Hey guys, I know you all are probably professional badminton players, but I am far from it! I play a little bit.........a LITTLE bit.. hehe and I need your help if at all possible!!! Can you describe the techniques of brushes and kills??? If you can help me out in any way, please feel free to respond!!! Thank you very much!
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 ? It's generally easier with a "pan handle grip". Brushes are for those shots really close to the net.
Re: ... kills ? I think I've long forgotten this grip ;-). Is anyone still using it when he/she plays at the front?