I was playing at Talisman yesterday and my friend and I had a good rally going on here. He kept taunting me because my smashes were either flat, hitting the white tape part or if I'm lucky, just cruises over the net. I'm not the offensive person, more defensive; even if the shuttle was really high and you could hit a perfect smash with timing, I just lob it. Anywhos, he really pissed me off and I flat smashed it. He wasn't prepared so he hit it high. Then, it happened. For the first time in my life, I successfully did a jump smash. I jumped up in the air, knees bent, and with a flick of a wrist, I heard a whomp sound. It goes OVER the net and wasn't returned by my friend. In fact, it hit the line and goes in! But WAIT! I noticed that after the impact, it looked like it was just floating down towards the net. It didn't fly zooming down like I see on TV, but it looks like a drop I usually do. But how can it be a drop since I heard a whomp sound? From my point of view, it looks like he didn't react quickly to return it and it looked like he had lead feet, moving so slowly towards the shuttle. So did I do the jump smash wrong or was this an illusion or what? If it helps, I was using new nylon shuttles (Yonex Mavis 300) Thanks.
huh? a whomp sound...? i think you mightve sliced the bird, otherwise you have waaay to high string tension, you cant flex to racquet to get power (doubt this one since there was a "whomp" sound which im assuming was more a of "pok" sound), or you have waaay to low string tension (doubt this one too since low string tension doesnt make pok sounds). are you sure your racquet had no angle when you hit it?
http://www3.telus.net/public/camac15/Badminton/diagram.jpg Maybe this diagram can explain. The X is also the spot where I heard the sound; the sound is very hard to type, because it's not a pok sound, but it sounds like when you quickly exhaled air(?) It's very "heavy-sounding"
People who fire large caliber pistols can sometimes see the bullet flying `very slowly' away from the pistol. This is an optical illusion, or, rather, misjudgement by our brain, because the angular rate of change of the position of the object is perceived to be slow by our eyes. I think this happened during your jump smash: the trajectory of the shuttle is such that the angular rate of change seen by you is slow, and your brain interprets that as a slow shuttle. The same `illusion' works when you have a fast smash directed at your chest level. It will look slow, but if you get fooled into believing that it is actually slow, your racquet will be raised too late.
also possibly ive noticed when you are higher up lookin at a match or a game the shuttle seems to be going alot slower, mabe u just jumped 10 feet high and got the same kinda view from where others would see it in the stands
Yep, I agree with what has been said. The brian can fool the eyes and ears. Everytime I smash, I think it is a cr*p smash if I can't hear that whooshing sound regardless if my oppenent has returned the shuttle or not. But this is not a very good measurement of how to do a good smash cause it also depends on the gradient at which you hit it and whether your oppenent can return the shuttle. I critisize myself if I can't hear that sound and my oppenent can't return the shuttle when in actual fact I should be praising myself cause I won the point. A good smash is like how tennis players smash, using your whole body and jumping in the air to create that downforce. It looks to you that the shuttle might be slow but fast to your oppenents.
Don't forget, what you see on TV are pros. These guys can BOMB and are the best-of-the-best. You shouldn't try to compare yourself with the pros, unless you are a pro. But at the same time, it's good to aim for that goal.
well. the actual test if you really smashed it, or did some sort of slice/miss-hit. is were the shuttle landed. mid-court? front?
http://www3.telus.net/public/camac15/Badminton/diagram22.gif I'm standing on the T. I love diagrams EDITED**
with T? there are 12 T's in a badminton court!! but if the blue dot is were it landed. then it's the brain-fooling..
Yeah, I know I should be further back from the T, but tis my first time at jump smashing... There's always next time
