Hey guys, I need some tips and pointers, but before that, here is a bit of background: Oh btw I have read all the other flick serve threads T__T I have been playing some casual doubles for some time now, with the same group of people. This is the first year I am starting to take badminton seriously. I serve backhand, 100% of the time short service. I have been relying on a fairly good short service to avoid people just taping the birdie down, however there are one or two of the club players that are catching on and now lunging and attacking my services. I have realized it is time to practice flick serving. I have been practicing flicking in my basement, flicking the birdie into the low quality ceiling . I have not been coached how to do this so i read alot of the other threads on this, and watching alot of doubles videos. I use a 45 degree or a bit higher method. I uncock my wrist, place the birdie Here are my questions to start with: 1) When you hold your birdie, is the face of your racket perpendicular to the ground or at an angle? 2) Is your birdie held parallel to the floor or at an angle? Now about my general movement throughtout the stroke: elbow up, 45 degrees, wrist cocked, fingers loose. Starting of motion: at the same time, I squeeze fingers (most pressure on thumb), tense up my whole arm and forcefully bring my elbow down. I think I should be doing all of these at the same time since there is such a short distance between the birdie and the racket face. Is this correct? And should I be forcefully bringing my elbow down? Lastly but not least, I have been experiencing some pain in my wrist and forearm after doing 1 hour of flicking...is this normal?
where is your thumb? on the cone or on the shaft? 1)perpendicular, when starting i cock it at an angle back a little bit then flick my wrist forward. 2)slight angle and i mean SLIGHT. as in 4-7 degrees or so. Should be exactly the same as if you would short serve. I also find it better to flick my wrist before forcefully bringing my elbow down. Its not really hard to flick to the back of the court-just hard to make it land right on the back line/ corner. 1 hours of CONTINIOUS flicking? Hellz ya.
No because a violent motion like this will signal to your opponent that you are flick serving. Unless you start forcefully bringing your elbow down for low serves as well. I would say a slight forearm motion plus uncocking of the wrist (i.e. similar to low serve motion) and follow through.
1) I recommend that your racket is not pointing straight down ("vertically down"), but held at an angle. This allows biomechanically more "natural" (comfortable) movements. Also, hardly any professionals hold the racket pointing straight down. The amount of angle is up to you. 45 degrees is fine. 2) Hold the shuttle so that it points in towards the strings, not down towards the ground. Again, the exact amount is up to you -- but don't hold it pointing straight down. Holding the shuttle in this way helps you make a flatter low serve. If the shuttle is pointing straight down, then it will tend to "pop up" when you hit it. For the flick serve, you are going to release the shuttle fractionally earlier than the low serve. This time will allow it to drop very slightly and point more towards the ground. General hitting Don't forcefully bring your elbow down. Moving the elbow like this will make the swing too long and wild. Keep it short and controlled. I recommend you don't concentrate on cocking/uncocking the wrist. This can lead to you using the wrist forcefully, which doesn't work. The wrist is better relaxed and neutral; let it follow your movements rather than forcing it. A slight turn of the racket face outwards (as if hitting to the left, for a right-hander) before you serve can help. Then, as you hit, turn it inwards as you flick the racket forwards, and allow it to follow after in a relaxed way. It's great that you are dedicated to practising this serve, but listen to your body. A bit of muscular soreness is no problem, but don't let it escalate into pain and chronic inflammation. Take it easy.
Thanks a BUNCH guys. My flick serve has improved dramatically, and I even caught many players on their rush this friday. I will keep practicing until I get a deceptive short serve to match my flick...wait, the other way around
Excellent. I rarely fool anyone, but then again, I prefer to play people of slightly higher level than I am, so I guess that would explain it. I don't think it works on ppl of that level relative to me, except in rare cases. Also, I find that I can't trick ppl with the flick as much as I can with fake long serves and slowing down to serve short.
Assuming your opponents are standing at the service line waiting to rush your low service, I don't see why a flick serve can't work once in a while. On the other hand, maybe because they're better than you, they are more relaxed and don't rush your low serve, so they can return your flick serves comfortably. Download the 2006 Uber Cup match between Matsuda/Akao vs DeWitt/Severien. During the first set, the Japanese pair flick served >75% of the time, and caught out the Dutch pair (one of whom was >6') several times because they've probably never played opponents who flicked served that much.
Most players I play actually don't prefer rushing the short serve. They're actually slightly afraid of the high serve, so they stand slightly more back. Thusly (yes, "thusly" is a word, I didn't misspell "thus"), I can actually somtimes fool them with a short serve. Only the better players I've played stand closer to the line, because they know they have the footwork to get back to the flick in time and still drop or flat smash it.
Yes, "thusly" is a word, but it's a horrible word. It's a weird variant of the word "thus". Just because a word's in the dictionary doesn't mean you have to use it Using a word like "thusly" sounds wrong and feels wrong. It draws undue attention to a functional part of your sentence. Prefer the commonplace and simple to the peculiar and arabesque, unless you're going for literary effect (and even then, beware).
I just watched that match that Storkbill mentioned. It was very good, but it is unfortunate that 80% of the replays shown were of the Japanese team. Even on some spectacular kills by Severien they would either not show them again, or show the Japanese team fumbling to defend. Shame, really.
I dunno. It's a habit I'm getting from my English class. I dunno, it works for me. Undue attention? Well, I guess you'll just have to look away every time I write words like that. Still need to work on that serve, rarely catch anyone on it, and if I do, it's probably someone I can already beat without it.
Most of the people at my club are not that good. Thus, they just stand back when receiving the serve and lift it to the back on a short serve. However, since I am the only one serving backhand and used to constantly short serve, I was the target of alot of aggressive returns. I fixed the problem though. One more thing though: When doing my flicks, i either hit it straight or pull it right. Im guessing this has to do with the followthrough. However, how do I control the direction of the flick?
To control the direction, use the wrist? Also depends on if you slightly rush or delay the contact to move left or right. I dunno. Can anyone please explain this more thoroughly?
For straight or rightwards flicks, it's pretty easy. Just change the timing slightly to hit more or less towards the right. For leftwards flicks, the racket motion is against the desired direction of the shuttle. That makes them harder. You can help your leftwards flicks by turning the shuttle so that the feathers point to the left (obviously you do this at the last moment, so your opponents don't see it). You can also use this for your rightwards serves if you need to.
The backhand flick serve in doubles will progressively be less useful as the distance between the receiver and his front service line gets longer. You may end up giving up a point needlessly from a thank-you-very-much smash to your flick.
err, eyah, but isn't the entire point of a flick to get your opponent to step away from toeing the line? it's like "you wanna stand there? so close to me? OK...." *flick birdy* *grin like an idiot* and try to hold your laughter as you say sorry (only joking...I'm a very nice guy on court..or I try to be..)
the "tall" lady plays at my Club, Karina de Wit...she's msotly very smart, can't believe she got 'caught' so many times...
No, the flick serve in doubles is to keep in check the receiver, who is standing at near the front service line, from rushing your low serve. If the receiver stands away from the front service line, then it is always the low short backhand serve that the server should use. This way, the receiver will have no alternative but to take the shuttle below his waist and to return your serve high, instead of down or flat. The server has thus achieved his objective and he and his partner start off the rally with an advantage.
I think 'below' the hip is a bit exagurated (sp?)...many players can make a semi-offensive shot from below net hight...taking a serve below hip-height is a big no-no
