There was a Badminton Tournament yesterday in the greater Buffalo NY areas. There were 32 Mens Doubles teams with an A,B,C and D league and after playing two qualifying games my team was placed in the B league. We lost in the first round to players that were both more skilled then my partner and I. I was happy that we were able to force a 3rd game though. I still have much to work on but it felt good getting some tournament experience. My take home from these games were my defense. Many times I was not back far enough to play defense against the smash thus costing us many points. Anyways here are our three games. They won game 1, we won game 2 and they won game 3.
No.... This is certainly true and you can easily see that in your most recent videos. You'll often end up with your hip and shoulders parallel to the net which makes it difficult to move forward. Literally and metaphorically. My suggestion was and still is to practice footwork pattern including the scissor jump focusing on technique, not speed. You don't even have to be in court for this, neither do you need a partner, so it's possible in your situation. You said you want to work on your grip and I agree that it would be helpful, butI don't think it looks you as much as your feet.... You can easily practice pronation and the rebound action at home as a first step to learn to relax at the right moment and to get a feeling for it. Next step could be too hit a shuttle using pronation to finally put the pieces together. To force yourself to use pronation, you could try to turn the racket slightly towards a backhand grip (without taking up the thumb)... From where you are now, this would just be exaggerating the basic grip. Do the same for supination to prepare yourself to learn backhand strokes including a good defence. These points will already take a long period and you'll have to keep repeating it for an even longer period oft time even when moving on.... this might be your serve, your net play, backhand, .... The more progress you make, the more details can be worked on, so it feels like (and is) a never ending journey. Don't try to rush it, don't try to fix everything at once. Keep it up!
Do you think I should practice this with the grip shown In the video or with a more of standard grip ? I feel like I get more of a “pop” if I use the grip in the video but I want the pronation practice to carry over to all of my shots
I'm not sure what video your referring to: Your own or the one I posted? The grip in the video I posted is pretty basic, he just closed it on (just before) impact making it a hammer grip which is totally normal for power shots. Other than that: To practice pronation, you should completely get away from the panhandle grip. The hammer grip would be fine for some exercises in the beginning, because it will make the rebound easier, but stay away from anything that might be panhandle like.
So I have been doing lots of shadow swings with my grip change to focus on more pronation and not using any panhandle style grips. I went back and followed the advice of Visor to think about driving the butt of the racket towards the shuttle and then pronating and then also Cheungs advice to think about using the racket as an ax and then rotating at the last moment. Both "cues" I feel have really helped (at least in my practice) So i went in my garage to try out my new grip and swing and it felt and looked much better. I realize that i still need to raise my right shoulder more but I felt like i was using pronation much better than in the past. Let me know if you all see improvements in my grip and pronation and if im at least heading in the right direction.
Your grip in this video is much much better. This is what you need to practice, and what you need to do on court. Well done. This is the power of using the proper grip - it changes the biomechanics of the body completely, and unlocks a lot of potential for power. Let this be a lesson for everyone who is needing to change grip from panhandle to a proper overhead grip. edit: I particularly liked the practice you did on "rebounding" i.e. no follow through about halfway through. This is a good way of learning to "concentrate" or "focus" your power into the actual point you strike the shuttle.
Looks a lot better. The next stage will be to repeat doing it with somebody feeding you clears. In your games, try not to put the power in the shot for smashes. Just concentrate on a nice strike of the shuttle with that swing and pronation. Losing does not matter at this stage since you are changing technique
So i played last night and there is a HUGE DIFFERENCE IN MY GAME!!!!! I was able to also do a considerable amount of warmup shots before my games. My drops were much better, my clears were better, although i wasnt really able to smash anymore during games i found that even my drives and my defensive shots were more crisp and sharper. Thank you everyone for your help and also for the cue of "swing like an ax" and "drive with the butt of the racket" those helped me the most to figure out proper pronation(along with the correct grip) My footwork and weight transfer was still a mess but i feel soooooo much better about my stroke now. Video coming of last night coming......
So I tried my best in games to keep my proper grip and not going towards panhandle and really try to get proper pronation. I felt like I did much better than on Wednesday and I was still able to be competitive in games. I still found my drives and defend are much better since changing my grip so I know I’m using more pronation on those shots. Here are many of my shots of the day. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated as usual
As impressive as it might be that you seem to be able to focus on these things during games quickly, I think it's too early to make new suggestions. All other things mentioned recently didn't get much (any) attention yet, do there's stilla lot to work on it there. Maybe go through the more recent posts again (maybe one or two pages?) and write down what already has been said. I probably don't remember everything, but I know that it will include some pretty important points.
After weight training today I did some footwork practice and then some practice swings. Going back and forth for 3 rounds(15 min total) I recorded 2 of them as it was getting too dark outside. I think my driveway is too narrow for this type of footwork training. Any suggestions are welcome
Only looked at the first few minutes and I think it’s good that you’re practising this! I do this too in my living room The most relevant drill is the one in the below video. The biggest difference is the stopping and starting - there is a lack of rhythm! Try to gently recover after your stroke and move into the split step for the next movement smoothly too. In your video, you are stopping completely after a footwork (not necessarily a problem as long as it is intentional in order to evaluate your posture). On recovery, you are ten completely stopping in a square stance before re-doing a split step into the next movement I.e you are practising an extra step in every sequence. As Peter Rasmussen shows, just come in gently for recovery and push off powerfully for the next retrieval movement. The key is rhythm and flow! There’s also a bit about your forward footwork in terms of timing your hit as your heel strokes the floor, and improving finger power, but you will develop this over time - if concentrate on your rearcouet footwork and associated overhead action. Don’t try to change too much at once or you’ll lose focus!
Good dedication and improvements! Still I'd like you to feel the racket hip lead your stroke a tad earlier. Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
MY games went well. I felt like I used more weight /hip transfer in my shots. Also please let me if I was using correct pronation???In all the games I wasn’t thinking about it , I was just playing and hoping the many many repetitions of practice carried over. My footwork to the shuttle is garbage, I really noticed how bad it is watching last nights games
The videos of you doing swings in the garage are great. The videos of you doing footwork in the driveway show that you complete your scissor kick a long time before you swing (meaning you are fully facing forwards, and then actually swing) - ideally you should be swinging as you scissor kick, not afterwards. I don't think that particular training in the garden is useful at the moment, unless you focus only on the footwork and don't even hold a racket. So just be careful: if you did that footwork in a game, I would judge it to be wrong and that is what you are practicing. I would suggest you watch how relatively little a professional players upper body rotates during a clear, and try to emulate that: it's not a lot (and is something you are already doing when you swing in the garage). To help get the timing of the scissor kick right, i'd suggest you imagine jumping up, reaching up in the air and playing your stroke (during which your racket foot will still be a little bit behind you), and then after "hitting" the imaginary shuttle, you then complete the rotation of the lower body and bring the foot forwards. I liked the look of your warm up with clears from a few posts ago. Very simple and good looking technique. Your in game technique isn't changing much. I think the contact you are getting is better, and more powerful, but the overall shape of the technique is not comparable to the swings in the garage. The main issue I see is that your starting "ready to hit position" in the games is with the racket flat at chest height, whereas in the practice swings you have your racket up, with your hand at head height and the racket above your head. This difference in starting point for the swing will completely change the swing you produce, including the use of pronation and the contact point (and the grip). So i'd recommend that you continue your practice in your garage, and in warm ups and games you focus on the shape of your preparation before you hit the shuttle. This will allow or a better transfer of skills. Hope that makes sense! Good luck p.s. if I were your coach, i would expect you to have to work hard at this swing, with the same dedication you currently are doing, for another 2 to 3 months before you can move onto something else. If you move on to other things now (which is tempting) you won't really get this technique properly, and you will have to come back and fix it at a later date... which would be sad.
This is some great feedback! I really appreciate the detail that you put into this in order to try and help me. I’ll keep working on my garage swings and also the footwork you suggested Also just to be clear, in your opinion if I fix the “starting point” of my swing with my racket held higher it should clean up my stroke significantly ?
