brushes & kills ?

Jessica,

I'm not a pro (like yourself, far far from it). However, I maybe able to put my
2 cents on the table, and get this thread going. People here may correct me,
or add more that I left out.

I'm assuming you're referring "net" kill here. Basic actions are the same on
both forehand and backhand, except the grip.

Kill - Your opponent just execute a weak net return that is relatively high on the
net (say, 1 foot) . What you do is lunge forward (perhaps even hop, and
while you may still be in the air), have your racquet up and in front of you. At
this point, there are two ways to kill: 1) snap your wrist down 2) tighten your
grip to just use your finger power. In either case, racquet face is down on
contact. The closer the bird to the net, the less wrist movement you can
afford.

brush - Your opponent has executed a tight net return (or a drop shot).
You're alert and/or athletic enough to jump/lunge forward. Instead of
executing your stroke as in the "kill", you move your racquet almost
parallel to the net, with virtually no downward movement of your arm or
wrist. You just
brush the base of the shuttle cord. A very gentle force (and small
movement) would be enough to bring the bird just over the net and sharply
down.
Generally, the contact point is at or very close to the top of the tape.

Contrasting the two strokes, the brush is an attacking shot that avoid having
your racquet touching the net during execution. In principle, you can brush down
a bird that just roll over the top of the tape with no gap left between the net and
the bird. Just make sure you contact the bird no farther than the top of the net.

 

... kills ?

i'd go with version 2 of your kill description rather than wrist snap version.

as you move/lunge fwd with your racket UP, push the (loosely-gripped) handle fwd so that the head lags a bit. as Raymond states, use finger power to contact the bird by squeezing the grip. if done properly, the squeezing action should accelerate the racket head fwd for a short distance.

this kill should get the bird moving in a downward direction very quickly. do not try to power it as you would a smash. a short quick action is the key here.

 

Re: ... kills ?

Hmm.. If the net return is really bad, I'd prefer a snap of my wrist, although
still no back swings (generally applied to all net shots).

 

Re: ... kills ?

I think I've long forgotten this grip ;-). Is anyone still using it when he/she
plays at the front?