help me improve my overhead/smash technique

Hi Kwun,

from what I can see you rotation isnt enough. Your getting side on to shuttle which is good but when u twist when u hit the shot, a lot of the times u twist so ur parallel to the net instead of making sure that ur right leg goes well infront of ur body. Really twist into the shot.

I did what you did there and it def felt like I was wasting energy and if i did want to hit a hard shot, my arm and shoulder would have to do a lot more work.

I cant see ur grip, am assuming ur using a basic grip (top of head at 1oclock) I sometimes have an adjusted basic grip with head at 12oclock when I am directly below the shuttle. U could try this and see how it goes.

Hope I helped, am no expert but ur rotation to me needs more

 

Hi kwun,

Not the best expert here, nethertheless trying to chip in some amateur advice just to make myself look cool.

I notice that you certainly did not rotate enough when you do your overhead smash like other said. Also, I notice that seems to be delay before you did your overhead shots and your strokes are not exactly smooth(not as smooth/clean as you did your forehand smash).

When you were doing overheads, you seems kinda got into preparation, pause and let the racket hung in the air for a fraction of sec or so before killing the bird. I suspect, this little delay might have impeded your rotation(and stopping you from taking the shuttle at the highest possible point).
If you done your overheads in one clean swing, I think the power will come naturally.

Maybe, pbM can share his expertise here?

P/S: Anyway the girl who appeared in 3:24 at the side of the court was awesome. Can I have her number please?

 

I might have a new point: your feet.
Every time you smash you start left foot forward and you rotate. But instead of advancing forward you rotate to keep your balance. In a way, your right foot stays in place while your left foot moves around it.
So, the movement is good, but the intention should be to go forward. (it's hard to explain, I hope I'm not too vague)
Try taking a step further back and really go into the shuttle, at 0:58 the shuttle lands short and you do move into it: that;s what you're looking for.

That way, you can put the power form your legs more into the shuttle.

 

Your basic form looks pretty good.

As gingerphil and jerby mentioned, you could try rotating your body a bit more and making a more positive forwards movement "into" the shot. It would only be a subtle difference -- I don't mean you should leap forwards as you smash.

How cleanly do you feel you are hitting the shuttle? You can often tell by the sound. Sometimes it sounds as though you're slicing the smash, although I can't be sure. It could just be an artefact of the audio recording.

It's hard to tell how much arm rotation you're using. Looking at your follow-after movement, you seem to have a direct across-the-body after-swing. This often indicates a player is not using enough arm rotation, and is instead relying on "swinging" the arm and wrist. A correct follow-after movement should initially be in the direction of the shot, and then allowed to relax across the body.

There also appears to be no "stop" in your follow-after movement. It's all one long after-swing. There should be a slight rebound effect, as a result of the powerful, explosive arm rotation. Lack of this rebound often indicates a lack of arm rotation.

This rebound is most noticeable for half-smashes/stick-smashes, where the follow-after is very short. Even on a full-power smash, however, there should be an element of rebound during the follow-after if you watch carefully. I'm not seeing this in your smashes.

Of course, I can't be sure exactly what you're doing, just from watching that video. Take those suggestions as possible ideas to play with.

 

..so basically you want to achieve a stronger smash, if i understand??..i think partly it's the technique (as mentioned by others above) and partly your position in relation to the shuttle (of course that goes to the footwork part in order for you to get behind the shuttle).
How about asking our JR's or TL's opinion??..

 

You appear to be not hitting into the shuttle and your arm is a bit slanted instead of following the target. Your swing appears to be interrupted. These are signs of not rotating your body to transfer power efficiently.
Compare this with the girl in black who appears with you in a video in another thread that ctjcad posted, and you will see the A/B comparison.

 

In addition to some observations above, it doesn't seem like you're leading your stroke with your elbow. It should be like throwing a stone.

And you're not snapping your forearm/wrist at the very last instant, in order to pronate into the shuttle.

You may have seen this video already, but doesn't hurt to review it here:

[video=youtube;sKC1Depuf6Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKC1Depuf6Q[/video]

 

..which girl in black are you referring to??..you mean this girl in black??..hmm, so mr.t is suggesting the girl in black has a better form than kwun-izzle??..

[video=youtube;MGrX06iJ6qE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGrX06iJ6qE[/video]

 

I say lower your string tension for two to three pounds and starts from there.Do a full court smashing drill and hit it a big time.Use a brand new birdie,keep smashing it untill all the feathers are completely gone,see if you can hit it hard enough to seperate the cork from the body.If this doesn`t help then you should try another racket.I`m sorry but the sound just doesn`t sound right to me.Smashing was always the last drill on the list in addition to daily routine.No offence dude,but I see a shadow of kids when you chase the bird,a shadow of an old man when you return smashes.It`s time to have your own style.

 

One good way of learning is to practise the stroke in front of a full length mirror or at least a half-length but wide mirror. You may be able to find this in the changing room of a large badminton Center. Without seeing yourself in action as you go through the stroke it is hard to make corrections.

 

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Maybe instead of placing the digicam so far away, you could hang it from the top of the net tape aimed directly at you, so that you can view yourself better on later playback.

 

I noticed a few things watching the two videos.

1. Notice how you move your head away from the shuttle when you swing, causing your swing to go on the right side of your body. The ideal shot should be hit on top of your head (you may need to adjust your grip a little to do so). If you hit the shuttle on the right side, you are actually using more shoulder strength, which doesn't translate well to smash power, because the smash requires a short concentrated stroke, which the shoulder cannot do (especially with rackets strung at higher tensions, which will give you even more power if you can get that short concentrated stroke).

2. From the second video, it looks like the shuttle is level with your body when you hit it. In an ideal smash, the shuttle should be in front of you so that you don't have to bend your wrist too early to keep the shuttle down, which causes you to lose some power. Also, jumping backwards while hitting will cause the shot to be less powerful.

I think 1 is the main issue. The most important thing about getting a powerful smash is to have a short, concentrated, explosive stroke, not a long smooth stroke. In fact, you can even not do the follow through and just hit with a rebound action to make sure you are not wasting your power on a long stroke (which is what Lin Dan does on his smashes). I don't think putting too much body into the stroke is actually practical in many situations during matches. I would work on the forearm pronation strength to improve smash strength.

 

I think Kwun is referring to his overhead shot, not the forehand smashes. Have a look at 0:14 when Lin Dan executes his overhead smashes. There isn't much body rotation here to talk about.

 

Kwun, I'd suggest the following - have close-up shots of your upper body, including your racket contacting the shuttle. Even better is with an HD camera. This probably requires someone to operate your camera for you, instead of having you put your camera down somewhere, but the effect should be much better. Record a few minutes, and then remove the beginning and ending (as you may be self-conscious of the camera), and perhaps do slow motion on the remaining.

This prepared video could allow people to see more clearly your swinging and impact timing, with your pronation, wrist work etc in the picture. The current videos allow people to see the big movements of your body, but seem to miss details. Also, you may want to ask your partner to have a more accurate feeds (perhaps serve to your overhead instead of taking your smashes).