Hi. I have this problem which I think is instability in movement on court. I shall explain my problem. During matches, when I have to receive a ball which is quite far yet reachable, I stretch normally and I manage to return the ball. When I return, my racket leg is near the ball. However, after I return the shot, I find that I bring my other leg closer to my racket leg. In the end, my both legs end up being side by side. This creates a problem as I need to take extra time to recover and be ready for the next shot. This is even more serious to a singles player than a doubles player as nobody is there to cover for a singles player, which is different in the case of a doubles player. I'm not sure whether it's because of poor footwork or poor stability of my body during movement. May I ask you guys to help with this problem. Please tell me what you think my problem is. Also please tell me how I could improve it or at the best solve it. For your information, I'm quite fat and heavy- 100kg. Hehe. I think that this could also be a problem. My friends think that I should be a doubles player. However, my interest is in singles, although I like doubles. So please help me. I need to train and improve for tournaments that are coming up in a few months. Thanks.
Your footwork sounds correct. For a short or medium lunge, you can recover by pushing off the racket leg. For a deep lunge, however, you will need to bring your non-racket leg alongside first. This should not cause a problem for you, providing that your stroke choice is sensible. When you are forced into a deep lunge (normally forward at the net), you are typically taking the shuttle very low. In any case, you are out of position. Attempting to play an attacking return (such as a net shot) is probably going to make you lose the rally. So play a very high lift. You will have time to walk back to your base
That tendency has been my mistake as well, kaizen. FYI, I'm 174 cm, 90kgs (was 104 kgs in March 2005 ). Not exactly muscular I've been too engrossed at net play, which causes most of my loss at that point. Forcing myself to return high instead of net at that condition (a very high one, like what Gollum suggested) is the best way. If you manage to return it high all the way to baseline, you will limit their good shot choices as well (ample time for everything)
a problem that i have is that when i lift the bird, it either does not go high and far enough or just hits the net :crying:
If you're out of position, you would probably need all: shoulder, forearm, wrist, finger power Dependent on how low it gets, you may need to NOT use the backhand grip (typical grip at front of net). If you have enough angle at it, whack it as hard as you can, then walk back to base
Hmm..That seems the best way to me also. That's what I do normally- hit as much as I can to the baseline. But I think I want to improve the situation. Because I don't think I'll be able to do that with every opponent in every game. So, is there any way to improve the situation or at the best solve the problem?? Thanks.
You can improve the situation by increasing your fitness, shedding any excess fat, and improving your footwork and racket skills. If you are faster around the court, then you will be able to take the shuttle earlier and with a smaller lunger. But no matter how fast and skillful you are, there will always be situations when you are forced to take the shuttle late and hit a high lift, using a very deep lunge into your forecourt.
Hmm..Alright. Thanks for the tip. This has been told to me by all my friends as well as team-mates for improving my game. One of them even told me I have reached a stage where I can no longer improve because of my fitness. And that if I want to improve my game, I have to improve my fitness first. Now, since almost everyone has given me the same advice, I'm going to improve my fitness. All for badminton. Current status: height-178cm, weight-100kg. Though it is true that there will be situations in which I will be forced to take the shuttle late and hit a high lift, I think that by improving my fitness, I'll be able to reduce the occurence of these situations.
The old adage is a good one: "Get fit to play badminton; don't play badminton to get fit." Of course, whether you need to do this depends on your personal desire for improvement and achievement in the sport. There are many different possible limiting factors, and it's worth considering whether you have a weakness in one particular area. If you do, then this will be the most efficient way to improve (i.e. least work, most reward). For example: If you have good racket skills and fitness, but are clumsy moving about the court: focus on footwork. If you are skillful but slow: focus on achieving a good bodyweight and improving aerobic fitness and leg strength (say, by cycling). If you are fast around the court, but still make lots of errors: focus on skill practices (hitting technique). If you are generally fit and skillful, but lack flexibility: stretch more (this one is me!). This will allow you to lunge and jump more effectively, and also reduce muscle fatigue and susceptibility to injury. Note that all of these terms (skillful, fast...) are relative to the other components. When I say that I am skillful and fit, I mean relative to my flexibility. I'm not bragging about my ability; rather, I am identifying the area that I believe is holding me back the most. What matters most is identifying the areas that you are weakest -- these are the bottlenecks to your personal achievement. So the easiest improvement comes from fixing your most obvious, glaring weaknesses. After that, it becomes harder to improve, because you must work on every element concurrently to raise your performance.
Wow. Thanks a lot. That's really helpful. For me is 'get fit to play badminton'. So this one really helps. Thanks a lot man.
Hmmm. Do you have a rival or something? If yes it's gonna help a lot. Just think of him/her, and poof! the motivation will be there waiting for you to get started. It should in most cases. I have a lot of rivals in my team. So I think I don't have to get worried about not haviong enough motivation. Or maybe you can think of your crush or girlfriend. This could also help you. Or why not think of your passion-BADMINTON. Your passion for badminton should get you all excited. Think about the first time you fell in love with badminton and remember the moment you were ready to do anything for badminton. Maybe you don't have. But if you have, it's gonna be very useful. Hehe.
I'm only keen to play, not keen to train, regardless of rival Insofar, I've only played to have fun, but in the due process, keen to change things for the better (some sort of train and play) This is the slowest way to improve . So my training regime usually just involves half court challenges However, that (and lack of coaching), contributes to my significantly high standard deviation in performance on the baseline One day, I can play against one of the players for 15-13 consistently, next day.. 15-0 loss consistently whoa... that doesn't help
Ok. Well maybe it doesn't work for everyone. If you want to improve fast, then you gotta identify your obvious weaknesses. Hehe. I think Gollum has already said that in an earlier post. Well, you've got consistency, just that it's in the wrong way. Haha. Hmmm. I also used to play badminton for fun, but that was a year ago. From the age of 13 to 15 I was playing badminton for fun after my friends had introduced me to it. We had formed a group by then and used to play almost everyday in school. Within a few months I had improved greatly and I had become the 2nd best in group from the last few. It's only last year that I joined a Junior College and I got into the team, which reminds me, my secondary school never had a badminton school team. Haha. Oops. Totally off-topic. Hehe.
