For me it is the overhead cross court drop shot. It is real difficult to reverse and hit an overhead cross court drop shot. Not backhand.
Hardest shot to master: short serve in doubles. To master a shot, you have to be able to do it under extreme pressure situations. Finals of a tournament, say. In a tournament situation, if it's slightly high, you're dead. If it's slightly too soft, it's short. People's ability to read and react to shots seem to increase dramatically in tournaments (adrenaline probably has to do a lot with it). And a short serve can go wrong SO easily. A slight bend in the wrist/fingers, and it's either too low or too high. If your arms are slightly higher or lower when you come set, same result.
psychologically....would be the doubles short serve. skill and timing wise..i'd say a smash return drive when the opponent is smashing at you crosscourt from your forehand side to your backhand side....then..you have to time it perfectly and concentrate the power to hit the shuttle inside out and drive it straight.
This is very true, especially if your opponent is a good receiver. It's really a psychological battle. As a receiver, I sometimes provoke the server by standing close to the net, expecting that he'd lift it so the attack is ours right away. And as a server, if i know the receiver is provoking me, I just take my time in serving and focus on making a tight serve, close to the net as much as possible.
Normally the hardest shot is the the shot which you practice least. Or perhaps the one you haven't tried.
i think is combining the footwork and the swing together ... to generated the most power i seem to strugle to do my footwork and the swing now
My most 'unpredicatble' shot is my net shots and drops, i sometimes try to hard to slice it, giving deception and a huge boost when its pulled off, but the consistancy of them are somewhat poor. My trouble is that i change my mind at the last minute, and it fluffs up the shots. My general game is somewhat perfect apart from that
i know what you mean, im 5ft 8in, and i sometimes find it cramped when up close to the net in a doubles serve, and if you lift the racket head,you risk it going above hip. So i stand slightly back from the line, 1ft or so back, gives me more room to decide if a short serve or a flic to the back is best
I'd have to say the backhand drop which I'm starting to get the hang of but it's just hard to time it right and know when to hit straight or cross with your back turned
people cheat all the time man, look at the location where they hit the bird, not where they place the bird initially. I do it too, place the bird low and raise it up when hit, the motion is fast that it's hard to notice. you try to hit the bird below your hip in a serve that's gonna be a huge setup because the impact is from the bottom up (hense some people like to turn/tilt/rotate the bird slightly when hit to prevent less of an arc). A flick serve works really well against new players, it's fast and unexpected, but against ok people, they will slam it right down your face. And i notice the bigger you are, the harder it is to serve against because there isn't alot of place to hit. I'm 5'9.5, and people tend to flick serve my partner (5'4) more than me even though I'm slower.
Can slicing be a choice for the most difficult shot to play? I can't be bothered going thru the whole thread to find that someone else finds slicing their challenging shot to make. 80% of the time when I try to slice, I often hit the frame and it makes me look stupid.
Crosscourt netting has to be the hardest one for me. Getting it over is easy but I make it so obvious. So, faking a crosscourt netting.
You're not on your own here. Slicing for me is low percentage but that's more than due to the fact that i don't practice it often For me, i find an effective backhand clear difficult when the shuttle is behind me.
About everything at the net for me I'm afraid. I stopped counting how much smashes @ the net that landed out. Netplay is too high and I don't even think about crossing .
