Help with Stroke Please!!

Nice. You have better movement, shot placement, and anticipation in hunting down the shuttle. Good smashes and also often good choice in dropping.

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For now, I only watched the pracice shots

Alright, I have to admit, I don't remember everything that has already been mentioned and I don't remember who said that, so that will be guesses, but I know two things have been mentioned before:

• You need to move further backwards. I think it was Cheung who made that point before. Often, you are moving backwards during your stroke and still contact the shuttle behind your head. Whenever possible, you want to move into the shuttle and hit it right over or even in front of your head. You did have the time to move further back, but didn't do it. Change that habit.
• I think it was MSeeley who mentioned this: When being ready to hit and waiting for the shuttle, so before moving into the shuttle (which you will do from now on), your arm is way to straight. there has to be an angle in your elbow. At the same time, the head of your racket should not be next to your head (dropping even further), but above it. When starting like this, you only need to start your stroke and when you move your elbow foreward, the racket-head will move backward and there is no active movement needed for that prior to your stroke. You then just have to straighten your arm and pronate.
• Sometimes, you still try to push drop shots over the net instead of using your normal stroke with less acceleration and contacting the shuttle in front of your head (making it fo downward)... I know this had been mentioned before, because it was me.

I also think you should start to not follow through too much. It looks like (cannot really tell with a youtube framerate, so correct me if I'm wrong) like you did understand the rebound of the racket which forces you to follow through to your left side after a stroke with strong pronation, that's all that was needed, I think. Now you can (should) stop forcing yourself to follow through extensively after a slow drop. Still use your normal stroke, don't stop it right when you hit, just stop forcing yourself to follow through completely.

Now I'm halfway though your other video...

The angle in your elbow before you start your stroke is better than before! You still tend to start with your racket almost next to your body/head, I think that was better before. This also leads to you hitting to the side of your body a lot instead of (almost) in front of it.

Your drops shots are even worse than before using pretty much nothing of your normal stroke and the point where you contact the shuttle is even worse. On the other hand, your smashes look better, but that's probably for the same reason: When you're behind the shuttle (like you're supposed to be), you smash. When you're not, you play a slow drop instead of moving further back.

You've gone a far way already and it was a rather steep learning curve. Now, take care to not introduce bad habits, but revisit the points that have been mentioned. That's why I'm not telling you anything else to work on (exception to that will be below). Remember what has been said and see for yourself if you're really doing that.

The exception is that you need to be quicker on your feet. There's millions of exercises to do that offcourt. This can be footwork pattern or just exercises for your legs using almost no space (high intensity, short intervalls)... I really need to find a video with some exercises. Or make one. Or force other people to make one. @carltonpowerblade maybe got some time for that at the moment and wants to increase his influence on instagram?

 

Yeah... Badminton really can be a bitch.

I do believe that, but it's not that you don't have the time to move on court. A lot of the time, you're waiting for the shuttle, but you're still not behind it when it arrives. Speed in badminton is so much more than just strength, explosive movements, athleticism, strength, acceleration, and well... speed, it's about rhythm. Being in the correct spot when it's needed. Therefore, you also have to guess where that'll be, so where you'll be able to hit the shuttle (low enough to hit, but the highest possible). Badminton really is three dimensional.... that's part of what makes it interesting, but I'm drifting away... just like a shuttle sometimes does.

A good coach I've met once said, "Teach the children as many ways to move on court as possible!" When your body knows many ways to move on court and you have the experience to know where you have to end up, you will subconsciously choose an efficient way to get there. It might be better to arrive early than late, but this forces you to stop the movement, and that will influence the shot in a negative way, because it's not what you've practiced. It will also drain your energy quicker, because you have to move quicker and some muscles will be tensioned while waiting.

What do I want to tell you?
Firstof all, your effort is not useless. Even if you practice some pattern that are not very effective in 99.9% of all situations, it might help you at some point.
It's always helpful to be able to sightly shift your balance and lift a foot very quickly and there's a lot of exercises for that... that's what a video is needed for, because explaining some of these might be difficult even using my native language and pictures are much easier for this. Remind me, if I don't get back to this.
Americans seem to love the term muscle memory. While the memory for movements obviously is not inside the muscle, it's mostly the intermuscular coordination this is about and to build this (need for every new movement), repetitions are needed. I'd suggest to practise one corner at a time to start with anyway. Not much space needed. It's boring, but it's necessary. When practicing, keep a low stance. Keep your knees bend and your upper body upright. When you don't feel stable, something is wrong.

Thanks for the summary, but make it four:
- don't force the follow through when not needed

For one more point, that's easier said than done, I'll just quote Gary (a 70+ year old Jamaican musician, so this should always be in your head with a friendly smile and a deep voice):
"Reeelaaaaaaaaaax!"

 

Darebee is always there...

See:
https://www.badmintoncentral.com/fo...s/best-darebee-workouts-for-badminton.176112/
"Over the Rainbow" has become a favorite of mine. Also very easy to do your own variations of it.

 

Forgot about that again, but again the selection of fast feet exercises is very limited compared to the many options there are. What do I see?

• jumping jacks
• high knees
• squat jumps
• lunge jumps
• (side to side lunges) --> make that jumps
• (calf raises)

But there's so much more and without explanation, I'd like to change some details on the pictures. Fit example the lunge with the knee over the toes might be alright, but if you make this a habit and then do a lunge in a game, the knee will move forward more, this will lead to serious injuries, ruining your knee. For badminton, make it a habit to have the knee behind your heel, if it moves slightly more forward, you'll lose some speed getting out of that corner again, but your knee is safe(r).

Overall, thanks for reminding me (us) of this project!

 

Looking good - you are still moving with far too much backward momentum, in your forehand corner especially. This is making your recovery more rushed and not allowing your to naturally move back into the centre after your shot. The exaggerated follow through also makes it looks like you're collapsing backwards. The correct motion should look like your whole body is hitting through the shuttle.

You're probably going to tell me that if you just swap your left and right foot when you scissor, you won't be far back enough in the court, and I'd agree with you, which is one reason why you should not try to force the movement into the far corner; shadow the correct movement patternsfirst, and then scale it up in size.

Your initial chasse from your split step is not effective in moving you backwards. If you watch, after you split step, your left foot in the next chasse steps in front of where your right foot was on your split step .Therefore you're actually only taking half a step backwards.

You can either correct this by: 1) making sure your right foot moves further back whilst moving your left foot onto where your right foot was as you pivot (hard) OR 2) pivoting off your left foot and starting using your first step after your split step as a pivoting movement only (easier, but less distance covered backwards - still more than you currently do though).

You have the ame problem in your backhand corner, but to a lesser extent.

 

nice progress after this you need to be focus more on how to use your wrist.
Check this video out ;

I mentioned it now because I saw some of your shot you tend to roll your wrist which is incorrect and it will cause you injury in the long run.

PS. master this technique will give you one hell of improvement in your shot power and speed prepare to find new competitors xD

 

As you wish, master Just wanted to sneak in my go-to agility exercises (in mobile-friendly vertical format of course).

I do them in a HIIT manner, I pick a pair of exercises and do one set like so:

10 seconds exercise A
20 seconds pause
10 seconds exercise B
20 seconds pause
Repeat 4 times for 1 set, then choose the next 2 exercises and do the next set.

I do this at least once a week, if I have the time two times, and imho it has helped a lot with being faster and more "light-footed" on court.

@Mason keep up the good work, you inspire me

 

Good analysis. I also felt that you were a bit heavy on your feet. The footwork is a little odd when you're moving from mid-court to the rear-court for a smash. Try to get to the rear a little earlier, pause, then smash. Your smashes would be a lot faster and steeper if you pause for a moment before you smash.

Also, your drop shots are very obvious. They might work against the players you play against right now but not against better ones. Try to "pause" before your drop/smash to make it more deceptive.

 

I like the addition of the music.

I know we've said it before, but it needs to be said again: you gotta get better opponents! Your opponents are giving you very little pressure, and therefore they aren't exposing your weaknesses. Your swing has improved a lot, but in the both the doubles and the singles game you are basically flat footed the entire time and standing almost straight up waiting for the next shot. You might be quick and explosive compared to your current opponents, but I'm guessing your game wouldn't hold up if you played someone slightly higher level, just because you wouldn't be able to reach the shuttle in time.

Your opponents in all the game play videos are giving you such easy shots you have all the time in the world to return them. You need someone who can apply more pressure to you, and play a quicker shuttle and better hits so see how you really do.

I know in the last video you are just hitting friendly shots to each other, but my coach would ream me if I stood up as straight as you, even with friendly hitting. Because If you keep practicing drops and clears so relaxed, then you'll play them like that in a game as well. After every shot, regardless of the shot, you need to get your body in the "ready" position right away so it becomes unconscious.

Is finding higher level players an option for you? I know it sucks to leave a group if you are good friends with them, and it can be hard to break into a new club, but you really need to find higher level players if you want to continue improving. It seems you've reached your limit with your current opponents.

You've definitely practiced your arm and hitting a lot, and it really shows! So time to take it to the next level!