Ok, here's the deal, before i had these real great smashes that would barely go over the net and land in mid court. Now, when I try to smash, my smashes are: -Out -Slow -Landing in about end court I'm 5"9 and I play mixed. I think it might be the fact that I used to jump rope and have more powerful lower calves, and I haven't jumped for at least a week. Any hints or explanations? Edit: I also have two kason TI 88's, On is supposedly strung at 23 and another at 21, I have not restrung either of them in the last two months, is it possible the string tension dropped?
one week should make neglibile difference. Just make sure your racket face swings in the direction you want to hit.
Perhaps your contact point is a little further back than previously. Make sure that you are getting yourself in a position so that the contact point for your smash is somewhat in front of you rather than directly above you. Is is possble that you've started using more of a slicing motion when trying to hit power smashes? If you want them faster, make sure that you are hitting them flat or squarely. And be sure to stay fairly relaxed, don't grip too tightly... keep it fairly loose (& just let it tighten naturally as the racket head accelerates). Heed Shifty's advice.
yeah, if you get nervous, you tense up and lose a lot of control. a lot of my opponents do that, they feel its a chance to kill it off so sometimes blow it out wide due to muscles tensing too early. treat a smash like any other shot, clear or drop, be smooth about it, slow and relaxed, then tense it hard at the last moment.
Very possible, even likely, that you've lost some string tension in 2 months. Note that some ppl get more power with looser strings (due the larger sweetspot) while other get more power from tighter strings. This appears to depend on your stroking mechanics & style as well as how accurately you hit the shuttle on your stringbed. For a smash (or overhead clear), you should contact the shuttle on the midline of the stringbed somewhat higher than the sweet spot. If you hit off-center (off the midline) you may lose some control & power). If you are hitting at the sweetspot or lower in the bed, then this may be the reason that your smashes are weaker (and have a trajectory that is less steep).
Whenever you hit a fast shot with the racket traveling primarily in a linear fashion, you would use the sweet spot. Drives and net kills would be examples of this. However when the racket head is travelling thru a large arc, the tip of the racket has a much greater (linear) velocity than the sweet spot (since the tip travels a thru a greater distance in the same amt of time). The ideal contact point on the stringbed would be somewhere between the sweetspot and the tip. The exact location may be a function of the string tension (but I'm not certain about this last detail). So when you hit a smash or o'head clear, you would contact the shuttle a bit higher in the string bed.
All I can say is that when I lost my smash, I got it back by: Not trying too hard, and going back to the basics. I can't remember what it was for me, but it was something you would think would be pretty minor. It's like when you think there's a problem with your computer or something, and after a lot of messing around you finally realise it wasn't plugged in >_>.
SystemicAnomaly, how did you come to the conclusion that contact above the sweetspot was more optimal for a smash? Sure, theoretically, the tip of the racquet is travelling faster, but that doesn't mean transfer of energy is more efficient higher up the string bed. I would be surprised if this was the case. Of course, without access to high resolution, high speed motion capture, it would be pretty hard to prove one way or the other. However, at the end of the day, I think concentrating on whether one is making contacting an inch more or less than this or that point is counter productive. Best to work on the process and the "feeling" (proprioception) of a good smash, methinks. Wayne Young
Very good points Kiwi-person. Don't know if it's ever been done with elite badminton player, but high-speed studies of accomplished tennis players has borne this out. When hitting overhead smashes and serves, it has been observed that the ball, indeed, is hit higher in the stringbed than the sweetspot. However if you get too high in the bed, close to the frame, the energy transfer would be diminshed since the stringbed is much less responsive up there. I've heard the very claim made about badminton players hitting overhead shots some years back. However this was so long ago, I can't really cite any references for you. You are correct about concentrating on the exact location of that optimal stringbed contact area. As you say, it would undoubtedly be counterproductive to try to figure out is that point was 2 or 3cm higher in the bed. Experimentation & "feel" is the way to go. Probably the emphasis that I should have made was that perhaps thatoneaznguy was letting the shuttle drop a bit too much &, as a result, he was hitting it low in the bed. If he were to consider this as a possibility, then it could conceivably make him aware more aware & aid him in developing that "feel" thru experimentation (such as swinging just a hair sooner). I am most aware of the part of stringbed that I'm using when hitting net shots. For a net kill, it's pretty much the sweetspot. For net drops close to net height, I'd hit the shuttle away from the sweetspot, usually high in the stringbed nearer to the frame where I'd get more of a cutting action & less of a bounce off the strings. If the shuttle gets quite a bit below the top of the net, then I do aim for the sweetspot to get that added responsiveness (that added bounce).
Well, thanks for the hints everyone! Today I went to train and I'm pretty sure now that it's my positioning that's the problem. Thanks all.
i have encounter this problem before.. and for me, what really help is relax you shoulder, arm, and mostly upper body... and your foreare and wrist "snap".. like whipping a ball... wat also helps is follow through the motion of the smash.. and twisting your hip... hope that helps and sorry if its mentioned before
It's the point of contact and the shift in spped, which is harder for me to hit accurately and fast at the same time.
well, the point of contact for any rear court shot, idealy should be the same. the shift in speed is basiclly how fast you swing your racquet. one thing not to do is start the rapid swing early. keep the action slow until the last second and really hammer it. that way, you use the same amount of energy as a long and fast swing, but in less time so the power is maximised
