Basic grip & defence -- relative to situation?

Most players are simply more comfortable defending on their backhand, so their stance is biased towards letting them do that.
Obviously, if the shot is far enough to your forehand side you have no choice but to play a forehand, and since you won't have time to adjust your grip, a full-backhand grip would be a very bad idea.
For that reason, I think it's best to use a grip that's somewhere between your basic and backhand grips - I'm not up on my grip names, but I believe this might be referred to as the "universal" or "bevel" grip?

 

try hitting the wall more often

and as you get better, hit faster!

this will improve your reflexes for your forehand/backhand defence

 

There is, unfortunately, no easy solution! You must learn to be able to do VERY quick grip changes to the required grip when defending, then play your stroke with a compact hitting action, and prepare for the next shot. The best practise for this grip changing in defence is a co-operative drill involving one player playing at the net, whilst you stand near the tramlines and hit push returns back to the person at the net who plays soft kills and drives back at you, for you to practise changing grips.

With regard to your observations, imagine I am a right handed player. It is not uncommon for players to bias their grip based on where they are in relation to the shuttle played. If you are the straight defender, there is no choice: you must defend both sides equally (hence improving yourself as above). If you are the cross court defender you MAY choose to bias your GRIP to cover the middle of the court, more than the outside of the court, as this is an area it is more likely to be hit. So if you stand on the left, and the shuttle is on the right, you may stand with a basic grip waiting for the forehand, whereas standing on the other side, you may bias your grip towards a thumb grip because you are expecting more shots to come at your backhand than forehand. However, if you are a skilled defender as you need to be for defending the straight shots, then you won't actually NEED this adjustment, but it may help.

I would like to make you aware of this important point: A shuttle may be struck at you in three areas: forehand, backhand, and body, and at differing heights too. The backhand, using a short grip, is the one NEEDED for playing shots directed at MOST of the body, assuming you don't have the time to step forwards into the shuttle with any grip you want. Thus the backhand is required for 2/3 or the defensive shots, and actually the ones at the body are MOST threatening, because the chance is you will be cramped and HAVE to play back to the net. If your opponent realises this, you will lose the rally immediately.Therefore, it may be wise as suggested above, to use a grip slightly biased towards backhand - perhaps a bevel grip - because the shuttle is more likely to require a backhand action to defend.

Some tips for defending: lower your stance - I did not say widen your base, I MEAN you should lower your body so you are looking almost upwards. This will help you see the shuttle and notice the direction sooner. This noticing the shot sooner is the key to defending well. You have more than enough time to change your grip, even against a smash, as long as you see the shuttle quickly.

For a model defence - impenetrable and perfect, see Lars Paaske. He has the best racket control i have ever seen. The classic Indonesians are good, such as flandy limpele, tony gunawan, or sigit budiarto, but I have concluded I think Lars is the best.

Hope some of this helps

Matt

 

Mseeley made a lot of good points.

to follow up it maybe easier for you to play your defensive stance in a more backhand position with a grip favoring backhand, while remaining to watch for the smash to your forehand and still being able to adjust your grip and play the forehand if need be. This will reduce you to only having to switching grips only on forehand returns instead of having to pick a grip each time they hit.

A drawback to this position is you are slightly open to a drop shot or wide hit to your backhand side so get ready.

the only exception would be when the shuttle is in your opponents right court, and you are the left defender as Matt stated majority of the time the shuttle will be hit to your forehand if it goes to your area. However you can still play a backhand defense even in this situation if you and your partner agree to the positioning beforehand.

Some examples below you can try.
Would like some comments if others play in a different stance.

X you
P partner
S shuttle
O opponents
B Shot Bias (Backhand, Forehand, Balance)

Standard Position


Backhand Biase

 

For the last example the opponent net player should be more towards the left.

 

Im not sure I completely understand your diagrams... with regard to which grip who has and where. In general, once you can quickly select the correct grip you need for any shot, it doesn't matter really where you start, as long as you CAN get to the grip you needed QUICK ENOUGH to play the shot. I personally wouldn't recommend waiting with a full backhand grip, but thats because I find I have no difficulties going from the basic grip to the one I need, and feel that starting with a backhand grip would make me slower to react to forehand defensive shots.

Everybody's different, and as long as you practice you will be fine.

 

That's a really good question. There's relatively little good information about this from authoritative sources. I'll go into in more detail later, when I write up an article on it. It will also be much easier to explain once I make my planned update to the grips guide.

But for now, here's what I suggest:

Option 1

Wait with a basic grip. If they hit to your backhand, change the grip quickly. You should only need a small change, so that the angle moves about 15 degrees towards a thumb grip and the fingers/thumb are repositioned on the handle.

Because this is only a small change, I believe you have time to make it (although it requires practice).

Do not change to a full thumb grip, as this will prevent you from using the forearm muscles effectively. This is a common fault. It's also a long way to change, given how little time you have.


Option 2

Make a similar grip change (towards a thumb grip), but use this as your waiting grip. Then hit either side without needing to change grip.​

I recommend sticking to option 1. The downside of option 2 is that forehands and backhands really need different finger/thumb positions in order to be fully effective. A backhand thumb position "blocks" forehand power strokes, and a forehand thumb position leads to a "floppy backhand" (no support from the thumb).

The official recommendations I have from Badminton England are to use a "forehand" (basic) grip for forehand defence and a "thumb" grip for backhand defence. However, they also say not to use a "full thumb grip". This indicates to me that you really should be using different grips for forehands and backhands here.

 

I think you have come to a sensible conclusion. Personally, I tend to bias myself towards a backhand grip, but I KNOW I can get to the grip I need.

What I will say is that although as Gollum says a full thumb grip will limit your use of forearm rotation, if you are intending not to play a power return but a controlled block, then a full thumb grip MAY be a good choice for a backhand blocked defense - i feel there is slightly more control in this way. As I said before, Lars Paaske is my defensive idol, and you can clearly see him using a full thumb grip on SOME defensive shots, so the moral is you may use any grip depending on what you want to be able to do and how you prefer to play the shots!

I think we have covered most of the options pretty well, and the conclusion you have come to is the correct one.

 

Its easier and faster to go from bevel to basic. Agree?

When you play a lot, instinct will also tell you how you should be standing and where to position the racket when you return the shuttle above the net level.

 

Yes, a full thumb grip may be useful for some backhand blocks or pushes. It's a large change in angle, however, so it may be unrealistic to do this (depending on how fast the smash is).

Even if you've decided to block the shuttle, you can't prevent a smash from coming to your forehand side. For this reason, I don't recommend waiting with a full thumb grip: this grip will be hopeless for playing any forehand return, and it's relatively slow to change away from.

Note also that blocks often improve by slicing underneath the shuttle, which is awkward with a full thumb grip.

You don't happen to have any good examples to hand, do you? I'm not doubting what you say, it's just educational to see it for myself.

 

I must just clarify, I would never be "ready" with a full thumb grip, as you rightly say Gollum, this will probably lead to catastrophe! Interesting point about slicing the shuttle. Indeed, I tend to play my blocks in doubles with no slice, whereas my blocks in singles are quite heavily sliced.

The best example I have found for Lars Paaskes defensive qualities, in particular his backhand block, is the point at 13:34 in the All England final 2010. In the second game, you get a great angle of one of Lars blocks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epE5-Zp3LoQ&feature=channel

The replay on this point is fantastic, and you can see his shot preperation/hit at 13:49. You will see this is a special situation where he has played a flick serve, anticipated the smash back down the centre, and moved forwards to intercept it using a thumb grip. He then moves in for the kill. Its points like this that make me feel Lars Paaske is the greatest doubles player I have ever seen. That is VERY high praise coming from me! I think of all the doubles players I know, I still feel he is the best.

Hope you like that clip.

Matt

 

That's a wonderful shot, and a devastating follow-up. I can't be sure about the grip, however; if I had to guess, I'd actually say it looks more like a "backhand" grip than a full thumb grip.

Actually, I'm suggesting not that you change to a bevel grip, but to something I'm calling a "backhand" grip. More on this when I make the November update to my website.

In some situations, you may well find that a full thumb grip is better. A good example would be flat smashes at your face.

I definitely recommend allowing yourself to be flexible about which grip you use to return a smash.

That's the general rule, but it's not quite that simple here. A panhandle grip only really works if the smash is flat to your forehand (crouch defence). A thumb grip may sometimes be useful for backhand defensive shots such as blocks or pushes, and is definitely useful for crouch defence.

If the smash makes you reach out sideways on your backhand, then moving towards a bevel or even panhandle grip is often necessary. This grip change helps you get the racket facing forwards, rather than sideways out of court. This is mainly for singles, where you have farther to reach on defence.

It's also effective for helping achieve a sharp cross-court angle.

You're very welcome! I'm delighted you found the videos useful.

 

Gollum, you may be right. To me it looks like a relaxed thumb grip. Its definitely not (in my opinion) a bevel grip, but I suppose it could be in between the two (like i described from Peter Rasmussens teaching - is that roughly what you mean by "backhand grip"?). regardless, that situation with Paaske is one where he has obviously chosen what he wants to do within the rally, and has selected a grip to help him do it. He probably knows he doesn't want to hit a power shot but a block, and plays his stroke accordingly. Perhaps it is different when he is unsure.

 

Yes, that's what I had in mind. I'm going with the same grip name Rasmussen uses, because it's simple and because it's consistent with everything I know of Danish teaching. It's also the name Badminton England were using until they dropped the grip from their canon.

This should become a lot easier to discuss clearly in a few days' time.

That sounds very plausible to me. In that situation, I think he had very good odds of the shuttle coming to his backhand defensive zone, and could commit to a thumb grip if he wanted to.

 

Apologies to go off on a (slight) tangent, but how good are your lifts and clears giant_q_tip? If your opponent is standing in their mid-court when they hit the shuttle, defending will be difficult regardless of which grip/position you employ. However, if a bit more height and a better length pushes them well into their rearcourt, you may find that your defence 'improves' markedly.