I'm watching the XD finals for the All England SS, and Gao Ling seems to have the habit of rubbing her racket handle/grip against her shirt before she serves or receives. I have heard of people who rub the shuttle against their strings before serving, but not much else. Perhaps people would like to share their observation of why people found such gestures, and what they've witnessed in their own games with others, professionals, etc.
No, because she does it almost every time. I dont think it would be necessary to dry up sweat from a grip. I don't see how that would work. You'd think it'd be absorbed into the grip already. Also, it's not really the portion of the handle where she grips, anyway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP1Y3gCRqEY&feature=related at 5:00 is a close-up of this.
Just saw that portion, I still think that it's plausible that she did it to remove sweat from her grip. In doubles, you shift position along the grip all the time depending on your court position. Also if one has more sweat glands on the hands and arms, grips won't absorb all the sweat. In addition, the more popular polyurethane grips don't absorb as much sweat as cloth ones. It could also be a force of habit or good luck routine, but mainly I see the functionality of her gesture to remove excess sweat.
I've noticed Gale Emms has a wierd habit whilst she waits for Nathan to serve, she brings her racket up repeatedly as if waiting for the serve, only to be kept waiting further.... if that makes sense, and she looks round at nathan 3 times before he finally serves. I watched her over the weekend and she does it everytime. Tell you some annoying habits that really get me angry, at one of my local clubs, the older members have some interesting tricks. One guy will pick the shuttle up off the floor walk towards the T, and serve without looking up once to see where people are or if they are ready, countless time I have had my back to the net when he serves, also nine times out of ten, its an illegal serve too..... Also, another guy from the same club, waits till you are ready, then stops, asks the score, and just as you have answered he serves, normally before you have had time to reset yourself. Funny the things people do to win.......
GL is signaling her partner, whether is low or high serve to opponent. rubbing shuttle to string, roughen the cork, better grip to string, better slice control.
If you're not ready when the opponents serve just stand still and don't move towards the shuttle. Then just say you weren't ready and you start the serve over. Regards
Yeh, I did that to start with, but they look at me like I'm a moron. Then claim they won the point. Its even got to the point now where they get quite nasty about it. Its just old men who's bad habits die hard, doing what they can to try win a point imho.....
If I remember correctly he used to move his racket a large amount slowly with a very loose grip in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the shuttle.
Do you know that for a fact? She does it before she or Zheng Bo receives, too. She holds her hand up to signal the opposing team to wait for a second while she does it. I don't think it has to do with sweating, nor do I believe she has a tendency to sweat that much. However, I had indeed thought that it might be for luck, or something of that nature.
Hah! That's actually cheating rather than an odd/lucky routine. We got quite a few folks doing that in our club, incidentally most of them are older folks. Usually I would tell them to re-serve the point again... not 'ask' as they're clearly in the wrong. I think one way of deterrent for that type of behaviour is to make a big deal out of it on the spot. These guys like to sneak a few points by relying on our courtesy and sportsmanship, making a big deal out of it would embarass them into stopping this nonsense.
I had one guy who did that to me, he kept asking us for the score and then serve when we try to answer... funny how he has to pick the moment to serve to ask for points. Well, he stopped that sh*i*t after I tapped his serve to his face while replying 'I don't know'.
Ye, the old guy who never waits till you are ready before he serves, I make sure now that inbetween points I just hit the shuttle away from him, so he has to go get it, giving me time to ready myself for the serve, and if at any point during the game I get a chance to bury a smash into his chest, I mite just do it.......
lol! I seriously do find that these old people even here try to sneak these tricks in and to get points. It get's quite annoying for sure.