Everybody says that I should first take a glance towards the opposite court and determine my opponents’ (I usually play mixed doubles) position before making a shot. I understand the wisdom of this advice and seen other players do it, but I just can’t do it! Most of the time when I try, I either mishit or miss the shuttle completely. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. So now I take a look at the opponents’ position before they make a shot, then focus on the shuttle on its way to our court, then make a shot based on what I saw before the opponent’s shot and hope they didn’t change position during the shuttle’s flight. 1. When exactly should I take a glance after the opponent makes a shot? 2. How should I position myself with respect to the shuttle’s trajectory? 3. How should I position my head to maximize my peripheral vision? I’m adapting the basic grip suggested in this forum to maximize the power from the pronation of my arm. But I noticed that in order to do that, I have to hit the shuttle a little to the right (my racket-hand side) and not directly overhead. This and the fact that torso rotation is needed for a powerful stroke, necessitates me to face right most of the time. Should I orient my head more forward and focus less on the shuttle? [FONT="]Thanks![/FONT]
This comes with practice and experience. As your technique becomes more automatic, you have more time to spend observing your opponent. As your game reading skill improves, you have more time to focus on shuttle.
this comes with time and practice as well. yes its true you have to be able to interpret whats happening really fast with often just a glance other times you can look at your opponent for long periods of time. so you play mixed that is a lil more face paced but personally i play singles and heres just one example so i do this if my opponent does a long serve ill find the shuttle look back down at them stare at them while im going back and then find th shuttle again and hit it. when i look at them im watching their feet, position of their racquet and if there already starting to move like their position on the court. but its pretty natural cause i know i can get behind the shuttle i know where its going and all that. but you have to be able to get behind the shuttle or get to the shuttle first and have that extra time so that you can take that look and then it wont cost you with misshitting the shuttle or missing it completly. but yes i dont always get to look at my opponent before playing a shot in a game cause sometimes i dont always get the chance to have those extra seconds/miliseconds to look at them if im in a real struggle situation. in terms of what you should be looking for you should look at their feet and the position of their racquet. a persons feet tells you where they are on the court and you will also be able to notice if there flat footed or on the balls on their feet so you know what shots to hit there as well where their racquet is if its up or down, waiting to recieve a smash or just hanging there not ready to do anything. as well since its mixed looking at both of them and where they are on the court where the weaker player is and you need to know where your partner is as well. all this kinda falls under some stragety though too. yeah i know it sounds like a lot of sutff and alot of stuff that has to happen in such a short amount of time but it comes with time. well just keep practicing taking a glance at your opponent and i hope that it goes well for you that you can use it to your advantage.
Some advocate to not take your eyes off the shuttle at all. Some of those advocates that I have met are also very stubborn. I believe you should look at the the person after you have a general idea of where the shuttle is going. You then move to that position and glance at your opponent enough to know where he is or where he is or is not going. Then look back and hit. After the shuttle is hit, watch where your opponent move, and use your peripheral vision to see the shuttle. Remember when your shuttle leaves your racket, you have no control over it and there's no point in staring at it. You can also tell where its going by where your opponent is going. You should already know where and how far its going unless it was a random shot.
It depends on the returning shot. If the shot is coming in fast, you will not have time to look directly so you will need to depend on your peripheral vision and the last known position of the opponent. The good thing is that they will not have time to move too far either so it works. If you have a longer time, determine where you are going to take the shot first. On the way there, you should have time to study your opponent's movements and decide what shot to make.
Hmm, so thats what I am doing wrong - I always look at the girls playing at the other court ... hence concentration is important. Used ALL of your senses. Theese fancy ninja/karate people whatever, at high level they actually do some training with closed eyes, where the other have a sword and swing it towards the one with closed eyes, but by being aware of you senses, you will know that it is a good idea to move away. It is actually not that difficult, you just need to train it (like you say with the high backhand). If you stand at the net with closed eyes, I bet that you know wether the opponent is close to you at the net or far away (especially if he/she smells bad ).
lol how true indeed. interestingly, i think aussie archers train with loud music and other distrations to deliberately help improve concentration.
Aha! So that's my problem: I can't take my eyes off my partner! Hehe! Joking aside, thanks for all the suggestions, guys!
In my opinion, it's more important that you can make deceptions to your opponent rather than "really" have a glance before making your hits. Since when you play with the opponent that as good as you or better, they obviously can read your moves better, so it doesn't matter if you look at them or not, or sometimes they just smile when you make that look!!! concentrate on the birdie is the best way and in the mean time make some deceptions with your moves. This is a very active way to put your opponent into places that you want them to be, not just follow them.
KazeCloud wrote: I had been literally following the advice "always keep the eyes on the ball" and because of this I had a very poor judgement of my opponent(s) position. I was dropping when the opponents(s) is/are in the front and smashing from the baseline when the opponent are waiting on their rear court. Recently I adopted KazeCloud's suggestion and my percentage of wins has dramatically improved. Basically I no more keep eyes on the shuttle but keep eyes on my opponent(s). I look at the shuttle only in two occasions: 1) when your opponent hits the shuttle to judge its trajectory, and 2) when I am about to hit the shuttle. The shuttle may still be in my peripheral vision while it is on the flight but my primary focus will be on the opponents and watching where they are moving and their stance. Comments are greatly appreciated.
Wider Your Scope of Vision Hi there, Some player don't realize that mastering the skill to peripherally visualize effectively your opponent base location after his follow up hit prior to your follow up hit is very important as part of the tactical strategy while playing. If your opponent base location and possible prediction movement is still hovering 50% more around his right front and mid court after making a follow up lift from your drop short towards his right front court, by SENSE you will think that his left court is the area you should go for your winning follow up hit but then....after painstakingly maneuvering your arm, torso and legs with that scissor jump to make a cross court smash...he is there to retrieve it easily with a simple block to your FAR right front court.....hmmm, sounds familiar isn't it...wish i knew that he's going there at the first place To visualize a fast moving birdie in this world fastest sport and at the same time effectively visualize your opponent and then with both of this visual input, you later need to digest and plan your next possible best hit is one hell of a difficult task to do, alone to master it. If you can't see Exactly the whole scope what your eyes wants to see then it's simply that you would not make the right decision afterwards and as far as discussing about peripheral vision is concern and its just will be a random hit from you all the way. The key for better peripheral vision lies from the size of the scope of your view. The larger the scope of your view, the larger the size that you will get from the point of viewing time and space as well as selection of shots of play for your next best possible hit. # larger scope of view = More time to view both your opponent and birdie + more space to see them both while you're moving + more time to decide what is the next possible hit. This is true since, if the dimension of your view is narrow, how on earth you can possibly have the luxury to view your opponent location and at the same time referring this to the incoming birdie towards you effectively prior to your next follow up hit. Due to the fact that the time fraction that exist to view this two situation before your brain neurons decides to make your next hit is just within few seconds, if you can't coordinate and visualize both of this situation effectively then you will never get it right. When we discuss specifically about effective peripheral vision, there is no other way to larger the scope of your view other than improving your FOOTWORK first. By having quicker legs to gain that agility, that agility that you have gain will move your legs far faster than the incoming birdie, not allowing it to pass behind you. By having your legs moving and situated constantly in front of the birdie, you eventually will position your head constantly align optimally with your view towards your opponent and incoming birdie and since there is an ample distance exist between you and the incoming birdie therefore: - providing you with enough viewing space while you're moving in refer to your opponent location and the incoming birdie - sufficient extra seconds amount of time for your eyes to react it's view interchangeably between the opponent and incoming birdie . - Enough time for that decision making If you ALLOW the birdie to get pass and situated behind you most of the time then, your peripheral vision will never be coordinated correctly since your head is in the wrong place for you to look effectively between your opponent and the incoming birdie and you won't able to size up your shot to play as well. SS
Thanks shooting stroke My experience. Trying to keep the opponent(s) in the view while moving back to rear court forces you to move farther behind and move quicker. Basically, in my opinion, good footwork and peripheral vision are mutually re-enforcing.
Practice, practice, practice Indeed. Once your legs are quick enough to move you into position and you're able to size up your viewing space and time, its just an issue of constant practicing to peripherally view your opponent efectively and what kazecloud has mention earlier can be used as a good reference. SS
I do that too. I look at my opponent`s position in the corner of my eye. This is to help me decide on what shot I need to play. This is hard for others because you need to look at 2 different things at the same time. I learned it unconsciously and experienced no difficulty with it.
I definitely looked at my opponents position whenever I can. I didn't know I do that until reading your posts on this thread. I just realized that when I play double, from the baseline attacking position, I looked at my opponents before I drop. Less so when I smash, as the returns are either half court or 3/4, I just go for broke....focus on the shuttle, jump and go for it....
