Played a little bit better tonight. Serves , services returns and shot placement was better even though I was playing with more skilled players My overhead shot is started to look wrong though ☹️
I didn't watch it all and just on a small phone screen, but it seems to me that you grip too tightly, holding the racket in your palm and not your fingers. This would lead to the pronation being useless.... and to a stroke that looks like what you're doing. Make sure to grip correctly, we all know that you can use pronation, you just don't seem to do it in this video. Let me leave this here... Again, I might be wrong, but there's some details that look like this might be the culprit to the wrong looking stroke ... even on a small screen.
I played much better today . I changed my grip slightly on my overhead and it seemed to be working better I also get much more comfortable on my return of serves and my defense. I’ve noticed my footwork practice is laying off, I’m much faster to the net now
I had the longest rally of my life yesterday. I played with players who were all better than me and I felt like I was able to keep up
I played a little bit better today. I am still playing with those who are better than me, some have been playing for over 20 years but i am able to keep up. I really focused on just being relaxed and that cue is working the best for me. I also intentionally tried to split step more. I still need to keep training !
I did a good amount of split step training this week which seemed to have paid off with my speed around the court. I’m faster to the front of the court and was able to get behind the shuttle for my overhead shots better. I am trying to use more body rotation on my overhead shots( kinetic chain) I still have a lot to work on with my timing. I do not quite use the power of the kinetic chain in my stroke. When I practice at home without a shuttle it’s easier but then when it comes to hitting an actual shuttle I can’t seem to do what I am able to when I shadow the movement. I realized on my service return that when I start with tension on my left leg I am able to not only move forward better but also move much quicker backwards if they flick the serve.
make sure to finish ur stroke with ur right arm going diagonal, like a samurai sheathing his sword -> sometimes you do set up and turn ur body for that weight transfer but your arm just stops. In your longest rally video, at 1:02 (2:15,3:58,4:00), it's an examply of not a good follow through. At 1:04 (4:39), you do a good follow through but your weight/momentum from turning your body is somehow on ur left side rather than on your right foot in front of you/going forward. If you look at 3:33, you kind of did a stick smash? and I think it's about the same as your other smashes due to problems with weight transfer problems and finishing ur stroke. At 1:47, you make a pretty good shot (good set up, good stroke) and notice how ur weight was on ur right foot instead going forward. This looked more like proper weight transfer. I think the back left court hits for righties is the easiest personally because it forces you to tense up ur abs as you hit. I would also cut down on the amount of jumping in your game for now. I'm not sure if others will agree but i feel like it might be screwing up ur timing and form (1:55, 2:30). I would instead do the one stepper -> turn your body, left foot small step, crunch ur abs while turning, and follow through with ur right arm swinging (elbow leading) and ur right foot either lifted up or right foot taking a step forwards further than ur left foot. Note that your feet should not be moving at the same time like 5:47 but more like 5:44 and 5:55. Tagoken, once decent japanese player turned fat has a good video on this (8:14) Also, try not to look back when you're at the front. That east asian guy in the grey shirt looks like the best among the group so you should trust him if no one else to not betray you with a crappy hit. Looking backwards improves the chances of getting hit in the face by your teammate and reduces ur reaction speed to the opponent's return. I'm not a coach or whatever and I also play recreationally so take my advice with a grain of salt. But overall, I think you are just a little bit unbalanced and if you fix that by not jumping so much and trying out weight transfer, your game will improve alot. You do have some nice moments though like that nice front court at 2:22 and that sick solid backhand at 5:57 and definitely bigger balls than me for posting your gameplay publicly
My training paid off today. I was moving around the court better, I was more relaxed and overall I played very good.
That's not an active movement, that's the result of the racket rebounding after the forearm pronation! Do NOT actively do it. The arm should actively move foreward, in the direction where the stroke is going. When it doesn't go down diagonally, it means there's something else to be working on, probably the pronation of the forearm, that again might just be missing due to a wrong gip. Mason has issues with that, but already made really good improvement. @Mason Looking at the first shots of the most recent video, I get the feeling that you still need to work on that, but it might be time to use your left arm more actively. To start the movement of the shot, pull down the left elbow explosively ("rowing"), pretty much what you're doing, but quicker. When then hitting the shuttle activate your chest muscles to pull in your shoulders (both). I hope you get what I'm talking about. Start to do that relatively relaxed until you get a feel, then you can get more explosive with that, too. It doesn't seem to come to you completely naturally, so it might take a little while. I might be wrong though.
You are correct in that it’s not natural to me. I can start to to working on using the left arm though! I have found when my racket doesn’t go diagonally it’s because 1.) I’m not far enough behind the shuttle 2.) I am not relaxed. Most of my practice shots look better( at least from my vantage point )
I did 20 minutes of footwork drills yesterday and then some swings. I am trying to use my hips my on my stroke and now more recently open up my chest and use my core more. I cannot tell if I have made progress in any of these areas Here are some swings where I try to use more core in the stroke
1. Footwork drill to forehand side rearcourt. A. With the first step off base, rotate the right shoulder back more to bring the right arm back more. This will help you later on to hit the shuttle correctly B. When you step out with the right leg for the lunge (final step), land with the right foot turned outwards - the further the shuttle is behind you, the more the right foot needs to point towards the back of the court C. Aim to strike the shuttle about the same time as you land the right foot on the lunge. 2.On the lift - drop - lift drill, A) after running to the net and lunging, you take another half step towards the net - quite a bad habit that will affect your recovery time when under pressure. Any reason for that happening? 1.55
This is good feedback , thank you . Regarding your last point, the reason I am taking another step towards the net is actually supposed to be my split step going to go backwards.... I never noticed until you brought it up how bad it is ... I’ll work on that too. You always give me good feedback so I appreciate it
For forehand rearcourt footwork, you are swinging downwards, not forwards. The shuttle is not going to go over, or you will apply way too much slice to the shuttle. You are losing your balance after the lunge/swing. Your momentum is going forwards instead of backwards. Aim for a bigger and more stable lunge, and you can also add a small recovery step afterwards to help. More physical conditioning is where you will see the biggest gains here. For drop lift drill, your swing is for a smash, not a drop. Try to have some rhythm in your footwork. It just looks like you are going forwards and backwards as quickly as possible, which is not appropriate for a drop shot. The drop shot is a transition shot, not meant to score points like a smash would. For the lift, your swing is wrong, and the contact point is too low. If you want to practice a low contact point that is fine, but you will need a deeper and longer lunge. You are also losing balance after your lunge. More conditioning can help you a lot here. The jump to forehand corner with a rotation is rarely used. Stick to China jump for now. Your swing and following body rotation is massive here, and you are also losing balance. Same for overhead side. For everything, if you can improve your stability you will see large improvements in shot quality (and form) and footwork. You don't necessarily need to consciously try to be more stable. More conditioning will naturally lead to this
I would agree with everything that you say there. In fact part of the reason i am doing footwork drills is to improve my conditioning as its really poor ( for badminton standards ) I was intentionally trying to go as fast as my footwork would allow for the drop lift drill to try to 1.) be faster and 2.) get used to getting further behind the shuttle during games Overall your feedback is really good , i still struggle with how i can try to work on everything that you mentioned. ITs hard to know if my swing is correct without someone feeding me shuttles so i am trying to make the best of it just doing shadow work I just hope for a little bit of progress each week
