I played my friend for 3 hours one on one and i never won a game, he keeps on slicing the birdy so its hard to determine whether its a smash or a drop becuz the swings look so similar, so he catches me off balance so i can't get back fast enuf when he clears. I think it might also help if i understood the mechanics of the smash, would someone mind explaining it to me. Does it cause the birdy to spin more and slow it down depending on the angle of contact?? When you regurlarly hit the birdy should the birdy spin??
The shuttle spins naturally because of the way it's designed. With a smash, the energy of the swing is all transferred into forward velocity. In a hard sliced quick drop, the energy of the swing increases the spin rate. So, not only does the shuttle come off the racquet with less velocity, it's spinning much faster, causing it to drop faster. A hard smash-sliced quick drop can be a potent combination. When you're in a situation where you're expecting a smash, your eye may pick up the quick motion of the racquet and you're sure it's going to be a smash, so you prepare for the shuttle to get to you, but it takes a dive and falls short.
3 or 4 things to try... A well-timed split-step is still the best answer here. Try to pick up this guy's rhythm so that you figure out the timing of your split-hop with respect to the execution of his shots. It should enable you to get to more of his disguised shots. Usually ppl get burned by the well-disguised sliced-drop rather than clear. Since you are getting burned by his clears that perhaps you are moving forward just a little bit too early. He is probably hitting quite a lot of sliced-drops so that you get to expect them... he is setting up your expectations & then throwing in clears if he detects that you are moving forward prematurely. Sometimes you don't even have to move in the wrong direction. He might get you to shift your weight in the wrong direction as he is about to contact the shuttle in your eagerness to get to the drop. By properly timing your hop, you should be of-balance less often. Another thing that you can do is study your friend's game. Watch him playing against someone else. Study his shots for quite a while & see if you can start to read his intentions. For any given situation, you may see that he has several options. If you watch his stroke-making long enuff you may be able to pick up some aspect of his swing or body posture that may give you a clue as to which shot he will execute (even tho' he is pretty good at disguising his intentions). You might even pick up some clues (aka tells) on a subconcious level with enuff study. You may also pick up some tendencies in his basic game strategies. A 3rd thing you can do is listen for the sound that his racket strings make when contacting the shuttle. You should be able to hear the difference between a shot that is brushed with one that is hit squarely. As you are landing your split-step you should hear this sound which will give you yet another clue as to which type of shot he is hitting. A power smash will employ more pronation so that the shuttle is hit squarely & no extra spin is imparted to the shuttle; it will still have its natural spin (due to the overlap of the feathers) but very little added spin if hit solidly. A clear will also usually employ pronation prior to contact. If there is much pronation after contact depends on how much follow-thru is used. A sliced shot will have much less pronation of the forearm prior to contact with the shuttle (there may be some pronation after the shuttle has already left his stringbed; not very important from your standpoint). I'm not sure if you will be to see pronation or the lack of pronation, but listening for the sound should really help. Perhaps if you study his shots enuff, you'll pick up on the pronation aspect... you may notice his angle of attack on the shuttle.
Although SystemicAnomaly has once again explained it wonderfully well, i would still want you to know that use the search function to search for some general topics, like clears, smashes, slices and etc. You will find a lot of stuff. There have been great threads already.
In beginner badminton, its probably ok to look at your opponent's stroke to anticipate his shot as there are no deception. As you step towards advanced players, there are going to be a lot more deceptive shots and you have to learn to focus on the shuttle instead of his racket already. Basically you lose some reaction time, and make up for it with physical speed. Train up your footwork so that its built into your reflex. The next time he gets into position to play such deceptive shots, try to anticipate that he's going to pull out any shot from that position and you have to make sure that you're ready to move with the correct footwork and body posture when the situation comes.
