i have all the basic techniques mastered, but now i want my shots to be unpredictable. what are some drills to practice deceptive shots?
I don't know that there are any specific drills as such, for it. You just need to keep practicing, and play with a partner who's going to let you know of any "tells" you might have. What you should be trying to achieve, is to have the same action for all your shots - you might call this "passive" deception. For example, smashes and drops should be indistinguishable from one another until as late as possible. This makes your play inherently unpredictable. The other form of deception is "active" deception. This is where you signal to your opponent (by your posture, swing, where you're looking, etc) that you are going to play one shot, and then do something different. This can win you a few cheap points, but you can't really combine it with passive deception, which is more effective overall.
Smashes drops Clears should all look identical until you make contact with the shuttle. concentrate heavily on the steps in the leadup to each of these shots. Net shots should look the same until the last minute wrist adustment for crosscourt. To be honest deception is all about your wrist movements. be loose and relaxed with your wrist. the more wrist you learn to use in all shots the easier deception becomes and the harder your strokes are to read. EG if your stiff all the time and you loosen up for deception its easy to see the change.
Pretty much you should just do whatever kind of deception you feel most comfortable with. If you don't want to have to use "deception" for every shot, just try to hold off on deciding what shot you hit until the last moment. For example on a net shot, keep your raquet in place where you're going to be hitting until the last moment. If you're doing a net return then it is very easy to just slightly move the raquet at the last second. If you decide to do a lift (you decide based on how your opponent moves), then you just quickly flick your wrist to do a lift. It's fairly straight forward, and you probably already do it, but it's fairly helpful, and not hard to do.
Two other points I forgot to mention, and which are actually kind of contradictory; * Use deception in more different situations - most players only have maybe two or three favourite situations where they'll play a deceptive shot. This makes it much easier for their opponent to anticipate. * Use deception less - if you're in good position to hit a really strong attacking shot (ie. smash from midcourt), then that's the shot to play, even if it is predictable. Some people try to be too clever, and it just backfires on them.
I think even after contact with the shuttle, especially for drops, the stroke should still look very similar to power shots. The speed of the racket head should remain constant. The power applied to the shuttle, however, must decreased. This is where slicing comes into play.
ofcourse they are going to look similiar during contact but there is slight changes in each shot upon hitting.
lots of good tips being said. One more tip would be to remember to keep your body sideways to your opponent. It's easier to read your shot when you are standing square to the opponent. Simply when standing sideways there is less to see of you. This applies to most shots such as all overhead and nets or lifts at net. However I wouldn't recommend it for most defense shots lol.
For basic deception at the net, I think you should practice the hold and flick. Works wonders in singles.
Most players are able to anticipate, to some degree, what the opponent will do. If your opponent has a clear weakness (for instance, not having a strong backhand clear so that he always does drop shots), then you would mentally expect the shot to be hit to the net. Similarly, if you notice that they prepare differently for different shots, you could anticipate and you would expect a certain shot to be made. With that said, my definition of "deception" is the act of actively/consciously using another person's anticipatory behavior against them. The catch is that this depends entirely on your opponent actually anticipating (or trying to anticipate) your shots! If I were to play against a pro, I would at first be fooled because their clears, smashes, and drops would look nearly identical. Once I learn that fact though, it would be to my benefit to not take a chance at anticipating at all and rather just wait for the shot to happen (I suppose the counterargument is sometimes you have to take a chance otherwise you won't get to the shuttle in time...but that's another story). So if I stopped anticipating what would happen when my pro opponent looked like he was going to clear/smash/drop, it is no longer deceptive. In fact, if I am able to completely shut myself off from any anticipatory thoughts and just react to whatever shot is made, then anything that the opponent does is no longer deception. He can purposely try and pretend to do a net shot and instead hold and flick to the back court (which would usually be considered "deceptive") but if I never had any expectations of what shot he would make, there is no chance that I can be deceived. I suppose that this can only be achieved if I know that my opponent can make any shot in the book and more. When you're playing against a lesser player, there are clearly shots that he or she is good and bad at, so it makes no sense to not capitalize on their weaknesses. Well that was my philosophical ramble on what I think constitutes "deception". I think in a real scenario, there are two ways you can successfully use deception. The first way involves doing what pros do, which is making every shot look the same and holding a posture such that any shot is possible. This makes it so that your opponent must decide whether he should mentally anticipate your shot and risk being tricked every once in a while (with the advantage of getting a slight edge on preparing for his counter shot), or whether he should stop trying to get one step ahead of your shot and just react to it. The second way is to not be so ambiguous in your shots and make the opponent think that a certain action (for instance, a quick draw back of the racket in preparation of a smash) means that you are always going to make that shot. This can be useful later in the game when they feel like they have figured you out and feel more confident in anticipating your shots... so then you can purposely feed them some mis-information (by pretending to make one shot) and then doing another shot. I feel like it's probably best to do what the pros do by just being so overly ambiguous (and with this I mean making all their strokes look the same until the very last second) because you are more likely to get some points early on by deceiving them, and thereby destroying their confidence. On another note, it's 3:33am and too late to be writing essays on Badminton Central about the meaning of deception and how to be deceptive. However, this is a good segue into discussion about the topic "badminton addiction"...
Actually you can watch deception at its best by watching Bao Chunlai when he hits an overhead shot. The opponent does not have the slightest clue where Bao is going to hit to or with what type of stroke he will execute. Further more he does it with very little effort. Bao's deceptive overhead strokes have not been matched by any player today. The only player who was just as devastatingly deceptive in the overhead shots was Indonesia's Arbie Haryanto in the early 1990s., who made Malaysia's Rashid Sidek, who was then at his best, look amateurish.
I have played Yang Yang. He's almost 45 years old, and a master at deception. I felt my ankles and knees would break when I played him. He would beat me often but then I started beating him more often. why? deception loses its effects when the two players know each other
just to add something that no one else metnitoned yet, your drives should look the same until the moment you hit the bird whether you are aiming left or right. This is really useful (REALLY USEFUL) in doubles since it makes that person wait just that moment longer before attack your serve return since he cant anticipate the direction before you hit it. on a slightly off topic note, you've played yang yang? He lives in canada now? On top of that you play with him OFTEN? tell more
quite deceptive is different to being the best at deceptive shots. there are many quite deceptive players out there. but evidently, taneepak thinks bao is the best.
If you want an example of deceptiveness look at the old match zhao vs joko suprianto Zhao just destroyed the poor guy who tried everything in his power but zhao was just everywhere and overly dangerous from any part of the court http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deECRYfUJXY and yes, I've played Yang Yang about 5 times while I was training in China, it was a great experience everybody should try traveling in another country
if you watched the final of the all england starring pulella and peter gade,you know that pulella is the most deceptive playerof all times. just look at the serveof pullela, and how about his reverse and clears!!
