Full courts clears!?

When your clearing, are you hitting the shuttle while it's going down? If so, then that's why your clears are not hitting the back lines. You need to hit the shuttle just before it's flight is going downwards. Backhand you need proper timing when positioning yourself, and also are you changing your grip when hitting your backhand? There are many articles on this...

 

are you talking about forehand clear/smash ? What tenision are you playing with ? Plastic or feather shuttles ?

 

whether the shuttle is going up or down should make no difference - you should still be able to do a full court clear. and the shuttle WILL be going down if your opponent hit a high deep clear anyway.

 

should make very little difference tbh. changing tension or shuttle is not going to greatly affect your problem.

your problem is much more likely to be grip or technique. or PERHAPS racquet - if you have one that is much too stiff for you.

 

Shuttle and tension, does make a difference, Plastics are slower than feathers and the higher the tension the less power unless you have the technique

 

shuttle will make a little difference, yes, but not enough that you can easily clear with one but not the other.

I would discount tension because unless OP is advanced player, or using an advanced player's racquet, the OP wont be playing with a high tension racquet. Therefore the problem of a too highly strung racquet should not be the problem here. Although I admit it is possible through bad advice or buying a second-hand racquet.

youtube vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhe_rRJR9_Y

 

chuby, how old are you?

As for clearing, I agree that while shuttle, string and racket do make a difference, for as basic a shot as a clear it should not matter. With the right technique you should be able to clear with almost anything... hell I can clear back court to back court with a squash racket.

It is probably a combination of strength and/or technique.

 

You don't have to have superhuman strength to hit a clear from your rear-court to your opponent's rear-court, just good technique. You must hit the clear with your arm fully extended in order to hit it deep. Take the shuttle as high as you can comfortably reach to play the shot. Your contact point if possible should be just a little bit in front of you. The further behind you the shuttle gets, the more defensive the clear is and the less likely it is for you to be able to clear it all the way.

The reason I say that strength isn't a factor in this shot is that most of it comes from your wrist and fingers. You should be able to hit about 75% of the court just using your wrist, fingers, a very small take-back and practically no follow-through. As you bring the racket behind you, your grip should be really loose. Just before/as you make contact, you should tighten your grip on the racket. This will give you a fairly large amount of extra power to help your clear go the distance. Once you have mastered the wrist and finger power techniques, add a little bit more of a take-back and follow-through to your clear and at this point, it should be covering the whole court if you are using the technique well. Coaching a specific person's specific stroke is hard over the internet, it would probably help you a lot if you asked a local coach or experienced player to look at your clear and give you advice.

 

Can you please elaborate the mechanic of a fully extended arm in producing a deep clear? I feel I'm missing something important here. Furthermore, pronation frequently mentioned elsewhere wasn't mentioned here. Is this understood, or am I missing something again?

 

When we talk about proper technique, pronation is part of that technique. For fully extended arm, lift your racket above your head as high as you can reach, that's fully extended. Now I don't personally recommend "fully" extended as you can over extend and run into elbow issues, there should be a very slight bend in the elbow IMO.

 

I'd have to disagree with that last bit. Fully extending your arm can jerk and strain one of your elbow tendons. You can get all the power you need with a 160-170 degree elbow bend.

I agree.

 

I'm referring to physics. How/why is fully extended arm beneficial in generating enough power for a deep clear? Comparing pronation and arm extension, which one would generate more power?

 

Danstevens covered all the basics in his post above.

In full (although avoiding elbow lockout, otherwise injuries will occur) forearm extension, I think the intention is to take the shuttle as high as you can comfortable hit it. High is the key point, so that the bird will travel further to the other side. Even a 6-12 inch drop from that high point will reduce the distance of the clear, given the same power input.

Pronation: is part of the stroke. Do a search. It adds an extra oomph in the clear and smash.

Strike: Another concept of hitting the bird. Think of it as striking instead of hitting the bird. The power is more focused and shortened, meaning the power of your shot should be concentrated into the exact moment of the strike. You can force yourself to focus your power by grunting or vocalizing at the moment of striking.

Avoid slicing: It does sound like the OP is not striking the bird squarely. Make sure the racket face is hitting the bird exactly in the direction that you want the bird to go.

 

I didn't know your vocal chords are attached to so many other muscles! Please explain how grunting can affect your swing action?

The first part of that para makes little sense - strike is a synonym for hit. They (can) mean virtually identical things.

 

Vocalizing is just a means to an end. And that is to focus your mind and body and energy into that sudden instant of striking the bird. What I do is mentally and sometimes say out aloud "hai-YAH!" when I smash or clear hard. "Hai" when I start winding up for it, and "YAH!" when I strike it hard.

It is that sudden acceleration of the racket head and burst of energy into the bird at point of impact that imparts the most energy into the bird. A constant speed swing will not do it.

 

I'm not a great believer in this grunting at the moment of playing a shot. I really don't think it gives you much (if anything at all) in terms of power but it can often be a very good way to annoy your partner and opponent(s) - not something I set out to do before playing. Some people do claim that it helps them to get a bit extra out of their shots but I tried it once and didn't notice any increase in power at all.

As for full arm extension, in hindsight, that wasn't a good way to describe it. I really should have added something about not locking the elbow which is, as stated, not good for the long term health of your elbow and indeed, would probably compromise the power of your clear somewhat.