Smashing at different speeds and angles and defense!

The idea to mix up the pace of smashes and throw some drop-shots in to your attack is an excellent one. People are much more comfortable returning smashes at one speed (even if that speed happens to be really fast) than when their opponent keeps them guessing.

Firstly, smashes around head level? Surely if they're that high and travelling at smash speed and you're standing in a sensible position to return a smash, anything at head level will certainly be going out? My advice would be to duck and get out of the way.

There is little difference between a slower half smash and a quicker drop-shot. Indeed, it is often quite difficult to define a shot as one or the other because there is a grey area in the middle of the two. The amount that people "take off" from their smash to play their half smash varies from person to person as well so don't get too wrapped up in the terminology - just play the shots.

The concept of how to vary the speed of your smashes isn't as difficult as you would first think. There are two main ways in which to go about varying the speed of the shuttle; the first of which is the one I imagine you're trying at the moment. Essentially, this is controlling the speed of the shuttle by changing the speed of the racket head. This is the most obvious to almost all badminton players as the thing to do if you want to vary the speed of your shots. In order to make the deceptive element of this convincing, you must try to make it look exactly like a smash until as late as possible before slowing your swing to take the pace off the shot.

The other way of hitting a slower smash is hitting it with slice or reverse slice. This is often employed accidentally by beginners and intentionally by more advanced players. If you hit the shuttle with an angled racket instead of a clean shot as you normally would, you will find that your change the rate at which it spins. This affects both the speed and trajectory of your shots. Sliced shots tend to arc slightly to one side (dependent on the direction of the slice and which hand you play with), lose their speed quickly and land shorter than you would expect a cleanly struck shot to land. You can hit them with the same racket speed as you would normally hit a smash and still get this effect meaning that they can be used to deceive your opponents. Slice is difficult to explain but hopefully you'll be able to find an instructional video on it to clarify what I have written.

Playing a variety of shots instead of just your normal smash will help your offence to be more effective. Even an attacking clear to your opponent's backhand can cause them a lot of problems if it is used at the right moments. Instead of just playing random shots when you attack, take note of your opponent's position on court and which attacking plays have worked well in previous rallies. There's no point playing a different shot on every attack if one particular shot is doing real damage. You should still use the variety of your arsenal but keep going back to the "bread and butter" shot that's winning a lot of points for you.

 

Where do you position yourself to defend? This could possibly be the issue. If not, then I would advise that in this situation, you should take the shuttle early. It's important to take these higher shots early because they're really hard to play when you haven't got any space. If you take it early on the forehand, a push or block to the forecourt/midcourt region or a flat drive will put pressure on your opponent and help you to get the attack back. On the backhand side, the push or the block would be my shots of choice - the drive is quite difficult in that situation. Taking the shuttle early really is the key though, the shot will come naturally after that.

Clearing is generally considered to be a weak shot to play when attacking but that is because people don't do it right. In doubles (mixed or level), you should avoid it like the plague but in singles, it is a powerful weapon when used sparingly. If you have hit a particularly steep smash and made your opponent lunge or lean forwards to return the shuttle, a flatter attacking clear to their backhand can be devastating. Your opponent with either make an error playing a difficult shot or hit something over the net that you will easily be able to kill. Likewise, if you see that they are rooted to one spot after defending a couple of smashes, an attacking clear to their backhand will put them in serious trouble. A drop-shot would also suffice in either situation but in the interest of variety, it's good to have a different shot to play.

If you're unsure of when it is a good idea to play a clear (in these sorts of situations), it's best that you don't attempt it. On the other hand, if you're able to spot these moments, it's a good shot to play.

Slice isn't essential at any level really but the better you become, the more useful you will find it. Still, it's probably worth working on other aspects of deception first. If you're interested, Peter Rasmussen does an excellent instructional video on it as part of the Badminton Life coaching videos package. It's not cheap which is a shame but the coaching videos are outstanding - much better than the Badmintom England ones IMO.

As for hiding the drop-shot, try to keep your "smash form" for as long as possible. That is to say - swing like you're hitting a smash until as late as possible. Again, this is very difficult to explain just in words. Watch some videos of the top professionals playing (especially women's doubles) and you'll probably see this idea at work, as well as slice and other deceptive techniques. it has to be said though, you can try too hard to deceive your opponent and inadvertantly make it obvious that you're hitting a drop-shot.