Once a player has fully understand the technique on how to execute all range of strokes and then upgrade himself to master several type of deceptions, the double motion is another type of deception that the player can learn. In the advance stroke coaching module, the double motion deception is another useful and popular type of deception that is very deceptive in nature if executed very well. 1. Introduction Like its name, the double motion deception is simply defined as a type of deception that is executed where two action of racquet swings are performed – The first action of racquet swing (first motion) is performed addressing the shuttlecock in one direction and then, by quickly withdrawing the racquet, a second action of racquet swing (second motion) is performed that will eventually hit the shuttlecock to another direction. The objective of this deception, if well executed, is to deceive your opponent about the direction of your hit whereby you show the opponent that you intend to hit the shuttlecock to one direction but then quickly place the shuttlecock elsewhere. For an example: You can initiate the first motion of racquet swing similarly like addressing a shuttlecock to do a straight lift but then changing the direction of the shuttlecock by executing a second racquet swing and making a hit directing the shuttlecock into a straight or cross court net. 2. Components By knowing its definition, we can simply understand that the double motion deception technique is centered at its two executed “motion”: It is very important to fully understand the components of this deception in order to fulfill its objective when executed and also to understand the techniques applied to execute them. a. First motion - Referring to the first @ initial racquet swing action - It also referred as a “False Hit” since there is no hit performed even though there is a racquet swing executed while addressing the shuttlecock - Purpose : This first motion of racquet swing is done to create a convincing scenario to the opponent that you are addressing the shuttlecock and making a hit to direct the shuttlecock to one specific direction. b. Second motion - Referring to the second racquet swing performed after the quick withdrawal of the racket following the first motion of racket swing. - It is also referred as a “True Hit” since there will be a hit performed to direct the placement of the shuttlecock. - Purpose : This second motion of racket swing will actually deceive the opponent by making a hit to direct the shuttlecock into any opposite direction. 3. Requirements Like any other deceptions, to successfully execute a Double Motion Deception, there are certain requirements that a player must fully understand and master first so that this deception can be well executed. 3.1 General Requirements a. A player must understand first how to execute all the full range of normal shots using the correct technique. b. A player must have a fair degree of forearm and wrist power to energize the complex movements of the racquet and to hit accurately for proper placement of the shuttlecock. c. A player must have a clear vision and awareness on how he moves his racket in refer to where the opponent positioned in order to properly coordinate the next hit. 3.2 Specific Requirements a. Address the shuttlecock early. By addressing the shuttlecock earlier: - The player will make enough room to execute properly both of the swings. - At the same time also, it will allow enough time for the player to observe the opponents position - It will also allow enough time for decision making prior to the placement of the shuttlecock. b. Grip A tight grip is important to maximize the power for both of the swings. c. Timing Timing is essential to coordinate a fluent sequences of racquet swings and withdrawal of racquet between swings with the trajectory of the shuttlecock. d. Fulfilling the purpose of 2 (a) stated above 4. Technique The double motion deception has 4 phases that a player needs to follow in order to properly execute it. These 4 phases are: a. Preparation b. The first motion – False hit c. Withdrawal d. The second motion – True hit These are the detail explanation and diagram for all the phases: a. Preparation Always hold the racket head level high . By doing this, you can address/retrieve the shuttlecock at the earliest opportunity through a faster respond reflexes and to make enough comfortable room for you to make a convincing first motion of racket swing. b. The first motion – the false hit With a clear idea of where you are going to direct the shuttlecock ( in this case : A direction), address it and make a swing with the technique and approach exactly like how you are going to hit it but then don’t hit it yet. It is extremely important for you to address the shuttlecock with the correct technique and approach exactly like how you are going to hit it. This is to create a convincing action of racquet swing that will convince your opponent that you are making a hit to direct the shuttlecock to the area of intention ( A direction) hence making your opponent react to retrieve it. If this technique is not executed as stated above and the player will rather just do a racquet swing for the sake of making one without any purpose, then most likely, especially in the eyes of an experience player, he will not react to your first swing and subsequently making your double motion deception most likely a fail one. That is why it is important for your first motion of racquet swing fulfill its purpose stated at 2(a). c. Withdrawal After executing the first motion of racquet swing, quickly withdraw your racquet. It is important for you to quickly withdraw your racquet so that you can properly prepare yourself before making the second motion of racquet swing. To properly prepare yourself before executing the second motion of racquet swing is vital because by being properly prepared, you will have enough room to observe your opponent respond from your first racquet swing, adequate time frame to make the decision making process for the next direction of your hit and a comfortable space to maneuver yourself to make that second motion of racquet swing. Due to the fact that there is only a few fraction of second exist between the first motion and second motion of racquet swing, a quick withdrawal of the racquet is important to coordinate a fluent action of swings. d. The second motion – the true hit After executing the first motion of racquet swing followed by a quick withdrawal, a second motion of racquet swing is then executed. At this point, it is important for you to observe and aware where your opponent is positioned in correlate with his reaction towards your first motion of racquet swing. By clearly aware of your opponent reaction, at this second motion of racquet swing, hit the shuttlecock and direct it to the opposite direction ( In diagram : B direction) thus deceiving your opponent. 5. Application To execute a double motion deception is not easy. However, in the hand who has mastered it, a double motion deception can produce spectacular results that can even deceive the most experienced player. As long as the technique applied to execute it is done correctly, the application of a double motion deception are vast even to the most difficult shots: a. First Motion – Straight Clear Second Motion – Straight Drop Shot * * Involves a deceleration of racquet swing to produce a drop shot b. First Motion – Straight net shot Second Motion – Crosscourt net shot c. First Motion – Straight lift Second Motion – Crosscourt lift 5.1 Tools It is better to apply a fast and compact type of racquet swings to both of the motion. By applying such type of swings: - Its more maneuverable thus making both of the racquet swings easy to execute. - The hit will be more unpredictable since the racquet swing is fast and short. 5.2 Advancement of the Double Motion Deception a. Triple Motion Deception A deception that involves 3 actions of racquet swings where the first two actions of racquet swings will be the false hit and the 3rd racquet swing will be the true hit. Rarely being use and very difficult to execute. b. Fusing with other type of deception – Hold and Hit The double motion deception can be fused with the hold and hit deception. The “Hold” component will remain as it is but the “Hit” component will end as a double motion action. Rarely being use and very difficult to execute. By having a clear idea of what Double Motion deception is all about, the next step will be to practice it regularly and once mastered, hopefully it can give benefit in the future and makes how we play badminton even more beautifull. Good Luck
Wow , this has got to be the most detailed piece of information ever ! Thanks a lot shooting stroke !
Shooting stroke, Congratulations for a well written article. I appreciate your efforts and kindness to teach others. But I have a different opinion-not sure whether I am correct. Hence wish to leave this topic open. My question is,"How useful would be this double action deception in an advanced level of badminton"? Are we going to win more rallies or loose the advantage in the rally? I mainly play doubles with an advanced group of players where people do not get deceived that often. Any loose shot will be punished. When you try double action, you loose a couple of valuable seconds & and you are forced to play the shot later than you actually could have if you have not attempted deception. To me, this looks suicidal. Take the case where your first action communicated smash then you actually play a drop. A seasoned player will spot your deception and start moving frond knowing very well that you would not be able to play a powerful smash in your second motion. Does that make sense? I have often seen many players who try all these shots-they are very successful in a club level. But will soon realize that their arsenal is empty when they come across a high quality player. Of course deception has its place in Badminton and without which badminton is not complete. I am a big advocate of slice and reverse slice drops. Also, hiding all your shots under the same cover helps. Another type of deception that work very well is the sudden change of pace. E.g. Attempting a smash and slowing down at the last moment to a drop or a sudden flick near the net. And also many deceptions you described in the first article works-mainly in singles (Hold and lift, or hold and cross court etc) This is only my point of view and may or may not be correct. NP
nprince, I would argue that this type of deception does have its place. However, as you correctly pointed out, overhead, perhaps this is not the right deception to use. Around the net however, is a different story. I would urge you strongly to watch the player Pullela Gopichand in his Semi Final Match vs. Peter Gade at the all england in 2001 (on youtube), he uses fantastic double action AND hold and flick action to great effect. In performing this double action, it is first and foremost MOST important, that regardless of deception, the QUALITY of your stroke is not hindered. That is, despite taking the shuttle a little bit later, the stroke you play will still be an excellently executed stroke. If you chose deception over quality, then against a high calibre of player this will probably meet a bad end However, if you are a strong player and your opponents are strong players, there are two things I would urge you to consider. Firstly, your opponent is PROBABLY trying to anticipate your shots. He is probably looking for that split second advantage, hoping to move just before you show him the direction of the shuttle, so that he can take the shuttle earlier and play a decisive attacking shot. Perhaps it is possible to turn this anticipation AGAINST your opponent, by executing this deceptive technique well. He may be fooled by your FIRST deceptive shot, but then probably be more cautious thereafter, knowing you may try to deceive him. Thus, you have essentially take SOME of the speed from your opponent, simply by forcing him to acknowledge that you have a good and complete set of strokes and deceptive touches at your disposal, making you more dangerous than someone without any deception. In this scenario, the deception is used just enough to keep your opponent wary, and unsure. The second thing to consider, is perhaps an extreme version of the first. If you forsake clear attacking opportunities by choosing to take the shuttle a little later, your opponent will probably become confused. They may start to believe that you are completely unpredictable, and this SHOULD worry them. They have no idea what is coming next. This is not to say you shouldn't take the shuttle early when possible, but there is a clear opportunity here to get inside your opponents head. Have him worry about what will happen next, be completely unsure of your tactics, and you will have a psychological edge. Your opponent may even begin to stop moving, as he tries to puzzle out what you are doing next. He may believe you are simply toying with him, thus potentially making him angry or worried or both. A very powerful mental affect in my opinion. In essence, I believe this type of deception IS useful, but not necessarily for deceiving your opponent, but making him mentally uncertain as to what you can do and what you WILL do. I believe this is a key weapon in a match against a strong opponent. I will always expect it back, but perhaps I can make my opponent less comfortable on court! This is just my opinion. Good topic.
shooting stroke, excellent update to your article! nprince and MSeeley, excellent points! especially re being unpredictable and creating uncertainty in your opponent to mess up their rhythm and mind Gade and LCW use double motion to great effect
nPrince has a very valid point in that this type of deception is not very useful in doubles; on the contrary it may work against you. On the other hand, deception is a very useful tool in singles, as long as you have all the other fundamental skills and abilities in your arsenal. One of the main prerequisites of using deception successfully is to ensure that you are in position for the shot, with time to spare if possible. I have also noticed some good players use another overhead deception at times, usually against players where they are confident of retrieving the advantage should they lose it. They shape up to drop or smash or half-smash, and actually execute an attacking clear. This usually takes the opponent completely off balance: his accent is already on moving forward to address the drop or smash or half-smash, and he is not in a good place any more!
Also forgot to add that for me, the satisfaction of winning a rally from a soft deceptive shot is much greater than one from a powerful smash.
Deception play is usually done for Singles, there is some sort of deception... case in point.. PG... the master trickster.... In Double but you have to be really precise and confident at it.. Case in point KKK... to fancy at times... on the flip-side look at LYD and CY straight shots, i feel it is more effective to win rallies... But having said that i like to watch people doing deceptive shots whether it is super effective or not it does not matter... it is nice to watch.
Deceptions, be it a double motion or any other type of deception, can play a major role as part of a player's strategies while playing, similarly like any other valid strokes. For a player that plays against an opponent that has several type of deceptions under his sleeves, the difficulties that he will face against him while playing is the scenario of uncertainty of shots that his opponent can produce thus making the opponent game play unpredictable. By being unpredictable, like our dear friends Mseeley and visor said, the rhythm and momentum of the rally as a whole and in a long run will be an uncomfortable experience thus making his opponent able to dictate the flow of the game and create more winning opportunities.
I will point out to the person who stated that in doubles deception is not perhaps so useful, that it is indeed the case that they do not use deception in LEVEL doubles at a particularly high level. However, I feel this is due to the fact that they are exerting a different type of mental pressure. Instead of creating a mental image of uncertainty to their opponents, they simply allow their opponents to know exactly what shots they will do. The shots are always the simple ones, executed well, taken early, and usually preceded by extremely fast movement. What does this do? This creates a different kind of pressure: the opponent now knows that it is virtually impossible for you to make a mistake, because you play such high percentage shots, and at the same time there is NOTHING they can do about it. The will have to just lift the shuttle, and then up comes fu haifeng, puts it away, and then the simplicity becomes something to create despair in your opponents! How will they ever break through such simple badminton? So why then do they chose this type of mental pressure over the uncertain pressure? In my opinion, its obvious! They have a partner. The goal of doubles is to make your partner look good. If you confuse or annoy your partner, this may not lead to the best of on court relations between you. However, if your partner knows exactly what shot you will play, then you can construct rallies as pairs, rather than as players. Somebody said deception is used in singles more. I agree. But I believe its because of the above reasons, not because its NOT effective. I believe it is still effective, but perhaps not preferable to working together as a relentless attacking pair!
I think it's an exaggeration to say that deception is not useful in doubles (level or mixed). Many deceptive shots, especially those using double motion, rely on the threat of playing a lift. These deceptions clearly favour singles, as a lift in doubles is usually not much of a threat. Nevertheless, such deceptions are sometimes useful in doubles, particularly when the opponents are out of position. Sometimes a deceptive change of direction is enough (e.g. Jens Erikson's deceptive double-motion net shot). And let's not forget more "ordinary" types of deceptive shots, such as sliced drop shots, or a surprising flick serve. These don't use double motion, but can still be deceptive.
I got to agree with that.. most of the time my opponents make me look like a fool running around the court.
I was trying to observe what me and my friends do when we play a game of doubles. There is a lot of deception starting right from the serve (flick, drive etc) return of serve (slice, sudden flicks and change of direction etc). And the whole rally, there are lot of deceptive actions which has become automatic. A lot of sliced drops from the back and sudden change from smash to drop also works. But I have not seen many successful double action deception. Of course, there were attempts which either got punished or at times won a slight advantage. May be our group is not too good at it. There was an excellent comment from Mseeley regarding keeping it simple and that being the strength. I totally agree with him. That happens when you play regularly with the same group and same partner. But your game goes down when suddenly the rhythm is broken. I have lost many matches to the opponents whom I should not have been under these situations... 1. When I have partnered with a higher caliber player-but our games are different 2. To moderate opponents whose game and tactics are different. Either cases, the problem was, game became a bit un predictable and that caused a slight delay each time. Some times, anticipating wrongly or waiting longer to what my partner does or where he moves. NP
I love doing sliced drop shots. I pretend to hit a drive, smash or clear with fast forward arm action, and then at the last moment turn the blade at the hit. That way I decrease the hitting power and change direction of the shuttle to the corner with no (or mimimal) change in the overall direction of the racket. Often oppenents are in defensive stance further back on the court and don't expect a dropshot because of the racket speed. It's a nice shot to practice.
