An update. Had some training today. I adjusted the angle of the slight panhandle grip, found my comfort range and tada! From decent smashes to more powerful smashes. My coach is happy. I am happy as well. Although my smashes became more powerful, I lost my variation and angles. My shuttles landed randomly on the court. For now, my coach isn't too concerned about the loss of variation and angles. He said as time passes, I will find my own way to reproduce the variations and angles.
More powerful and landing more randomly on the court, so that neither you nor your opponent can guess where it's going to go next? Now that's even better...
Yup, he is. Now that you mention it... maybe I shouldn't correct this issue... until my coach says something.
May I know the name of the coach? I agree with those who have previously mentioned that the grip 'should' be a slight pan-handle. Something between the basic forehand grip and the pan-handle is good. Don't go full pan-handle because this can decrease your wrist deviations. But then again, some players can have the funniest grip ever and still smash really hard. So the best way is to find a comfortable grip and work on improving it as you go.
some great advices on this thread. As someone said, practice make all the difference. I've got a friend who played with me since a couple of years ago. We all learnt from friends so since the beginning, he didnt learn the basic grip and been holding the racquet panhandle since. It still looks funny now everytime i see him. Though after all those years, his skills improve and he can do most of shots pretty well. (drops, smashes, etc). Only problem is the lift i reckon. Anyway, the point is, even with the wrong basic grip, with lots of practice (or years of playing) you still can improve since the way you see the shuttle, and the more familiar yourself with the strokes. and yeah, i do have the same problem with the OP. Took me years to realise Ive been always slicing the shuttle a bit when smashing. Will try to fix it by the advices over here then. Thanks !!!