You have mightily confused me and I am not sure I understand your point. If I am correct, you are only talking about movement to the forehand corner, where your feet are already kind of in alignment to go to the front forehand corner. I agree - a chasse will do over a short distance. But why are you ignoring the movement to the backhand side? I can't see where they say specifically the forehand corner in the original post... A chasse is, in my opinion, a hideously slow movement on the backhand side because it requires the additional alignment step (which is not necessary on the forehand, as you point out). But you probably agree with that as you are only talking about the forehand side. Regardless, I stand by what I said: for moving to the front (either left or right), as a right hander, use a split step, then left step, then right lunge. Depending on the foot alignment and the distance you need to travel, this may look life a chasse. But as long as you only take two steps, it will be quick enough and cover enough distance. Regarding the small step for recovery, I can now see what you were trying to point out. Firstly, you are wrong about lee chong wei - its not the same movement because LCW takes a small simultaneous step with both feet. Which is either described as very small chasse, or some would call it a "hitch", but I do not know what good name to give to it. The short step you are referring to for peter on his first forehand net shot, is definitely not applicable to deep lunges. That was not a deep lunge by peter, and he barely had to reach for the shuttle. He maintained an easy upright posture and was hardly under any pressure. I can see the movement you are talking about - it helps peter to stand upright quickly and recover. It is applicable for short distance lunges, but definitely not over a long distance. I think the OP is concerned about lunging a long distance in singles and I do not think that the short step with the right foot you are talking about is going to help with that. In my view, that is a wasted step, except in rare circumstances where you basically didn't have to move after the shot - which doesn't happen very often. Interestingly, Peter makes 3 lunges in that video, and uses three different recovery methods, based on the severity of the lunge.
Ok, I might have imagined the bit about f/h side, but in any event, the f/h side is the more challenging since on the backhand side you have your non-racket foot to pivot around which gets you closer and gets you aligned properly - Yes, I agree chasse is not worth much on the b/h side. In Peter R's video for the f/h footwork, calling the left foot motion a 'step' in this context is just confusing since we're talking about step vs chasse. It's definitely not a step in the way that we're talking about steps here. If you want to say the pattern (either f/h or b/h) is always split, left foot, right right then I would still disagree, since the left foot motion is not always needed when going to the front b/h! I accept your point about LCW and 'deep' lunges. However, my overarching point was that lunge recovery is not just the reverse of a lunge, and LCW + PG motion still backs this up.
If the backhand shot isn't far away, you might well not need to do the step. I agree with that, although most people will move their left foot when they pivot around it. I see your point about lunge recovery - there are different ways to regain your balance. However, and I hope this is clear, I said that the recovery steps to get back to the middle of the court, having performed a lunge and played a shot, are the opposite of the steps you used to get there. Here is what I said: "The best recovery steps are the opposite of getting there: large right step backwards then a large left step backwards." I stand by this - it works best most of the time, although there are exceptions when you do not need to move very far. You use a left step, then a right step to get to the shuttle (most of the time). In order to get back to the middle, you reverse it - right step then left step. You seem intent on proving a different point about recovering from lunges... and I am not sure what you are trying to achieve. Perhaps you have some advise on how one should best get back to the middle having performed a very deep lunge on the forehand or backhand side and you need to get back to the middle of the court? Something to help the OP who is worried about being able to get back to the middle.
I'm just guarding against explaining via absolutes. For OP's situation, there are a few explanations as to why he can't get either footwork pattern to work... 1) He is too slow/steps too small. 2) He is playing the x/c drop poorly e.g. too central or too shallow, allowing the opponent to reply earlier. 3) He is playing the shot with too much backward momentum making his recovery too difficult. 4) His footwork in reality does not match with the theory. 1 & 3 are physical issues fixed by hard work. 2 & 4 are technical issues fixed, preferably, by coaching. Depending on the amount of distance covered on recovery and the opponents type of net reply, both footwork patterns are viable. So I would advise OP to get someone to watch (or post a video) and spot the real issue, because it isn't a footwork pattern issue.
Thanks for the comments been reading them and tried to analyze my singles accordingly so these are what i noticed: 1)basically its reachable with 2 steps IF i am at the central position in which most of the time i am not, due to my choice of shots for example i would like to play drops in rallies and i won't return to the center most of the time rather i would tend to place myself a little behind hoping for a lift which is very common in doubles in which i would drop and my partner would cover the front.. perhaps thats a bad habit 2)my balance most of the time i would have a bad balance.. tendency to the back especially when it's a clear rally i would have my preparations to the backcourt so when the opponent drops I'll b having a hard time to reach it.. or perhaps my split step is always a spilt seconds faster..mentally i would b worried about the back rather than the front 3)during backhand short serve..the same tendency to move a split seconds earlier and always to the back.. cause my serves are pretty tight and most of the time in doubles the opponents would lift and I'll leave it to my partner and if it's a tight net shot I'll b there to retrieve...whereas in singles i have no partner hence the tendency for me to cover the back is high.. hoping that i would not b late for the lift.. irony i would be tricked with a net shot i do vary my serve occasionally but the ego is there..that i want to play a short serve..and that's where i lose my points.. not much problems for a long serve and even forehand serve so some advices are much appreciated especially on the short serve..that's what puts me in a pinch most of the time..
Have your balance forwards towards the net - that should help a lot in the above situations you have described BTW, you still haven't clarified amleto's earlier query about cross court netshot or cross court dropshot. So it's a bit confusing when you put these other questions in without having fully sorted out the previous problems.
i was referring to drop shots not net shot... i thought i had it clarified on my previous post.. most probably it's my suboptimal positioning with the tendency to stay backcourt
Actually staying a bit backcourt is the "new" offensive style. If you drop cross court, you must skip forward fast! Landing with racket leg forward - alignment toward the shuttle. If he lifts, you are ready to attack again. If he returns net, you in a ready-to-run stand, can the take 2 steps. If somehow the distance is a bit far, take 2 and a half (a little hop with your left leg - left, left, then right). Then comes the recovery - where most players don't pay enough attention in the technique of recovery. Actually you already performed 1 when you quickly skipped forward after you drop. The recovery after running forward (deep lunge) vs just regular lunge is the adjustment step. The adjustment step is the dragging of left leg toward your center of gravity. You then also lean back - plus your head - as you start to back up. Now the footwork pattern is different based on where you hit the shuttle and how you hit it. It depends on how much time you give yourself. A high lift give you time to get back, but a flat fast push give you little time. A good net shot, you don't need to move much. A general mis-conception is you must rush back. The best recovery, is fast to slow, slow into a well balanced split step. All these are easier said then done. Until your legs, core is strong enough, your body just won't listen to you. You are playing a fast sport, you twist, you turn, you lunge, and you are fighting to control of your own balance.
thanks for the feedbacks perhaps i may hav to work on my recovery.. fast to slow and to get the timing right..
