Hello, I played a really tough game on Friday and my body seems dead right now but I type nonetheless. I played a 15 point game with a friend that is stronger/has a better footwork than me in a singles game. It was pretty even until 10-10 but den I started loosing like crazy and the game ended up to be 15-10 for him. Now that I analyze it, i saw 2 flaws in the way I played. My endurance needs sum work and my smashes need mroe aim. The endurance part I'm working on right now but I needed some help with the aiming part. The last two points were lost because I smashed and I thought it was a perfect smash. It sounded excellent, felt good and it was a smooth stroke. However, it went outside the doubles sideline -.- I talked to a few friends and one said that they aim their smashes with their foot, the other said his shoulders and the other said he aimed with this arm. Can anyone confirm the correct method? Generally I have good aiming when doing other shots but when I incorporate power into the swing, I have difficulty aiming. Thank you~
to my knowledge, your follow through is the indicator of where your smash will go. straight follow through, straight smash. If you take a look at your follow through right after you smash, you will probably notice that it is pointing in the same direction that your smash has just gone. Hope this helps, please ask again if it needs further explanation G
for me now I just think about where I want to hit and thats where it goes. to get to that level though there are two basic things to think about when hitting. The angle of the smash and the floor target. If you can aim a clear or drop you should be able to aim a smash, its pretty intuitive. Technically the shuttle is going to go in the direction your racket ends up pointing. You won't ever really ahve teh opportunity to think about that though, it needs to become intuitive if you really want to improve your accuracy.
Aiming takes lots of practice just like darma says.. its not like a thing anyone can describe to you and u suddenly master smash... it takes lots of practice to get the feel u know what i mean... But I think it will be a better start focusing on generating more power rather than aim... Once you can generate great power and speed in your smash, you become less demanding to smash on the line because you know your smash post great threat to your opponent, and his return wont be as good as u expected... However going back to this aiming part.. usually I stick my non racket arm up (creating a window view..), get behind the shuttle and wack it while its right on topfront of my head... the directionality is determined by the wrist and body position... timing and everything is also important... u figure it out yourself
Let's backtrack for a second... Your first 3 points suggest that when the score was 10-10, fatigue was setting in. Was this correct? Typically, when you're tired and had long rallies, you're chasing the shuttle more (you may not be fully behind the shuttle), the contact point drops lower(you're not as quick to smash), thus your standard approach to the smash had changed. Additionally, when you were "losing like crazy", did psychological/mental focus add to your frustration? Like what the other members had stated... you need to practise (there is no magic racquet that will solve your problem). A simple drill consist of using only half a court, and a partner who can (deep) clear your smashes. When you start the drill, the first 2 hits are half smashes with accuracy, then the third shuttle is a full smash aiming for the same spot as the previous 2 shuttles. As you feel more comfortable, every other clear can be the full smash but you need to aim for the same spot all the time. To make it more challenging, you now need to "get" your smashes. Using the full court, your stationary partner now deep clears to various spots (in the back court) and you must smash (as hard as you can but with accuracy) at your partner. After 200 smashes, your partner can move to another point in the court, and repeat. Cheers!
learnign to aim smashes? try doing fast drops, make em go "fast"( ) and strait down just a strait angle down, not the slow drop that goes with an arc. try doignt that "drop" on the line. when mastered hit that drop harder, and harder, untill it's called a smash, or a sticksmash..
In my case, fatigue can make a huge difference. If I am late getting back, I have a tendency to jump leaning back; hence, the only source of power I have is wrist snap. This sometimes results in a steep smash but the direction can be very hard to control since the racquet starts and stops in such a limited motion. In other words, wild smashes outside the doubles lines are not infrequent.
I haven't quite had the same problem but when I was less experienced I tended to smash At my opponent too much, or very close to them, and they returned fairly easily what were powerful smashes. I say practise makes perfect. Play more games, get fitter, more experience, and you'll play better. Also, I think Break-My-String's post had very good points, there are a lot of factors you pointed out there that could have affected the game at 10 all. I also like to vary my smash as much as possible, mostly between a smash in open space, a smash At the person, and a full cross-court smash, making it more difficult for the opponent to return.
just remember its practice and not a tournament so practice aiming all the time even if the bird goes out then once you hit the bird out look at ur shoulders and see where they are pointing and look at your grip to make sure its still right. after a while you will realise that a slip in your grip or a slow shoulder can cahnge the direction of the bird alot. make sure you keep you non racket arm up to square your shoulders then from there u can either turn them to change direction or turn your racket to change direction.