uhm, there are 3 overhead slices - not sure which one you mean. b/h or f/h court? reverse or conventional slice?
LOL. But I have to say your elbow is quite bent when you hit the shuttle on all overheads. Are drops a weaker part of your game I.e. less effective compared to other parts of your game? If so, this could be the reason.
[video=youtube;DDrpNmotO0w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDrpNmotO0w[/video] This is the second video of me playing on this forum. This time, I'm playing singles. I played many doubles tournaments in the last two years (atleast 20), but this was only my third ever singles tournament. The tournament was rather small and very low class, so I even made it through to the final (video = final). My opponent is one of our club's youth players. He played surprisingly good at that day and also made it into the final. His body language always lacks a little bit of confidence, but we're working on that. I won the final in two straight games, although I had a very bad start into the second set. Surprisingly the semi-final and final we're the two easiest games in the tournament for me. I struggled very hard at group stage and in the quarter-final. Due to my comparatively "aggressive" game I tend to produce many errors. I am the tall guy setting up the camera at the beginning (black shorts). As always I am greatful for any advice concerning technique and tactics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-vkInZvjgo&list=FL2dmryqdGz5QqactIuHKcJw&index=10 This is me, not playing very well >< (the one on the left) Any and all tips are welcome And no I'm not gay, it's just that my brother thought it would be fun to edit this clip as if it were a Pet Shop Boys music video In my own defense: since this clip was shot I've begun training and my skills have improved significantly since then. Still: advice would be nice
Great thread!! Using the forum for an excellent goal: watching each other play and leaning form that. Very nice
Oh I see u asked for advice. Perhaps you could try to direct your smashes more away from your opponent. I see that you smash almost all smashes within returning distance (from the point of view of your opponent). He doesn't return them but a stronger player might....
there is hardly any rally with more than 3 or 4 strokes. you guys have to work on consistency. in lower level-badminton, you usually win if you're able to hit the shuttle over the net a few times without making unforced errors. i would recommend to work on the (boring!) basics, like clear-drop-drop, clear-smash-drop and things like that with the focus on not producing errors. give yourself a lot more margin with your shots. the goal is not to play the very first shot as exact as possible, but to first get the rally going and wait for your chances... (that holds true for you and your opponent...;-))
Couldn't agree more. 75% or more point in this game were because of unforced errors. (I count not being able to return a simple smash whilst standing on your base an unforced error). Really gotta straighten out the simple mistakes like hitting in the net/hitting out of the court before really starting to focuse on improving a single type of shot. When playing practice singles; Agree with your partner that you will play at 75% so you have some more time to make sure you don't make the unforced errors. Then you can slowly start playing more towards 100% while still controlling your shots.
I would like to address your smash placement. You seem to smash always at the your opponents body although I can see your smash working wonders especially because it is a standard doubles smash. But what I want to ask is are you able to generate smashs that are for singles. Now I know this is a tournament and everything goes but if you are unable to smash at the lines consistantly(or near lines because aiming for lines is quite unrealistic) I think that is something you should try to practice on. It is quite clear that your opponent is not able to deflect your body smash. But if you are able to do singles smash then you may ignore this post .
You might want to get your racket hand further back in preparation, especially in the BH corner. Your hand is actually in front of your body (or rather in front of your shoulder line), but it should be aligned or even behind that line. That's especially useful in the backhand corner, as it allows you to play XC shots easier and make all your shots harder to read as the movement gets more similar. Specifically about the XC drop/sliced straight drop from the BH corner: you seem to play the XC drop with slice as well. I assume this drill is done mainly to make those two shots look more alike, right? In that case, you need to adjust your XC drop a bit. First, the racket preparation needs to be adjusted as I mentioned. Then, the swing when playing the XC drop should be pretty straight, without doing an inside-out slice - the same as when you're going for a XC smash (without slice). That way, it'll be very hard to distinguish between your XC drop and sliced straight drop, as your swing on the sliced one is pretty good already, going nicely across the shuttle as if you play a crosscourt shot. Once you've adjusted the racket preparation, you have little more to do on that shot. In general, all sliced drops should actually be played just the same as a clean shot to the other side of the court. The only adjustment you should make (ideally) is to a) keep from pronating/supinating at the last moment and/or c) roll the racket in your hand to turn it's face just before hitting the shuttle. Playing a XC drop disguised as a straight smash from your forehand is most effective just turning the racket face, for example. Playing a sliced straight drop disguised as a XC drop or smash is achieved by hitting the shuttle with the face turned too far already, having it turned slightly outwards in your hand. It's also the second hardest slice to play, requiring you to really get behind the shuttle (hardest being the sliced BH straight drop, which I've actually never seen in serious competition). Anyhow, hope this helps Very good shots to film, btw. I'll try and do the same in training some time soon - let's see if I'm actually doing it any better at all or if it's all just in my head
Bit of tournament play from my most recent tournament attempts, I didn't drop a set through the 6 matches I played previous to this and played Thought I upped my game but I went out too hard unfortunately and lost my confidence when my fitness started becoming a factor later on. (It was recorded in each interval). Got to see Brice Leverdez playing Mens doubles and Mixed (which he won) in the Elite, so was a pretty cool tournament and some of our squad got to play against him. [video=youtube;meTrzSa4fkU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meTrzSa4fkU[/video]
you guys play what i would call "english-style". a lot of flat pushes, smashing, always FAST. i saw chris coles play some weeks ago, he plays the same style, that's why i call it "english" (maybe it's just a kind of coincidence, but anyway...). so from now on, in my mind, english people play this flat, aggressive, fast style... there are some occasions in the match where you seem to overpace, especially when you're a bit too late. sometimes it might be better to do a high and slow lift instead to gain some recovery time instead of always trying to play fast. anyway, i like that style very much, maybe because i'm more on the defensive side when it comes to playing singles...
Not bad. As Footwork mentioned, pretty fast throughout - you could probably benefit from controlling the tempo and varying it a bit more, seeing as your opponent didn't really play very accurate around the net a few more drops could've been helpful. You only got into trouble when you gave him a lot of time, especially in the front corners - that being said, both of you were pretty much staying away from the net, and when you played a second net shot, you usually got an advantage or an outright winner. Like the 1:18 smash, very good point of contact (high in the air). The follow-up is nice as well, despite it being easier on such a short serve....too bad you put that one long, it was yours for the taking You guys seem to play abroad somewhat regularly. Isn't it kinda expensive? Should you ever play in Germany, let me know in advance - would be fun to enter the tournament as well and maybe even have a match against you
ahhh, you've put my head in a spin now! In the BH side I'm really trying to show a straight shot mainly by my body rotation before the strike. So in this sense I don't mind if the straight slice looks like it will be a straight slice. But you say I have good XC swing there :S well, if I'm confused then there's a good chance my oppo will be too I will try to work on where my racket hand sits in prep. It should be easy to bring it back and up whilst keeping my upper arm in line with shoulders. This should also shorten my total swing action which should help me in general I think, so thanks for pointing it out!
Well as I said I wasn't entirely sure which shot was supposed to be the disguised one, but both were looking different. Imop it's most effective to train two shots from the back which look the same - one hit as it looks, one disguised. So it shouldn't be two slices as a slice is usually used deceptively with a couple exceptions. For the swing preparation, have a closer look at Gade, who was also one of the most deceptive players out there. He has a very 'modern' preparation as opposed to some other players like Lin Dan who employ a bigger swing which is more similar to the hitting action heavier rackets required. At least according to one of my coaches, the PG preparation is the one to aim for Good luck! Let's see if I get motivated enough to set up a camera tomorrow - and a willing partner to feed me
I think that due to the nature of sports halls that badminton is played in England (typically lower ceilings and slippery dusty polished floors at most local clubs) then the game that is most effective is low faster paced shots. Again maybe pure coincidence but myself and Chris Coles (not that i'm in the same league as him) both play more doubles than singles, and are both quite tall (think he's also about 6'2-3). Yes, I totally agree I get caught up in the pace side of things, but I must say I do enjoy that, as i'm not a light build and prefer the power play, compared to these uber skinny sub 65kg chaps who can outrun me on a court all day long. (I'm 88kg for reference). May well be doing some specific singles training sessions over the summer to focus on my B-Game plan for this exact reason. Thanks for your comments.
