A few comments (not comprehensive) A） improve consistency on serve. Both of you. B) after serve, immediately bring up your racquet! see C) C) when at the net in rallies, you are too late to hit the netshot because you react only when you see the shuttle coming at the net. You have to anticipate the netshot. Tip - when you hear your partner smash, that's the signal to raise your racquet or if you have played a netshot, raise your racquet just as the opponent is hitting the shuttle (don't just stand there thinking "I played a good netshot, let's see what happens" and then not be ready for the next shot!). Even if the opponent doesn't hit a shot around you, you have signalled an aggressive to the opponents. Your partner should do the same. D) your partner can definitely block/push/drive more and charge the net more - he doesn't like going to the net e.g. 7.06, 7.08. That's two times he has not charged the net in one rally. Both shots, he played the opponent out of balance. You both must be very alert at this as this is a golden chance. His mistake is he stayed back. He played the push and should anticipate the netshot and come into the net (just behind the service line) earlier - don't even think about the opponent lifting - he totally focuses on covering the forecourt area. Your reaction speed should be similarly fast and move to the centre line to cover any clears. You are the who should be smashing as the most likely lift will be to the right side i.e. your forehand (not your partner's forehand) E) 7.14 you played a netshot where the opponent had to chase it. What is the most likely shot the opponent will play? Who do you think should be immediately going to the forecourt? What should your partner be doing? If there is a lift to the left of the court, whose forehand side is it? Yours or your partner's? E) when you receive a straight smash, stand with your legs side by side (not front back) F) When you play a smash, you are not helping your partner. Think about smashing so that opponent will hit a return that goes to your partner's forehand. G) Both of you need to work on defence flat drives. Without these you don't have enough options on defensive play on turning around a rally H) Both of you need to work on flat midcourt fast pushes. Do you notice your shots 'float' in the air? A floating shuttle gives more time to the opponent I) Both of you the backhand grip position technique is slightly wrong - and not using fingers (which is partly why you have problems with G) and H) ) J) Practice changing forehand to backhand in one quick motion and similarly backhand to forehand grip in one quick motion
A. Your partner's serve is fine, it is yours that often tend to be a bit high. You just need a bit more horizontal pushing action towards the net. Go practice it on an empty court for a few hrs and you'll get it. F. You're a right/left combo, which can be very lethal if you play smart. Smart as in smash or drop your opponents so that the likely reply is to the forehand of yours or your partner's. And along the same lines, make sure you don't expose each other's backhand from wrong shot choices.
Lots of advice there, thanks! All taken aboard and we'll try and start working on those. Playing some doubles games tonight so we'll try focus on a couple of points mentioned.
We didn't have too much time to practise on much but I'd like to think we played a bit better than last video. This is our game in the Gloucestershire Bronze tournament against the number 1 seeded pair. Managed to get 11 and 16 out of them so not too bad considering they went on to win the finals. Maybe they were just playing casually against us.
@Razor-BladE It's a lot better. I think better results will come with experience. Here are some points Good to see you are getting the racquet up earlier at the net. Some specifics: Your partner, the left hander, receiving serve: He has this very bad habit of always dropping the racquet head to his knees at the start of the return of serve. He feels he cannot play the right shot and pressure the shuttle. So, he opponents get a good third shot in. That's why you usually feel under pressure on the fourth shot. You will have to hire a court and specifically practice returns of serve.. The left hander is still not alert enough looking for the net shot when he is in the forecourt. Mix up the smashes with drops, don't only drop when you are a little off balance. You when you play drops, play fast drops. These are easier to go close to the top of the net. You are starting to do drives and whips - it's added a bigger dimension to your game. Try to add more quality to the shot. The lefty can sometimes play a cross court drive from the left court to catch out the opponents - play it across the body to make the opponent switch grip from forehand to backhand and not at the body of the opponent. You then cover your forehand for the next reply.. 7.56 was a golden opportunity for this play but it was wasted playing a straight smash. Not only that, the lefty played two consecutive smashes in exactly the same place - it's just too easy for the opponent to keep the rally going. Try not to lift cross court from the mid court if your partner is near the net and would need to run back to defend - you put him in a weak defensive position. 5.16 - that cross court lift was definitely too low. 5.13, 5.18 - both of you played the shuttle to the opponent's strength. Those return of serves should be going down near the tramlines and about 2-3 feet past the service line - not going up and floating in the air. Doesn't seem like a big thing at the time but it builds up the the pressure over time. These return of serves that both of you play do not make the opponents stoop and reach, nor make them play the shuttle up. If you watch the rest of the video, your opponents usually make sure the shuttle is going downwards on their return of serve to make you lift. 6.32 he should have played a high lift - the opponents were in too good a position. Actually, even better if he was faster in the net after having seen the opponent at the net a little off balance and you go to the back. This is where a good partnership and understanding counts. 7.02 That's a terrible place to put the cross court drop shot. Play a drop shot slightly to the centre of the court (but not cross court). 7.38 Both of you not doing well. The net player moved back leaving a gaping hole at the forecourt. The lefty played a jumping back step out smash when the opponents were totally in balance. You made it so easy for the opponents. 8.18 excellent push. That was a difficult shot to play from the net to put the opponent under pressure. If there is a really big thing, I would say you need to improve the returns of serve. Probably worth four or five points in each game and you could have made the opponents sweat a lot more.
For your singles when you do the backhand service your right leg has to be in front not your left leg.And your body looks like very stiff you have to use your wrist not your all arm.And always come to the center point after you play don't stand from one side.and don't hurry to finished and get the point until you get the chance to kill the shuttle just stay in the rally and play relax.
Your backhand isn't perfect but overall your singles game was of a pretty good standard. You're probably better than most of the people commening on this thread, that's not to say there arent improvements that can be made but holy ****, do people act like you're like a total beginner at Badminton
Having said that, what's your constructive advice to the OP given that he has entered county level competitions? Is there any information within the replies you disagree with?
Just how can you tell? After all, you have only watched OP's video... If we think he's a total beginner, there probably won't be too much advice, other than suggesting him get a coach. Here you could actually find some pragmatic, actionable suggestions for OP to consider.
The whole point of this thread is for OP to get some suggestions on how he can improve. Merely telling him his backhand could do with some work (What kind of work: Better technique? Slice? Angle? Power? Using it too often/not enough? Awkward backhand footwork?), but otherwise, he's all good to go doesn't really help him! When I come to BC for advice, I want people to rip apart my game. Even if I think my footwork is perfect, it's always worth re-evaluating different ideas (even if I don't take the advice personally, others have told me how THEY do it, so if my opponent happens to think like the others told me, at least I've processed it before and decided what the pros/cons of such a technique are). The best way to improvement is keeping an open mind. Mind you, that's not just for badminton. OP may be better or worse than those here in the thread, it really doesn't matter as he is looking for suggestions and food for thought. At the end of the day, you are responsible for the decisions you make, including which suggestions you take to heart. Even if you take advice from even Lee Chong Wei himself, then you should still be asking yourself WHY should I be doing it this way? If you take advice blindly without understanding, then you'll never truly grasp where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Incidentally, I was also playing in the Gloucester Senior Bronze Singles but I didn't meet OP in any of my games - maybe next time!
Good catch about the serving stance. To elaborate - the footwork to your front corners is slower if you maintain the left foot forward stance. You actually switch feet immediately after serving which is good (and also how you are still able to reach the front fast enough) - it means it should be easier for you to just change the serve itself. The change will just mean you don't need to swap your feet straight after serving all the time which means one step less for your body to have to deal with under pressure (which should improve your reaction time and balance). Since you have more room for your racquet, you might also find your short serve becomes more consistent and accurate, and your flick serve can be more deceptive.
Thanks Cheung again as always! Since posting we've had a little practise with returns of service but haven't had too much court time for drills. In club nights I've been working on rotating the body more into my smashes which has felt really good and has improved consistency a little (as well as power!). Need to get it to become second nature now. RE: Serving stance. I knew for a while I should switch feet but I had done it for so long, it wasn't too high up on my priorities. But I have sorted it out now, so you can view below. Any better? @DarkHiatus How did you do at the tournament? Are you playing the Somerset one? I will be, but not singles. Can't believe they're charging £18 for it! Here's one of my singles games (in Yellow) at the same Bronze tournament. I've barely played singles since my last posting so hardly much improvement. Looking at it, it's frustrating the amount of unforced errors and mid court lifts/clears... :/
Again, I really enjoy watching your videos, especially the singles ones. And watching your latest one, there is one thing that jumps in my face - you are neglecting your opponent's deep forehand corner on lifts and pushes! I have seen countless lifts which go to your opponent's backhand corner (example: rally starting at 3:33) but I hardly find any flat lift, push or attacking clear to the forehand corner. Same goes for your return of serve - I think I haven't seen a single flat lift to the deep forehand. For a lot of opponents, the backhand is always a safe way to go. Hitting consistently aggressive and precise shots round the head requires good footwork, strong core muscles and a good technique so for a lot of opponents, they will simply use their (weak) backhand which will hardly put you in any serious danger. If you are facing an opponent like the one in the video, it's a whole different story. It's obvious that he is pretty strong from the round the head position, applying pressure with a mixture of good attacking clears and finishing it off with a dead solid cross court drop shot that caught you many times (see 0:34). And on top of that, he can even keep up the pressure or score a winner with his backhand (4:06) if he's too late to hit it round the head. So even if it might feel weird to target the supposedly easier forehand side, you will quickly discover that this is the corner where even more opponents have problems to reach quickly. Just watch yourself how hard you need to work to properly reach a good flat lift or push to the deep forehand corner.
Yep, I'll be down next week! Haha, I'll be playing singles only again - difficult finding a partner to travel...and yeah, £18 is steep! I'll have to remind myself to get a video to make it more worth it Just had a quick look at your Gloucester bronze singles video. You look much sharper there than your 1st post, however long the time difference is. It's harder to tell what you are going to do even when under a decent amount of pressure. I'd certainly struggle to play against you! Overall, I think you've picked up the main part - the unforced errors and hitting to the middle cost you too many points. One movement you tended to lose more points than gained was in your backwards jumping half-smash - your opponent was in base position fully ready for most of them and since it is such a difficult shot, most of the time the shots were weak and not aimed far enough down the sides. Your opponent was then playing a really strong drop which you were missing often, and lifting to reset every now and then. I'd save these for when your opponent is more out of position. Another shot I noticed is missing from the game (by your opponent too) is the crosscourt net shot. Especially on your backhand, you exclusively play a straight net, a straight lift, or most commonly a crosscourt lift. This might be one reason your opponent was more confident in the backhand rear corner as it was by far your most common response to a drop on the backhand net. It's not a common shot in any game, but showing that it's an option to you means your opponent has to a least consider you might play it. I can't find too much else that hasn't been said already.
Singles match 0.10 - a bit slow off the mark for return of serve so you take it too low. The opponent can predict a high lift. 0.19 - perfect deep forehand reply by you but after your shot, look where your feet are at 0.20 at the point when he hits the shuttle. You are too far forward. Read the link below Countering Flat Attacking Styles in Singles so he hits it back to your forehand corner, you scramble back a bit off balance and play a lift, he smashes (and wins a point because you are off balance). Also, you are a bit too far forward in your base position - probably a foot backwards would help. 0.26 Service return a bit better (you took it earlier). 0.29 you played a lift but after the lift, not retreating back into the court enough. So he plays a clear and you struggle to get back. Play a higher lift OR be prepared to retreat faster. 0.55-1.23 Best rally. You need to be able to play more like that which only routines can help you. 1.26 Take the serve very low again on your forehand (seems this is a pattern). what is good in this rally, your footwork speeds up to catch the opponent out when you play the shot to his deep forehand. With later rallies, what I also see is you often are too far forward in your base position. The weakness is after you clear from the backcourt. You are very afraid of the dropshot (because you cannot reach it) hence moving forward. There are three things you need to do a) keep the base back a bit, so encouraging the opponent to play to the front court b) time a good split step when he hits the shuttle on his overhead c) have your shoulders lean forward so your centre of gravity is more forward. All of these three increase your speed to cover the dropshots. Your game is a bit one dimensional (not able to construct rallies, lack variety of technique, positioning) and definitely a couple of notches below him in experience. He doesn't have that good a serve technique but he uses it well and plays a good tactical game.
Good evening all. It's been a while! I've barely played singles since that Gloucestershire Tournament, but I do feel I've improved in my general consistency and placement of shots. I'll get a doubles game filmed soon, but for the time being, here are a couple of singles games to tear me apart with.
Watched the first video. I'll offer what advice I can. Are you the player on the near side? I'll assume you are, tell me if you aren't! One thing that sticks out to me is that you weren't able to do enough damage when attacking a short lift. A lot of times you play the smash, but your opponent can return it without taking a step. Being able to smash down the lines makes your attack far stronger and you'll win points a lot easier. You said you've been playing doubles, so I think it's something you haven't been focusing on lately.
Yeah I'm the closest one. Thanks, yep that's one thing that repeatedly gets said to me, and one thing I need to practise (more).
