My hand was accidentally hit by a racket during a game, and due to the pain, the muscles felt very weak. However, as the game was ending soon, I decided to continue, disregarding the pain. I forced myself to grip the racket in a proper way (basic grip) despite the pain, but loosened my grip a lot to lessen the pain. Also resorted to playing just clears, drops and nets so that the pain won't be aggravated. During the last few points of my play, I found myself playing at my best although I wasn't able to feel the shuttle well (too distracted by the pain). Clears were effortless despite being under pressure, drop and net shots were nicely placed too. I am not sure why this is the case? I have been trying to find back this feeling, but have not been able to. Would like some advice/explanation so as to find back the feeling... Thanks a lot!
You were consciously holding the racket loose. This IS the right technique. Squeeze/clench the racket handle upon impact. Try it.
Very interesting. Did you change anything else - when your hand was injured? Strange, you can't just loosen the grip and get similar results.
OP also may have "slowed" down his swing speed due to the injury. I speculate that either the slower swing matches the racket's resonance (stiffness bending/rebounce). Or the slower swing hit the sweet spot - as the OP may have habit of hitting high on racket head.
Thanks, I will pay more attention to my gripping of the racket. I think subconsciously I am gripping it tighter than I thought. As far as I am aware, besides the loosened grip, I am not aware of any changes. I will pay attention to this as well. To be frank, I am not sure if I had swung slower due to the injury. I didn't notice anything to my swing. I swung as usual. I do have a relatively fast swing that I sometimes get mishits on the top of the frame, or I completely miss the shuttle and I had completed the swing and follow-through.
Had more practices for clearing these past few weeks. I think besides a looser grip, there were other changes that I am unaware of. My coach corrected a few errors/made some adjustments which result in better clears with lesser efforts. The corrections/adjustments triggered some of my memories… 1. The change of grip to accommodate the injured hand. It's actually similar to what kwun posted here - http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/5506-finger-power-revisited I couldn't use this grip after my hand recovered… and I don't think I should be tinkering with my grip at this stage. I am still using the basic grip. I might take a look at this again when my clears are much better. 2. My body angle. It was changed unconsciously, though I have no idea why I did what I did. 3. Hitting height of shuttle. Because the injured hand was weak, the hitting height was slightly lower than where I usually take it. At the beginning, I was taught to take at the highest point. Today, it was adjusted to slightly lower, which was better for me.
Yeah, at the beginning I was taught that too. But it doesn't seem to be the best for everyone. For me, it's the highest comfortable point, where I could judge effectively and time all movements and hit it cleanly as opposed to the awkward highest point that I couldn't judge well and much more prone to errors.
What I normally find is that, once you start improving, you are able to take the shuttle EARLIER i.e. you do not think "higher", you think "earlier". However, this is not necessary when learning your strokes, but does become very important once you start playing competitively at regional level.
