hi guys, i've recently been enlightened, by my coach, on the positioning of feet while one is at base and awaiting the next shot. for all my scenarios i'll be discussing, the proposed situation is that you've just hit a clear or lift, and have actually had sufficient time to return to the centre, and will be performing the split jump to move to the next shot. now the standard for most right handers is right foot first, left foot slightly behind, shoulder width apart. this feet arrangement is perfect for a quick move to the backhand corner, which is something that happens a lot. however, a few months ago, one of my mates at a tournament was heavily attacked on his rear forehand corner, especially with fast, flat clears. and he just couldn't respond effectively without compromising the rest of his game. so afterwards, my coach was discussing it with me, and he said in that situation, where someone is heavily attacking a certain side, as an immediate counter, you can change your feet placement. what you would do is change your feet around, so that your left foot is in front, right foot slightly behind. that way, your feet are aligned in exactly the same way as when you perform a split jump with the intention of moving to the forehand corner. it's a very small time saver, but effectively, rather than performing the split jump, and switching your feet, by changing your feet position, you can save a few milliseconds. and that is often what decides if you get to the shuttle in time. i've tried it, and you certainly need to consciously keep your feet in position to favour which ever side you want to protect. and it certainly helped. while it may seem that the time saved isn't much, i've found, a least in my testing of it, that having your feet already set up like you would to move to the forehand rear corner, it saves lots of time. in a tournament, it may be one of the best ways to prevent someone taking advantage of slow movement to the forehand rear area. and most people's movement to that corner is slow, because we're all lazy. what do you guys think? i'm talking crap? do you think it would help? are there ways other than shifting your base to counter an opponent attacking a certain corner?
I've never taught any specific stance (which foot in front) for the base position, but it is important to understand that for a given alignment of the feet, there is a certain direction (directly backwards) that requires an extra repositioning of the feet. I think a great way to practise footwork is to just focus on the first step and how you initially position the foot during the split step.
I've always been taught to point both feet to the shuttle... In the case the shuttle goes high to their forehand (both players right handed), your left foot would be facing slightly forward. In that case, having your right foot forward would be very dangerous (a fast straight clear would be a problem).
Adjusting your feet's position to favour certain corners can be a good idea. Imagine drawing a line between your feet; this line shows the easiest direction for you to move. Now draw a line perpendicular to it; this line shows the hardest direction. For a default base position, I would suggest that the racket-side foot be slightly ahead. This is somewhat effective for covering all corners; but it especially helps you cover the drop shot to your forehand and the clear to your backhand. The movement from here to the backhand front corner is not so bad, but the movement to the forehand rear corner is slightly compromised. This is no bad thing, as you probably want to cover the more difficult corner (the backhand) slightly more. With the left foot forward, it's difficult to cover the clear to your backhand or the drop to your forehand. I would have said it's the other way around: if they clear to your backhand (you are right-handed), then having your left foot forwards makes it very difficult to get there. Having the right foot forwards makes it easier (again, because your feet are already lined up in the direction you want to travel).
Gollum, stumblingfeet, i agree very much. as gollum suggested, having your right foot forward will allow you to defend your backhand rear corner and forehand front corner very effectively. so if your opponent is attacking a different corner, i'm suggesting that changing your foot stance can provide an intermediate solution to cover up a weakness in a tournament or important match. obviously, you'll need to work on your footwork once the match is over, but for a solution, shifting your feet slightly could help. just on another note, i've actually noticed top players getting attacked more on their forehand rear corner than backhand rear corner. the reason is by their stage, players have drilled so much that the back hand area is actually no longer a weakness, and they actually move quicker there, and play better shots. moving to the rear forehand, they are often lazy and slow, resulting in them getting stuck in a problematic situation. have you ever noticed that?
Non-racquet foot foreward is used only when serving forehand or receiving a serve. Thereafter it is always racquet-foot foreward and it should be about 6 inches in front. The distance between your feet should be about the width of your shoulders. Your right (racquet hand shoulder) should lead. Having the feet the other way around will only make things worse, unless you have a super round-the-head shot that makes the backhand redundant, which nobody today or in the past has ever achieved.
To sum it up... Yes, adjusting your feet position to anticipate certain shots is something even the pros employ. Simply put, if you anticipate correctly it pays well, if you guess wrongly it costs you more time. But for me, after hitting a high clear/lift/serve, i think keeping both legs level is a better idea. Because if your opponent sees your bias he'll smash down your less-prepared side. In fact in such cases, sometimes i find that smashing a gentler gradient smash down your opponent's unprepared side, to be very effective. Adopting a 'biased' feet positioning is more often done in specific situations...like when he's slightly late to reach the last shot, or when he's using backhand to hit a shot
This reasoning also works in reverse. Take a look at how your opponent likes to stand in certain situations. Place your shot accordingly until his foot positioning changes. Then switch to attack whatever direction he was trying to cover in the first place.
I watched some videos tonight (Taufik, LCW, Lee Hyun Il, Kennette) and noticed: - If the shuttle is high on the opponent side and on the left (for righthanded player), they put their racket foot forward. The opposite is true for LHI since he is left handed - If the shuttle is high on the opponent side and on the right (for righthanded player), they tend to put their racket foot backward. The opposite is true for LHI - If the shuttle is below net height on the opponent court, they put their racket foot forward every time. Another thing I notice, they tend not to use a balanced stance in some situations, Taufik shows this more often - he tend to lean on his left. Hard to describe but for the shots that go to his deep forehand corner, he seems always lean to his left before moving to that corner. I consider my foot work needing a lot more practice so I leave the comment to you, . But I have one question: In the very first movement after your opponent hits the shuttle, how do you start your move? You keep your ankle stiff and bounce your feet? Or you would use thigh muscle ?
This makes sense because once the shuttle is deep into the opponent's forehand corner, the opponent can no longer hit an angled shot back to your backhand as it would simply be a straight shot to your backhand, which you can easily handle with an overhead shot. But if your opponent is in the center of the court the base stance is always racquet-foot in front.
That's an interesting observation! I must take a look myself, but I can certainly see the logic. By putting the racket foot backward, they are covering the forehand rear corner better.
wow...this might really help me...raring to try it out! btw, when you say right or left, are you referring to your right or your left, or to the opponent's right or left? (Your right=opponent's backhand, your forehand)
I mean : my left and my right . The racket foot forward is most observable when the shuttle is low on the opponent's court. When the shuttle is high the racket foot can be behind or infront but to a lesser degree. These are my observation for single games only. I think feet alignment might improve a little bit on speed, but first one has to learn to split step properly. I'm still struggling though
Foot Work I am a right-hander and I frequently get a black toe on my right foot. What can I do to prevent that? Can I get some advices, please?
The only time the pros would have their non-racket foot forward is when they KNOW(by experience and/or studying their opponents enough) that the opponent will clear the shuttle(usually due to lack of other option) to their forehand corner(so a quick block jump and smash will gain the attack easier) or if the opponent will drop the shuttle to their backhand corner, in which case 1 single launch of their racket foot will get them there faster than 2 steps if they have their racket foot forward instead. Any other times, racket foot must be in front of the other foot. Otherwise, have fun with shots going to your backhand rare corner.
