Hi. Yesterday, I was playing with a person who serves very high and deep into the backcourt. I can't seem to attack it(smash) anyway. I can't even anticipate correctly if it's in or out. The only thing I can do is to hit a chop or clear. Any ways of returning this shot? And, should I learn to hit this types of serves? Thanks!
I had played someone recently in a tournament where he served so high that it was almost impossible to smash as i ended up hitting the feathers instead of the cork part. So what i did was make sure the shuttle is right above my head and hit it back to his deep backhand side. Not a clear but a straight, "half-smash" type shot to make it difficult for him to return. Luckily for me, he had a weak backhand so i could smash him back straight away......
That is a problem for me too since I am pretty short. What I usually do is fake clear and drop it into the front backhand corner. It pretty hard to get it right and took me a while to get it down.
its quite hard to do that isnt it with a shuttle thats coming down verticlely with the feathers pointing directly upwards?
Ideally the best thing would be to Toss it back to the corners and get back to the centre. If we play an attacking toss or a drop Shot we should simply have great movement to get back. Because a good high serve actually takes u out of the court if you were to meet the Ball correctly. I would on most occasion buy time by tossing it high and handsome and then the get back to the centre and play the waiting game. Is it not the basic rule that, Toss when u are out of position?
As pointed out by Bbn(with explanation) a while back, yes it is difficult to smash. Probably best to rally it round a bit unless you have such a super duper jumpsmash that can strike the shuttle before it falls to the vertical flight path!
Now I suddenly realise why some of the internationals perform jump smashes, I thought they wanted to have a steep angle.
come to think of it I suddenly realise why sometimes when I try to push down tumbling sreves or net spins they end up in the net.Is it better to hit shuttle cleanly at base to reduce errors. Maybe some of the more seasoned players like Viver and Cheung can comment.Should be very helpful to one's game.
Yeah, it is very hard, I just try to have a slanted racket face to I can get a piece of the cork. I also try to cut it incase I over hit...Very hard. You could also do an underhand drop.
At a junior tournament I was in a few months ago, I noticed that the less experienced, more error-making players such as myself and others would have to replace the feathered birds as much as 4 times a set, while the advanced players hardly replaced them at all. I was sitting beside a guy named Tony Chan (was #2 in Ontario for U19 MD at the time) when I said this, and he told me that it was because the more experienced players hit the shuttle cleanly on the cork, thus keeping the feathers intact, even though they were hitting it abour four times harder than us less-experienced players were. I guess this means that as you get better, you'll hit the cork more cleanly at the base.
I actually play with players who deliberately hit shuttle at awkward angles for smashes and lobs. The shots come to you sometimes at varying speeds because they have been ruffled or damaged, making it difficult to return their shots .Of course it gains points but its very expensive to spar with them.
yes, good players can hit the shuttles almost any way they want. Unfortunately, inexperience players can hit shuttle-damaging shots too but usually unintentionally and not accurate.
To deal with high and long serves, a good player to watch and learn from is Misbun Sidek. From what I have seen from him he can send the shuttle to 6 points of the court without much difficulty. If I could only achieve 10% of his technique. For tumbling net shots, I can't help much either. Usually I either try to lift as high and closest to baseline as possible or take it at the top of the net, of course depending the opposition. One of my coaches, a former Chinese provincial head coach was so good at net play that it was only possible to lift it to half court. The way to play against him was to place the drop shot further away from the net.
Is this why in some matches, I notice some net shots played quite far away from the net? How to choose when to play far from the net or a net tumbler?
Placing your shot further away from the net is 1 of the tactics against strong net players. The reason is obviously to lessen the effect of the spinning tumbling net shot. When to place your shot closer/further the net depends mostly on your skills, situations and opponent. It's easier to decide to go for a drop close to the net if you are also good in other shots - e.g. clears and smash. As a rule of thumb I think when playing against a strong net player, is not recommended to return his serve with drop close to net. He is at that moment positioned in the base and possibly anticipating your net return. After that you can always play a close to net drop after successfully moving him away from net. What do you think?
Fully agree. Example Olympics 2000 Ji Xin Peng kept Hendrawen away from the net. In the 2nd game Ji played more net and Hendrawen came back. LAtter half of the game, Ji plays off the net more so playing net when Hendrawen is at the back of the court. Result, Ji wins. Compare to the Q/F match Sun Jun vs Hendrawen. SJ plays lots of net when Hendrawen at forecourt. Loses many points. SJ can only win on long rallies but fitness suspect. First game close. 2nd game Hendrawen rolls out the winners against a tired SJ.
