together.

 

For the above physiogical reasons, for the preload to be effective, it has to happen one tenths of a second or so before the explosive movement.

And eccentric contraction means that the muscle has to be usefully stretched in the opposite direction of the intended explosive contraction. Eg. slight hop to land (ie. split step) just before the actual jump.

 

Yes, smash returns, especially the body smashes. Split step/jump will slow you down a bit, and sometimes it interfere with your reflex.... work against you when your "landing" timing is just after your opponent hit the birdy.

 

^^^I actually disagree with captaincook. A well-timed split step can improve your defense in singles for wide shots and body shots.

A poorly timed (late) split step can put you in trouble as captaincook said, but if you're late, you're late imo.

A properly timed split jump can help you defend. Often with a body smash that gets aimed right at my middle, I end up using my legs a bit to help push the bird back.

If your split step is too big, it will definitely slow you down. I help teach a badminton clinc for elementary - middle school age children. You tell them to "jump", and they'll just shoot up as high in the air as they can and giggle with their friends

For me, a good split step is more about that impact you make on the ground before pushing off. You don't actually need to move a lot upwards in the air to do that.

Practice excercise: Try starting from you feet shoulder width apart, and moving them ~1ft out on each foot without jumping up. Instead of jumping up and then landing, go from a vertical/upright postion to a lower, wider stance. You can save time in your jump this way.


On a side note, if you're playing doubles (where body smashes are more likely to happen than a wide smash, I'm not sure if this is a taught technique, but i like to shift the weight between both my legs at a fast pace while I prepare for defense. If you look at some of the later LYD/YYS videos, you can kind of see them do this after giving the opponents a big lift.

Hope this helps!

 

sometimes the smash is so steep that it is outside your range (or when your opp disguise their drop shot as a smash). split step will help that when you know it is very steep, split step will give you explosive power to jump to the front and save the shuttle (compared without split step).

or when the smash aimed at the middle of your body where your racket cannot reach it. split step will allow you to jump backward and give you more space between the shuttle and the racket (you can try and look at youtube esp on men doubles)

 

I actually started to "pre-load"/"split step" before I was taught to do it. For some reason, I started to do it quite early on, without realising it - it was almost as if your body intuitively knows that that is the best way to move quickly.

 

My understanding is the "split step" should be done in such a way as the opponent makes contact with the shuttle - you would be on the ground with both feet (basically as the opponent makes contact - you are making contact with the ground with both feet). So you will be able to move in any direction without any delay as soon as you determine which direction you need to go.

 

I now use a little quick "jerk" prep instead of a full "visible" split step/jump when defending half or three quarter court lifts. The big visible split step/jump was also disastrous against the double motion/hold and hit. I thing I still don't know - if you are ready to dive, what "kind" of split step is more efficient? Or better prepare you for the diving motion?

 

split step is not a big jump, what you need to do is to jerk and lift your ankle (very little "jump" since small jump gives more power. than jerking without it. IMO, bigger jump will only gonna waste your time) so you are ready to move to the direction. so what you did is not 100% wrong, but it will not gonna give as fast reaction as rightly timed split step

I don't understand what do you mean by what "kind" of split step?

with split step, when you need to dive, essentially your muscle is ready to dive. it will give you faster and longer dive compared when you prepare to dive without split step (try it, from normal ready position with both feet on the ground / quick jerk VS split step which one is faster to dive) plus split step is not always about diving. if suddenly it is not a steep smash or drop shot, your muscle is ready to jump to anywhere, not only to the front (of course it depends on your brain, how fast it can react to the changes.)
*it is like jumping. do a jerk and jump VS jumping twice. which one is higher and faster (not counting the jerking and first jump because in badminton both is done using same time)? jumping twice is more likely higher and faster due to you muscle loaded when the second time jumping