I seem to have a weakness for one particular shot in singles. When I serve long from the right-hand side to either corner to this one particular player, he occasionally plays a sliced drop shot cross-court which I can rarely return. Its difficult to anticipate as he's smart enough to usually pump the return to my backhand corner which keeps me from staying a bit closer to the net. He can only play this slice shot to one corner though. I know I should be aware of it by now, and I do watch for it, just its too tight for me to reach and return often. He doesnt play it all the time just enough to keep me from getting a decent run of points. I can still beat him but not getting this one shot back consistently really bugs me! I've searched the forums, (in particular, one great footwork vid has been helpful), and tried to incorporate a lot of the good advice on here into my game - now serving backhand (except singles), working on footwork, shadow badminton, drills, etc. Has anyone got any tips for me on this?
I wish it was my only weakness! Well, when I said weakness, it just seems to be the only shot of his that I can't return that often. (if I listed all of my weaknesses this post would be huge!) I'm still working on fitness and movement, hoping that once they improve I'll be able to cope with it. Cheers for the advice, I'll try to use more short serves, but I was led to believe they were unsuitable for singles other than to keep the opponent guessing somewhat.
i once took a 1-on-1 class with a coach. we started off by rallying against each other for warming up and for him to diagnose my game. i took had a lot of problem reaching his shots like you said. the diagnostic he gave me was that all my shots were too short. my serve was not consistent and was only hitting the double service line, my clears were the same. as a result it was very easy for him to 1) have plenty of time to get behind my shot 2) have many choices of shots against me. i am not sure if that is your problem as well, but perhaps worth paying attention whether your high services are of good standard, high deep and lands vertically nearly the baseline.
It's certainly something to take a look at next time I play, but I thought I was getting ok length when we played (perhaps my serve needs more though), as I used to have a problem where I'd overhit all my clears and had to work hard to correct the length a couple of years ago. But you might be right on my underhitting the serve, as I'm normally a doubles player and just started singles a couple of months ago for the fitness. A friend watched me and thought it was my movement, his comment was that I stood too far back, but I'm trying to keep to the centre, especially since this drop is mainly from my serve. Perhaps I'm just too slow at reacting!
The most straightforward way is simply to improve your general movement about the court, so that you can reach these shots. But that won't give immediate results. Think about how the serve you play gives him a chance to use this shot. I'm willing to bet that your high serve is usually travelling to the corner of the court, not to the centre line. From this forehand corner, he has a greater angle of attack - he can play either straight clears to your backhand corner, or a sliced drop to your forehand. Note that slicing actually produces a drop shot that reaches the net more quickly, because it accelarates the shuttle before the spin slows it down! If you serve straight instead of to the corner, he will not have such an extreme angle to exploit.
yah, lotta MS players (non advance) tend to serve high to the back corners thinking it is the deepest, farthest and therefore the safest. Serving the to middle back (on side) is actually preferrable. Of course, one dont serve like that 100% of the time. Aiming to the back corners or close to the mid line risk having shuttle flying out. Pros dont really aim for those in high serves tho. Even top WS are short serving these days
As Gollum points out, you should serve high to the back centre line. Also your serve should be as high as you can possibly serve so that the shuttle descends in a more vertical drop. If your high serve is short in length, you may try to aim to serve 1" to 2" beyond the backline, to ensure your high serves are of full length. If your high serve is perfect, your opponent's sliced drop will pose no danger. If you can anticipate and move in fast enough, you can do a net tumble that will get him into some trouble. But to have the confidence to do this, you must be good in countering a possible clear to your backhand.
Cheers for the advice everyone, I'll be sure to give it a go next time. My movement has improved recently (tbh it could hardly have gotten any worse!), but it still needs a ton of work. Serving to the corner is something I'm guilty of though, I'll try to keep them tight to the centre line, and mix in a lot more short serves.
i'm guessing that it's much easier to slice if the nose cone is pointing at an angle, not straight down. Therefore all really really high serves which result in the shuttle dropping down straight may put off his rhythm, and if he gets a few wrong, his confidence will really go down
i would always lean a bit forward because if they slice drop and you see its a drop, you have more of an advantage to get to the bird, if they end up clearing it you have enough time to change positions and then pounce on the bird. If its a smash and your leaning a bit forward your already in recieve smash mode..huzzah! either way if the opponent slice drops it'll most likely be to the sides. well at least the smart opponent would
Thanks again for all the advice It worked well tonight, I kept my serves nearer the centre, used more short serves than usual and tried to keep the long serves right at the back. The games weren't as close as it has been in the past (about 50/50), and after getting a few back, he made a lot more mistakes in trying to force the shot. Cheers everyone!
