Tony Gunawan smash in slow motion - perfect technique

Discussion in 'Techniques / Training' started by kwun, Apr 29, 2011.

  1. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    want to share this with you. i took this 240fps slow motion of Tony practicing smash against Howard Bach during the 2011 US Adult National Championship.

    look at how Tony prepare, rotate, and the pronate his forearm. all completely perfect.

    [video=youtube;jD5oaOzU9zg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD5oaOzU9zg[/video]
     
  2. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    notice his use of core/abs strength and body rotation even for a simple smash like this. it looks so relaxed and graceful yet powerful at the same time.
     
  3. icecoldcoke

    icecoldcoke Regular Member

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    he didnt receive the smash!! was it very very fast?
     
  4. MSeeley

    MSeeley Regular Member

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    Great video. Just some things to look out for when watching this video - a few points that may help people who struggle with their smashes:
    Notice how he doesn't over rotate. It is not necessary for power. Notice how his body (hips, shoulders, chest, stomach) all finish pointing towards where the shuttle will go - this is a great tip for anyone who struggles for accuracy! The shuttle will go in the direction your stomach (hips/shoulders/chest) is pointing AT CONTACT.
    Notice that his racket doesn't drop "too far" behind him - he uses supination followed by pronation, whilst rotating his body - simple.
    Notice how his contact point (0.08ish) is IN FRONT, to HIS RIGHT, and not overly stretched up high. I feel too many players try to reach up "too high" making it awkward for themselves. A little bit lower and further to the side (and in front) and everything can relax and really start to flow.

    Good to see a doubles great in action - arguably one of the best doubles players to have played the game (3 WC with three different partners? Madness!)
     
  5. jilin74

    jilin74 Regular Member

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    I guess I am not sure what you mean by this. Which part of the hips and shoulders, chest and stomach pointing towards the direction of the shuttle? Do you mean consider the shoulder/chest/hips/stomach as a flat area, it is perpendicular to the direction of the shuttle?

    Just trying to understand the finer points, thanks.


     
  6. staiger

    staiger Regular Member

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    between 7-8 secs in the video ...thats the different between a normal club player smash compared with the professional. The supination on the racket is unbeliveable ---> as ms said on here he did not need to exaggerate the pronation afterward to generate the power required...Thats how you hit a 120mph+ smash.
     
  7. cobalt

    cobalt Moderator

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    Nice video, Kwun! :)

    Somehow had the feeling that he "held back" a little at just about the time of contact; he didn't fully "lean into" or "fully commit" the stroke. Check out the freeze at 0:08 to know what I mean. You see guys like TH, LD etc do that (lean into the stroke) more often. I also had the feeling that if he rotated his shoulder a tad more at about that time, he might have obtained a lot more power. It looks like he got so much of his power from the pronation and wrist snap. Fantastic timing, though!! Awesome! :D
     
  8. jilin74

    jilin74 Regular Member

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    Not too surprising that he did not go full-power though. From the video, it looks like that he was doing pre-game warming up. :)


     
  9. MSeeley

    MSeeley Regular Member

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    jilin74:
    I think you have understood what I mean.
    Just to clarify: If you consider, for example, the front of his torso (chest/shoulders/abs) as a flat area, and you draw an arrow doing forwards at roughly 90 degrees to this flat surface (i.e. pointing away from the camera) then this is close to the direction the shuttle is going to go for a "clean" - i.e. non sliced - contact.

    Many players, when they are off balance or hit a smash that doesn't go where they want it to go, will, at contact, have their body facing the wrong direction, hence the smash is inaccurate.

    And staiger: it is beautiful to watch isn't it :)
     
  10. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    it is indeed beautiful. i just wish i had taken more esp during the game.

    i have a few more including ones of Halim as well. will post them once i have them processed. ETA next week or so. i have a huge backlog of stuff right now.
     
  11. MSeeley

    MSeeley Regular Member

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    Halim Haryanto? Tony's original MD partner? The one with a MONSTER smash? Good work :D
     
  12. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    yes. but unfortunately only leisure drilling ones. should've taken some during a match.

    [​IMG]
     
  13. staiger

    staiger Regular Member

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    Nice to see someone getting technical, it is indeed beautiful to watch. the work of act . people does not know how technical a smash is when they see them on tv in normal mode, they think is just hitting it as hard as possible by swing the racket . Thank you Kwun for the video , and if possible could you please upload one with a high backhand smash or clear , that in itself would help many forumer in practicing their backhand (including myself)
     
  14. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    also noticed (and have been noted before) that this is just a leisure-ish smash he did during warmup. while most of us would love to have such a smash at our hardest level.
     
  15. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    i am afraid i didn't record any backhand. next time i get the chance i will.
     
  16. raymond

    raymond Regular Member

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    Supination then pronation?

    I don't understand this point. Can anyone in-the-know elaborate?

    I googled a little, and found an old thread on body kinetics for power stroke:
    http://www.badmintoncentral.com/for...or-power-strokes?p=97208&viewfull=1#post97208

    No luck there either.
     
  17. staiger

    staiger Regular Member

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    Yes , most standard players would only use pronation for their smash. But advanced players + to generate greater power would supinate their wrist before turning their wrist (pronate) when impact with the shuttle .
    Unless you got a really strong wrist and play high standard of badminton I wouldnt recommend it if you current smash is good enough. Most teaching manual would not show this by the way.

    P.S. it is reverse of the high backhand when pronate before supinate.

    These are the key concepts of badminton , I will try to find a good youtube video t demonstrate this techiques
     
    #17 staiger, Apr 30, 2011
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2011
  18. MSeeley

    MSeeley Regular Member

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    Raymond, watch the video again. Just after 0.06 seconds, you should notice that two things happen:
    firstly the racket seems to speed up all of a sudden - everything was slow, and then suddenly the racket gets quicker.

    At the same time as this happening, you should be able to observe that the racket is swinging towards the right (as we look at it) this would seem to be counter intuitive if we believed Tony was only swinging towards the shuttle (the racket is going in the wrong direction!).

    This step is the supination just before the main forward swing(where he reaches up to hit the shuttle). This movement is the opposite use of the forearm muscles, when compared to the movement that is then used to strike the shuttle forwards (pronation). What this means, is he is making use of plyometric strength in his arm - quickly moving the muscles away from where they need to go (to stretch them), before snapping back in the other direction powerfully (shortening the muscles) which is when he swings forwards to make contact with the shuttle.

    I hope you can see that at about 0.08, the racket stops moving towards the right (as we look), and instead stops and strikes forwards towards the shuttle - this is when he has fully supinated his forearm, and so his racket seems to "stop" momentarily. He then pronates powerfully, striking forwards at the shuttle.

    I hope that helped understand? we are simply marvelling at how nicely his arm supinates and then immediately pronates. It looks so natural, and so well refined, so easy, and YET, so effective. This is the key - it IS easy, we just aren't doing it right!

    As kwun said earlier, this is more of a half hearted smash than full power. If he can hit a half hearted smash at that kind of pace, then surely we should be able to too? I imagine its harder to copy a lin dan jump smash than this one demonstrated! Too much going on in that big jump smash!
     
  19. staiger

    staiger Regular Member

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    Thats more or less it !! I just found a clip of our friend Lin Dan slow motion smash (it is a mirror image btw, thats why he seem to be right handed)...........Supination ..look at where the racket face is , at 0.10 seconds and at 0.16 seconds where he pronate to strike that shuttle.

    the point is that ---when he supinate and prepare for the smash -- the side of the racket that is facing down is eventually the side that would strike that shuttle when he pronate............ for someone of his ability it is natural since he would have trained to use his technique since he was young and this gave him the advantage to hit those smashed with such power and precision.

    But for intermediate players etc... learn how to pronate the wrist to smash would be good enough
     
  20. staiger

    staiger Regular Member

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    Found a better video , it is from no other than ---- Fu HaiFeng

    [video=youtube;7HTeG0CmKbU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HTeG0CmKbU[/video]

    @app. 0.22 seconds-- supinate
    @app. 0.24 seconds--- pronate

    just watch the racket face if you still dont understand the concept, it took me a while for me as well before I realize that pronation is not enough to smash the shuttle hard
     
    #20 staiger, May 1, 2011
    Last edited: May 1, 2011

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