Starting to look better. I slowed the video down to 0.25 to analyse. I agree you're hitting with a straight arm and with a slight bend in the elbow, that's good. However, imagine there is a clock face in front of you. You are hitting at the 2 O'Clock position, i.e. too wide. You should be hitting above your shoulder at 1 O'Clock. The issue mainly stems from your feet being in the wrong position, your right foot is a lot closer to the side of the court than your front foot. You need to get properly side-on before striking the shuttle with your right foot behind and in line with your left foot, of course you need a gap about shoulder width or greater apart. I think what would help with this is if you point to the shuttle with a straight left arm, this should force you to get side on, with your chest parallel to the side of the court, it will also help the starting position of your elbow which seems too low. Yes, some of the feeds to you were quite flat which doesn't help. In an ideal world all the feeds to you would be high to allow you to consistently get in the right position and hit with the correct technique.
Thanks for the comments - the second shorter video is exactly as you describe, me trying to use my left arm and extend both arms outwards by pushing out the chest slightly, before executing the stroke. I think it looks better, but it still feels choppy and rushed. I think this is partially due to it being a new technique and also because the feed was not great, but I am sure there is more than that. I just don't know what exactly it is that's missing, but I'll try my best to get it looking more fluid by focusing on the kinetic chain as @visor suggests. It's good that it appears all the components are there, I just need to remember them all and not forget them as I link it all up. Even the first video shows I am forgetting about the torso on most shots, of which the left hand seems a good cue for. Back to basics indeed.
Indeed, your technique looks a lot better in the second video with the left arm straight. You just need to get your right foot behind your left, directly in line before hitting the shuttle. It's starting out to the side and that's why the hitting point is out wide. Watch some videos of professionals knocking up before their game, for right handers you'll see their right foot is directly behind their left and in line. Get this right first then the kinetic chain will come naturally with more practice. I don't think you're too far off. Just get your feet in the right starting position and stay on your toes.
I know some coaches who really drill it into the juniors to extend their left arm straight up and we are talking about very straight up. Definitely agree with @baronspill about the one o clock position of hitting. My daughter’s coach did an exercise where he fed shuttles slowly one by one in a lift and she had to move to the shuttle letting it drop to the floor. If it wasn’t landing in front of her right shoulder (I.e the one o’clock position), then her position for the clear was wrong. This was to help spatial awareness and get the right positioning without having to worry about hitting the shuttle.
Don't try to remember all the components! Just let your body get the feel of an effortless stroke, one that is smooth and doesn't require much power to hit far. Get your body to remember the shape of that good stroke and keep going from there. Initially there may be only one out of every 50 strokes that feel fluid and right, but with enough practice and intentionally seeking that good feeling stroke, you'll gradually improve that rate to 1 in 20, and then to 1 in 10, and so on until every single stroke is right. Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
Given the amount of training and practice he has had, this won't work. Otherwise, he would have a good stroke by now. Also people vary in their ability across different strokes to do this. For one person, the clear might be hard but dropshot is easy to get the feel. For many people, you have to go through the process of learning how your body reacts to instructions. Sometimes, it's one or two key components and then everything fits together. Here, OP needs to break old habits. That's very hard because inefficient technique feels comfortable.
Of course, I was looking at those clear-only clips too and couldn't help but take some screenshots that show the missing kinetic chain and flow in the hitting motion: The whole stroke is lead by your wrist. The racket leg stays behind your body until the follow through is completely finished, the hip doesn't reach a parallel position to the net before that too. So there is definitely too little rotation going on in your lower body to add any power to the actual shot. Also, your hitting point is too far off to the side which is either the source or the result of having your racket head that much in front of your body at the ready-to-hit position in pic #1. Try to get that racket head in a straight line with your left arm and your head or maybe intentionally overdo it by going the Carolina way to hold it behind your back to get a feel for it: This will automatically cause your whole body to rotate more during both preparation and actual shot and to hit the shuttle less far off to the side. Being a known member of the "don't overthink and just get the right feel"-fanclub (Gallwey-Cult?), I'm afraid I have to take sides with @Cheung this time. If you want to fix this once and for all, you have to take your current o/h action apart completely and build it up from scratch again. Starting with lots and lots of dry swing practise.
Nice sequence of pictures. In fact, it’s the same issues as before at the beginning of the thread where the OP started to change his overhead. Unfortunately, the old habit has drifted back. Given that OP has been working with a coach for a while, you have to wonder why this basic technique still is not right. Basically, the technique is ok for social and lower league level but when it gets to competition, the disadvantages become apparent. There are some potential reasons: A) the competitions are a distraction and have detracted from quality training. Everybody learns in a slightly different speed. I suspect playing the competitions has given so much input into changing the game, you end up trying to correct too much in one training session and never mastering anything in order to play the next tournament - “Jack of all trades and master of none”. B) coach is not strict enough C) coaches is not good enough. For example, a great player may not be a good beginner coach. D) coach doesn’t have the experience of coaching out a bad habit Hence, my previous advice of taking six months off competitions and really properly fixing the basic technique. Drive long distances for good coaching has more value at this point in time, not competitions. At six months later, OP is going to be raring to go for his next tournament.
This. 100%. The other option would be to keep going on like this and simply accept the fact that there will be a rock solid limit in the performance at some (not far away) point. So to me, it's now a matter of doing it properly or not doing it at all.
And if you understand this excellent explanation of the kinetic chain, you may be able to transfer it into your body movement. It may require much conscious effort to overcome your old habits initially but it'll be absolutely worth it. Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
The purpose of taking the two videos was that the first longer one is the more 'comfortable' action. And the second with left arm is actually reasonably uncomfortable. Habits mean that even if I replicated 100% perfect technique right now, it would feel uncomfortable. This is a genuine case of theory and practice being worlds apart. I know the requirements, I know the concepts, I've read up the biomechanics of the swing (along with cricket bowling, baseball pitching, and tennis serving/hitting). Applying them is a different beast. I mean, I am sure there are so many players who don't know what exactly they are doing but are replicating near perfect technique based on their coaching. As @Cheung says, great players do not necessarily equate to great coaches! My coach believes that continuous practice of certain situations will develop technique naturally, as long as the rough general shapes/postures are met, and the footwork is correct. That basic technique does not need to be constantly reviewed. I clearly don't 100% prescribe to that, otherwise I wouldn't be training/practising these aspects in isolation separately. I am still going to play a tournament once a month during the season, but my training/coaching is going to be 100% geared towards long term improvement - in fact, I have not told my coach when I play tournies anymore (and have not done in a few months) to stop him from turning my coaching sessions into match preparation sessions. I feel the 1 tournament a month during the season is not going to significantly affect my improvement as long as I make sure the focus is on O/H technique and footwork, rather than on tactics/more complex drills. Time wise it is a loss of 1-2 hours coaching per month, but motivation wise, I feel I gain more from tournaments to make up this difference, plus the fact that I'll be able to see definitively how one's performance varies by breaking habits. I am sure I will perform worse before improving, but what video'd proof can anyone offer to show how long it takes for someone to transform their stroke and what that process looks like? I'm after not just the "before and after" photos, but everything in-between. The badminton equivalent of taking a photo of yourself every week for your life, and for such a comparison, it needs a like for like comparison.
I don't know why it has to be so black and white. Is it so unreasonable to do a bit of both, rather than 100% of one or the other? That is like telling me I should not play football once a month because I could better spend the time and effort coaching. I understand if I make the focus the tournament's that it will negatively impact my training, but I am not. The tournaments are to me more like a monthly weigh-in/medical for someone losing weight. It allows them to measure progress, and may flag up additional things to add to the training list. If I did not play the tournaments, I would at least play MS games/matches once a month against anyone I could find, and that is how I treat the tournaments. I would lose a lot of interest if I was literally only training and coaching for 6 months, without any game/social aspect, and I would say the time/effort I spend playing at my local club (lower level MD/XD) would warrant cutting those out ahead of the tournaments...
The reason is simple. IMO, to change your current overhead action into a correct one cannot be done with a lot of very small iterative steps. It needs a serious point of no return to stop with your old habits and to start building up new ones. So what happens if you push yourself into competitive situations in the meantime? Of course, your body will automatically try to give his best, and hands down, that will be to fall back into the known and approved old technique which might not be perfect, but at least does still deliver better results than the new one. So what's needed is a long enough break from competitive situations, until your body has incorporated the new motions to a point that allows to produce at least acceptable results. Cause let's face it, you will pretty much suck at overhead shots for quite a while during the build up phase. It's a totally different thing with normal matches during club nights or other social games. You also play to win, no doubt, but there is a significantly higher tolerance level for sucking at those occasions. So correct me if I'm wrong and forgive me if I may be to frank (I'm German, sorry...), but I more and more get the feeling that you are seeking for some kind of absolution and hoping for a magic trick to simply go on with your known routine and to still make noticeable improvements. And even if I fully understand the reason for that, it doesn't seem to be working that way. Of course you can still make progress with an iterative approach and without climbing the fairly huge and intimidating o/h-mountain, but I'm not sure if that progress will meet your expectations in the end.
I'll have to go with the ''correct me" option. The past 1-2 years has been comments on various facets, including O/H as one of them. Looking through the posts, there has been an equal emphasis on O/H technique vs footwork, finger power, tactics, diet, serving etc. It is only the past 2 months that people have put such an emphasis on correcting O/H technique and seriously identifying it as a rate limiting step - even as recently as this summer, many were advocating a change in tactics would lead to a transformed game! What actually has happened, is a change in tactics revealed the gap in my basic technique was more rate limiting than expected! Therefore I'll treat it accordingly. I don't expect to progress significantly if I "do as I did before". I seek to modify my training focus and training regimen based on the new information, which is that my overhead technique MUST be changed as a matter of priority, and that it cannot be incrementally adjusted along with other factors like footwork/tactics as was the general consensus before. I don't have a problem changing tune - after all, it would be crazy to expect different results by doing the same, right? As for performance in tournaments/social games...it depends on the individual what they're expecting from it. Some people want an untainted win/loss record, and other want to just play for fun. I was to use it as a yardstick to see how my playstyle and technique changes. Even if I go all out, it's unlikely I'll completely be able to revert to old techniques for that one day. As I found out last weekend, I actually had a lot of trouble with OH strokes because the new practices were interfering! I see this as a GOOD thing. I missed many smashes by putting them straight into the net, but my brain registered that the contact point was higher in an unexpected place, and I was surprised at the angle the shuttle took. I actually thought "uh, that shuttle was hit quarter of a second before I expected to...I wasnt ready for that, why did my racquet arm do that?". I was happy even though I lost the point - seeing the benefit of a new technique even when under pressure? BRILLIANT.
I have had a chance to watch the video back, here is my analysis just from my perspective of what is good and what needs work. First off, your footwork is generally speaking quite good. A lot of the time your movement to the shuttle is effective, however, once you get there, your shot choice/quality lets you down significantly. This results in either an unforced error, or a loose shot which puts you behind in the rally. Your play is far too passive in order to be good enough to consistently win matches in tournaments, this coupled with numerous unforced errors makes your passive game plan really ineffective. It is fine to try and rally and live on the counterattack if you have the required skill set to back it up, but by making basic errors like clearing or lifting out the back, you are essentially going to beat yourself every time. I feel a lot of what you are doing is just reacting to your opponent as opposed to taking some initiative and trying to dictate what you want to happen. It is better to lose a rally trying to win the point, instead of hoping your opponent will make an error, cause frankly you are giving them too much time that they shouldn't make enough errors that would cost them a match. An example of this is the number of overhead backhand shots that I need to play in this whole match was only 1! That is an insane to play a match in a tournament and be able to completely ignore the thought of being under pressure enough to turn and play a backhand shot. You need to develop more attacking variety in your game. I could be wrong, but your O/H just consists of smashes/defensive clears. There needs to be more variety in terms of using drops/slices/attacking clears, trying to move your opponent off their base position and give yourself the upper hand in the rally. It really feels that at this stage, you are not in a position to create an advantageous position for yourself within the rally simply by allowing whoever you are playing to have the freedom to play whatever shot they like. If you look at 1:59, you will see how by mixing up the pace and height of a clear, it can lead to gaining the upper hand in a rally. This is something you should consider using more in your own game. An attacking clear can lead to a weak reply setting up the rally in your favour. In a tournament situation, an opponent will pick up quite quickly that you are not using a wide variety of shots and can focus in on predictable shot pattern. That is just some of the major things I noticed to comment on right away. Definitely keep working on your technique, but i think as well keep in mind getting as much routines as possible in that can involve increasing your consistency as that goes a long way to winning games at this level. With your technique improving, you will develop better weapons that will hopefully bring you better results in future. Progress can be slow, but when it all clicks you will take big strides!
A lot of my thoughts are in contradiction to others here but i'll voice them anyway. I watched your two videos: Video 1: you are basically completely front on for all your strokes, except your round the head (which has a much better kinetic chain and forward body momentum). The forehand grip doesn't actually work very well when the chest faces forwards. Biomechnically its a bit awkward. If however you turned fully side on prior to hitting (and I acknowledge that this is a point of part laziness and/or existing habit and part the short/low feed giving you less time to move and position yourself), the ideal chest positioning AT CONTACT is with the chest more or less facing the camera or net post - i.e. still at a slight angle to where you want to hit. Note that this often means when you do stand sideways on and then rotate into the shot, you have rotated too far before striking the shuttle and end up with a misshit contact. I think your power transfer and kinetic chain is fine when you put in minimal jumping effort (e.g. when hitting round the head) but your CONTACT is not (i.e. you lose a lot of power through misshitting the shuttle). And I believe it is for the reason I outlined above - at contact your chest should not be facing forwards, as this doesn't work with the grip you have. Standing slightly more side on allows for the racket to really hit through the line of the shuttle and achieve a fast and efficient swing. I agree about the points you raised regarding the wrist positioning needing to be below the elbow at first etc etc. My feeling is keep practicing and you will get it. Video 2: you are standing side on before every shot which completely changes the test compared with the first video - I can't really make any comparison of technique. Again, over rotation before striking the shuttle (as described above) leads to a bad contact. If I were your coach, I would ask you to do exactly as you are doing now, but bringing the racket through a fraction earlier compared with the rest of the body. This is practically achieved by swinging upwards higher and earlier. Someone commented on the contact point being too wide e.g. 2 oclock vs 1 oclock etc. I don't have much preference about this at this stage. There may be an optimal one for shot making which gives preference to height, but actually to learn the feel of the shot and get a cleaner contact, it is often easier to do from a lower and wider contact point (e.g. imagine a jump out smash to the side of the body - pronation and a good contact is really easy on these shots). Learning with a low wide contact point to hit nicely is usually easy for students to then transition to a higher contact point which is, by necessity, less wide. There isn't much risk here either because you have to play these lower wider shots an awful lot in singles and doubles, so its not "bad technique" or anything, but actually just practising a different shot first (rather than the highest most attacking version of the shot). Regarding the balance of training and tournaments: do whatever feels right to you. No tournaments would be full prioritisation into practice, and conversely prepping for tournaments will detract from practice. Notice I said "prepping for" by which I mean prioritising the performance at a tournament and hence you avoid doing the heavy leg workouts and burning yourself out in training, and instead are doing more match practice and doing specific peak performance nutrition which isn't necessarily what's required for training recovery. I would say do the tournaments if it makes you happy, but an example of a compromise would be that you will sometimes turn up to tournaments ill prepared, feeling like crap, having done a heavy leg day the day before, and not having enough energy. It's kind of a "weigh in" because you are playing at a tournament, but its not a weigh in because you won't be testing your peak performance, but whatever you happen to produce on the day. And you would ideally have a specific goal for the tournament in terms of playstyle, number of shots required per rally, or specific sequences to perform etc etc. Now there may be a way to compromise here too - maybe you can avoid the "feeling like crap" if you get the sequence exactly right, but I would doubt it in the beginning from my own experience because most people who really start to training have a period of adaptation where the muscles feel sore for a few months. I will leave my thoughts there - you have a lot of advice from everywhere already. Good luck!
Absolutely!! @DarkHiatus can’t quote your relevant passage on this smartphone but you are exactly right about trying to improve but having the same method as before. You have seen some improvement but frankly speaking, I expected a lot better given your dedication, comprehension of theory and that you get coaching. So , it’s back to the drawing board. I understand you want to gauge progress and play competitions. Most of us do that. But you haven’t given your new learning to settle into a consistent grooved technique. For your type of learning style at the moment, I highly suspect playing tournaments is forcing you back into old and strong habits (well what else is there?). Tournaments every four weeks is a lot and to be honest, you haven’t used the April to August season off in England effectively as preparation. Maybe the period of time is not long enough. If playing tournaments (which equates to competitive matches) is not the problem, how do you know that? I have been through this reengineering of my game twice. Once for singles, and then more recently for doubles. Both times it wasn’t easy. In singles, it was hard to change that crap playing style I had developed from years of playing without coaching. I also grew up in the UK system and understand its disadvantages. One thing you have severely underestimated is how hard it is to change a bad habit and the reasons why. It might even be harder for you personally compared to some other people. Why do I write that? Because we told you many times not to smash so much in a game and yet you still continued to do it (amongst many things). In changing my singles to doubles, my change of technique was easier to learn and change. however I had to change a way of timing and rhythm that I only got to grips with properly this summer after sustained heavy training. I realised rhythm was a problem when I was on court with two international players and a very good amateur. Got shown up badly. I didn’t go back to them preferring to work on my technique. In fact, there are still things to learn and change but since I broken the singles habit barrier and quite secure that I am near the top in my age group, I am satisfied. After all, I can’t expect to play like a 25-30 year old for my whole life. This is my learning experience which I hope can help you understand. The posters who have said temporarily stop tournaments and just focus on getting technique right understand how hard it is to change. You are getting the benefit of their experience. It’s the less experienced ones who will say “just keep playing tournaments”. But if you have hit the plateau and also have a busy work schedule, you definitely have to make more efficient use of time and have a different strategy.
@DarkHiatus also get positioned so that the shuttle drops in front of the right shoulder (or right side of the head). I would say get this correct and your round the heads clears will also naturally improve. As a result, you will have a lot of options in playing disguised overheads, more effective dropshots and controlling the opponent.
That's a really good point tbh. Maybe the team "tourney hiatus" (pun intended) is looking at this from a too much personal point of view. I for instance could never have that much self control to enter a tournament knowing that I most likely will be playing crap. That's what practises are for. Also, the time, effort and money spent for a tournament day are just too valuable to be wasting it with going in half hearted - that's how I see it.
