Is it really that important to lift my racket elbow and drop my racket head to produce a bigger swing and then clear/smash? cos what i do now is just drop the racket head a little bit (near my neck) and then swing with a small circle but then my clears can reach the baseline already, but should i pursue the correct technique?
ALWAYS pursue the correct technique there is no question bout it.. yes u can do a lot of shots with decent quality without using the "Text book" swing but the text book swing is there and has been studied and refined to bring out the most potenial. If u choose not to go for the correct technique cos u can do some shots as is. Then chances are you will limited your room to improve.
I think the 'text book' swing will produce power to fly the birdy from baseline to baseline with the minimum strength where else I think the swing you are doing might take up more energy and may strain some parts of your muscle if you repeatedly do it for a long time. "Text Book Swing" = Optimum power, accuracy and drain less energy. Any other kinda swing might equals to Good power, maybe not as accurate and drain more energy compared to the text book swing. Just my opinion, any thoughts?
limited swing makes it more deceiptive? i tend to believe a limited swing makes it more..ineffective in terms of power. If limited swing makes it more deceiptive.. wouldn't everyone start playing with just wrsit shots Personaly i use incomplete swing in situation because they are Faster not because they'r more deceiptive. Where u don't have time to perform a full swing and early interception is more important then power. Like a net interception in doubles where all u need is to be able to hit the bird as early as possible and little tap is all u need. If you want to go deceiptive, you really need to learn to make the exact same stoke on different types of shots, they have to looks the same wether it is a clear/smash/drop. Your shots become more deceiptive if all stokes are identical , don't necessary need to limit your swing to be deceiptive.
ah. i see. that makes sense. i know one deception where limited swing is good. i make small and slow movement of raquet head and accelerate (fingers/wrist) in the last moment. i think some players think i play a drop in this situation, but then it's an attacking clear.
Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency... Actually, it's better to shorten your swing and limit backswing or long windup. TrueBlue got it right the first time around. If you're gonna to deceive your opponent with a drop, you'll have more control and better body balance with a shorter swing than a longer windup one, not to mention less time for the opponent to read your shot. Same thing can be said with net kills and drives. At higher paced games, fast recovery is key to the difference between maintaining the offense and staying on the defensive. Recovery meant not just positionally on court, but also stroke-wise. Less swing arc means faster recovery to hit the next shot. That's also why developing fingerpower is so important, it makes shorter swing more powerful. When doing overhead shots, think 'Punch' instead of 'Swinging'. Like every other overhead shots, clearing baseline to baseline is possible with shorter swing when timing and position is good. I assuming that 'textbook swing' you're refering to is the drawing of your elbow with the racquet head point towards the shuttle when you prepare your shot. Racquet's always up unless you're late getting the shot.
Totally agree that a shortened swing has its rightful use and purpose Just saying if you are only gonna use it on drop shots, it wouldn't be more deceptive cos you'r using a different swing on your other shots. Then the opponent will be able to tell that is a drop shot.. how is that more Deceptive. But as u said, in a fast paste game, the shortened swing is faster, takes less time to recover, less time to react, less time to prepare, you'r using the short swing effectively to beat down your opponent by speed. Not being more deceptive. If you can use the same shorten stoke and make all the other shots as well other then just drop shots, then you are adding your score on the deceptive area. Was trying to bring out the point that if one should develope identical stoke in making different shots. You can be deceptive no matter if it is a full swing or shortern limited.
Then running along this line of thought, it's far better and easier to adopt a shorten swing for all overhead shots than a long wind-up one. Deception is not just about misleading the opponent, but also about hiding your true intention until the very last second. Of course, this is easier said than done as it requires lots of practice. But if there's anything worth the time and trouble to practice, this is it. Chessymonkey, we might be talking about the same thing differently but I just want to clarify that I am refering to the longer swing as one that a player's chest has turned almost a full 90deg from the front to execute. The shorten one would have the player's chest facing almost 45~50deg from the front before swinging. That way, your point of view throughout the swing would include the shuttle, the target and the developing situation in front.
very much so, seems to me we r just looking at the question at a different angle. To me, I believe its always good to learn the standard swing first. From there, you can improve your swing speed, swing power so you can perform the same quality shots with a shorter swing distance to get the speed advantage. There are times you willl want a to cap the full potenial of your possible output power like if you'r setup for a perfect smash opportunity. You will have to have mastered the standard full swing to back that up. What i was concern was that iFinale asked if he should skip the part of "pursue the correct technique", and i think thats a bad idea. Plus he mentioned that "swing with a small circle" The way you interput it as the swing with a shorterned traveling angle, like instead of going from 90 degree to 0 degree, u cut it down to 45degree to 0 degree but what i was thinking is that he was refering to swing with elbow as the center of radius making a small circle instead of having the shoulder as the center of radius, that we all know its not an effective way to perform a swing.
not to mention that once you try and learn the correct technique it will be hard, it is very hard to unlearn a shot that you have been using the wrong technique with.
What do you mean chessmonkey: shoulder should be pivot point (point of rotation) or elbow? I think for a "limited swing" it should be elbow. In a book of the german nationalcoach he mention this swing of mainly only bringing the elbow in front (from elbow strating position close to the ear of racket side, with upper arm relaxed and raquet head pointing to floor, but with not much body rotation cause of time limitations-for example in doubles); because of this hand and racket follow passively and you can clear/drive/smash (incl. wrist action). He referrs to some chinese women double players (names not mentioned) who would use this action. But my idea is: Isn't it possible to have for example 2 swing actions, one for short time strokes (under pressure) + one for "a lot of time situations", each similar for all three strokes (attacking clear, smash, fast drop)?
you can trueblue, it's just that for short time strokes, you don't drop your elbow down that much u just drag it back but during pt of contact ur arm should still be around 170 degrees straightened. for long strokes, you juz drop ur elbow n racket head down, and then travel with your elbow first and then near pt of contact you extend your arm and wham =D