Terence, have you seen Zhao Jianhua hit a shuttle at aged 40+ ? Because of his technique he doesnt have to even try to hit hard to get to the baseline and I'm sure he will be hitting just as hard at 50+ Yes old age will hinder your strokes but bad technique will hinder it much much more.
The correct shuttle speed should be no less than 53cm (1.7 feet) and not more than 99cm (3.2 feet) from the back boundary line. 46cm....
No, not even Lin Dan can use a speed 74 shuttle to reach the distance at sea level in Malaysia. The speed test is more forgiving with the minimum distance and it is extremely rare that a good player can reach the maximum distance with the correct speed shuttle. The minimum distance is about slightly less than 11 inches short of the back double service line. You will notice that the video shown above shows the shuttle barely making it, and even that the shuttle was struck slightly in front of the back line. If you can reach the back doubles service line then you are pretty good. The test demonstrates the shuttle's high-drag properties. It slows down considerably towards the end. The key is your racket hand speed which speeds the shuttle at its maximum initially and them slows down ever more after that. The moment the shuttle reaches its maximum height it will gyrate inwards, slowing it down, before dropping inwards. The trick is to go the longest distance before it drops and hand speed is important, not strength. Usually high quality shuttles will fall within a tight range of each other. The minimum and maximum distance is to cover more shuttles other than the top quality ones. Shuttle speeds are a general guide and is determined as a standard based on an advanced player. The game is won or lost by a human being, the player who uses control and not by a machine lobbing out shuttles at a predetermined force. If you are at the net and you use a sledgehammer-like smash you will hit the shuttle out by a mile-this is not due to a faster speed shuttle. How about doing the test in earnest? But do use a high quality grade A goose feather shuttle. Cheaper shuttles can sometimes fly out because they put lead shots in the cork base and they do not exhibit the characteristics of a high-drag shuttle but more like a small stone.
Didn't manage to do the shuttlecock test last week. There were some 'issues' with the court. I'm moving to another court this Sat, I'll make sure to do the shuttle test this Sat. I'll update on Sunday
Sorry .. sorry.. sorry.. 1000 apologies. Always forget the test.. I get too excited every time I step on the badminton court!.. I promise to do the test tomorrow. I'll update on Sunday night.
Just i thought its arm speed, which loosely related to strength and can be helped by increasing strength. You can have very fast skinny arms. Also long arms help. I am newbie to badminton but not to other sports. So i am not just drawing this opinion from watching badminton players. But obviously technique is the most important aspect of hitting the shuttle hard
Here is another test to try out on court. Try a high singles forehand serve that can reach 25 feet or more, at least 22 feet, high and have the shuttlecock land within 6" from the back line. If you can do it then you are an advanced player and here is one test that will see if all your skills on pronation, supination, and technique that you have learned bear fruition. Don't look down on this extreme high singles serve and it is harder than you think. It also does not require strength, just pure wrist and forearm and yes technique.
In answer to the OP's question. It's all about experience & getting consistent shuttles. I know how hard *I* expect to hit shuttle to get it it to the Service baseline. I'm assuming the majority of the shuttles I've used over the years are the right speed and have gotten used to the trajectory & flight characteristics. The point of the speed test is to get a consistent flight for a shuttle. Normally most clubs will have the right speed of shuttle for the conditions & everyone learns how to play with them. After a while most people will get a feel of how much power it takes to get the average shuttle to land on the service baseline. It depends on your power & technique but most people will use a "full" swing as adding another variable like "half swing" makes it more difficult to be consistent. Every now & again a batch of shuttles will be slightly fast/slow & using the test can help you determine if you need to adjust your game or if everyone playing agrees to tip the shuttle. You can have a number of people who do the test with the same shuttle & they don't all use the same power/technique. What they should all be able to do is have the same expectations based of experience of "average" flight characteristics & agree if a shuttle is fast/slow. It also means that in countries with Seasons (winter/summer) we can use the test to judge when to swap over to different speed shuttles.
I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with you mindfields and demolidor. The point of the speed test is NOT to get a consistent flight for the shuttle. You could be "CONSISTENTLY" playing with the wrong shuttle speed. The point of the speed test is to ensure the shuttle cock flies as a certain "standard" speed whether you're playing in the summer, winter, up in the mountains or below sea level. Now, after so many weeks of delay, I've finally got to doing the speed test. Sorry for the delay Taneepak. I tested 3 shots on an RSL shuttlecock (77 speed). I managed to land all 3 shuttles around 2 -3 feet of the back doubles service line. My conclusion after the test was.. I'm still think there should be a more scientific way to test the shuttlecocks. In golf, they test the golf balls using a machine called Iron Byron and probably a few more sophisticated machines who's name I can't recall at the moment. Anyway, the machine hits the ball at a precise launch angle and speed. Ball launch angle, spin rate and carry can be measured precisely. The golf associations use these test to control and limit the maximum distance golf balls can fly. Well, I'm sure some smart badminton enthusiast would have invented such a machine. Only problem is, it's not in official badminton association's rules book to manage shuttlecock speed. I say it's time to kick these bunch of useless old goats out the IBF and have some new blood in. Shuttlecock test, video replays, rude referees, the confusing and difficult to implement low service rule.. just to mention a few things that needs improving to make badminton a more popular sport internationally. whew.. I think I just blew out some steam.
In Malaysia the speed is 76 for a non-airconditioned hall at sea level as speed 77 is faster by exactly one foot or 30cm. Therefore your effort with speed 77 which falls about 2 to 3 feet short of the back doubles service line would translate to a shortfall of 3 to 4 feet for the correct speed of 76. This is a rather large difference from the minimum standard of 27cm or 10 to 11 inches short of the back doubles service line for a speed 76 shuttle. As each speed is 30cm distance you may have to use a shuttle speed of 78 to 79 for a non-airconditoned hall or speed 77 to 78 for an airconditioned hall. In other words, your hitting ability is too far short of what is considered standard. This will then allow you to play the full length of the court instead of playing half-court shots unnecessarily. Shuttlecocks of a certain level are speed tested by machines under set conditions for correct speed at the plant. Cheaper grades are not tested this way. Medium grades are speed tested but with very wide and overlapping tolerances. The court test is primarily used to test and select a suitable speed for that particular hall. In general, altitude has the greatest impact on speed with temperature next.
Are you going to throw all the shuttles away that fly too far or label them a different speed? I believe mindspeed's point was or at least that's the part I derived from it: the player's develop a (more or less) consistent routine/swing for the speedtest so the shuttle should be the variable. I think you are watching it from a single point of player's perspective without any control group (other players). In that case yes you could be playing with the wrong speed your whole life .
In terms of reliability of the shuttle speed test, I would like to add in my own reflection. G.K. Chesterton has a famous quote: "Don't take down the fence until you know why it was put up in the first place." So for the shuttle test, as well as the other items mentioned such as the low service rule and referees, it's important for us to find out what the rules were meant to promote and prevent in the first place. From what I can gather here, the shuttle test is meant to have the same flight speed and advance players can preform the test consistently. In addition with standard production rules for a feather bird, the same shuttle speed would also determine it's trajectory albeit minor variance. This means that at any serious level of play, the bird is standardized. However, for lower levels of play, the tournament would need to hire an advance player to test the shuttle batch with a few shuttle examples. So there is a limit there that may be easy to overcome for those producing serious tournaments. If the shuttle test was not meant for beginner to intermediate players and their skills are not solid enough to finely control the bird, whether is it a well tested or untested bird of the same speed, than this would be irreverent. However, because playing with the wrong birds could develop bad habits of play, this could be an issue. But whether this is really an issue would best be answered by advance players and up who have experience beginner and intermediate levels to determine if they have developed bad habits that took them time to overcome with untested birds. On the issue of designing a machine to test out the speed. If the machine is similar to the ones used in golf or an automatic shuttle launcher, then the price could be prohibitive to any tournament producer that isn't already promoting games for advance level players and up. If the cost is such, then the question is once again irrelevant. Thus the only two issues I can personally see with the current test is that for completeness sake only or for improved plays at the beginner and intermediate level without an advance to test out the shuttle. For the first issue, it is not practical to the game but potentially important or interesting in the future. For the second issue, if one has a coach or access to an advance player then the issue can be worked around. This is assuming that beginners and intermediates are adversely effected by playing with company rated but untested locally birds. This assumption needs to be tested or explored by a variety of advance and higher level players to be relevant.
In the case of birds that fly too far or too short, the best practical decision would be to label then as such and reserve them for another time when they can be used, such as a change in the season, for players that are too weak but need to train speed (shuttles that are too fast), for tipping to play immediately at the correct speed (with lost of durability - suggest with the slower birds when tested at the colder season), or to give it away for service practice (either type), smash returns (faster type) and net kills (slower birds).
If the control group have been playing together for a very long time.. they'll all probably agree that they're playing the right speed simply because they've gotten used to a certain shuttle speed. If in the control group, you've got 2 newbies. The strong one has no control, so he blast every shuttle out of the back court, and the other newbie is a weak fellow who can't hits everything half court. If they have an argument about shuttle speed, there's no easy solution. But the argument is what if the control group was big enough, and you've got experienced players? Could you get the shuttle speed right? I say there's a better chance... but my point is, if Badminton is going to reach out to a larger audience of global players, your're going to have a lot more newbies than experienced players. Then, these newbies have no way to find out whether they are playing the right shuttle speeds...
If the sport was better managed, i guess the issue about cost wouldn't even crop up in the first place. Anyway, shuttle sponsors like Yonex could easy afford such a machine.
