[22M Intermediate] Singles analysis/advice

Discussion in 'Techniques / Training' started by Fern, Nov 5, 2018.

  1. Fern

    Fern New Member

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    I have played doubles for the majority of my life, and have not had previous coaching - I am looking for any singles specific advice. The biggest flaws in my play that I have identified are my footwork and stamina, but if anyone here could spot anything else that I could train or focus on I would be very grateful.

    Currently I only have the two videos below, (which I recorded to view on my phone so it is vertical, apologies), I am playing in the blue and red shirts respectively, thanks for any feedback:


     
  2. decoy

    decoy Regular Member

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    I know you said singles specific advice, but I'm not sure that's the best place to start.

    Honestly I'd say if possible you might want to have a couple classes with a coach just to get some habits looked at. It looks like you're not holding racquet properly and your swing is a bit off.

    Your footwork could use some work as well. Especially getting the basic techniques down. Things like split stepping and keeping your weight balanced properly. There were a lot of times that I saw in your game where you'd run to a shuttle then have no hope to get the next shot purely because you threw all of your weight in one direction.

    Again I think your best course of action would be to work on fundamentals with a coach for a little bit as that will help you in the long run. You obviously can hit shots well enough now, but I'm not sure how much more improvement there is to be made without fixing the basics.

    Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
     
  3. LenaicM

    LenaicM Regular Member

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    Hello there, first I’m wondering why do you switch and play your racket between left and right hand at the beginning of the first video?

    I’ll start with the serve. When receiving a serve you could have your racket held higher, the top of the head at net level. Also your serves are a bit rushed and your swing is a bit funny, take more time when serving and give more attention to the quality of your stroke, you also contact the shuttle a bit too low and the shuttle fly too high above the net, a decent opponent could kill the point right away.
     
  4. CRZ-ZF1

    CRZ-ZF1 Regular Member

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    In terms on singles, you need to able to control the rally and hit the shots where you want to go. Your footwork is not very stable as @decoy point out. This result in a lot of momentum transfer to your racquet and the shuttle will fly out/further than you anticipated.

    At your level, low short serve doesn't do you advantage, as smart opponent will push your low serve to your rear backhand corner. A deep high serve (watch women singles) is more advantageous in strategic point of view to avoid playing a good backhand clear or overhead swing clear when you stuck in your backhand corner. If your serve is high and deep enough, it's very hard for your opponent to smash or pull an effective smash.

    You also need to work on your back to back clear (from end of double serving line to end of double serving line) as minimum. I notice a lot of your swing seem pure arm strength without turning your hips, which result in slower recovery.
     
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  5. Fern

    Fern New Member

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    Thank you for the feedback. Footwork and combining my full body movements (such as incorporating hip/body momentum) is something that I will be working on. I feel that throughout my play the main inconsistency is with accuracy, I generally can clear back to back when I'm not tired but I do want to be hitting it as perfectly into the corner as I can. I will drill this for improvement.

    From a personal viewpoint, the short fast serve works well at my level and is one of my strongest assets. Opponents are rarely able to react in time to the flick without standing closer to the back/centre of the court, at which point I can do a short serve. The only hard counter I've ran into is a sharp drop which will put me out of position due to my poor footwork. I can usually return a drive clear to my backhand well with reaction speed, and a deep clear will give me enough time to move so the shot so I don't generally see this as a problem. I do, however, also need to perfect a high deep serve.
     
  6. Fern

    Fern New Member

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    In regards to the switching, I used to have an injured shoulder on my left side so during warming up I will take any shots I know I will struggle with using my other hand as to avoid injury. I have also practised full clearing with my off hand for times that I am absolutely unable to backhand clear with my left, as a last resort.

    For the serving portion of your feedback, I can see now that I should be taking more time with each serve - thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will try out serving with the head higher, however I may not be able to serve as rapidly which is the main objective of the serve. By making a fast and low driving serve it forces the opponent into either a weak smash, weak clear or a drop. The most common response (as it's the most logical) is to return with a smash, however weak smashes can put the opponent out of position and I value my smash defence quite highly, so I can often play them around the court. I would definitely not do this serve against someone that I know has a very sharp and accurate smash, however at my level there are not many players who have perfected that.
     
  7. Fern

    Fern New Member

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    I would have to agree that I'm facing a brick wall when it comes to improvement due to my footwork. Your observations are on point and I think I will have to get a coach to work on this. You definitely have a good eye in noticing that my swing is off - my shoulder does not move with the rest of my body, something that I've been working on with physiotherapy. This has worked somewhat to my advantage in doubles, it means that I can smash with more speed and accuracy, but I end up expending much more energy which leads to me being off balance and unable to quickly recover. In singles however it is a great weakness, as smashing isn't as effective (excluding a winning shot) and often gets me grossly out of position. I am slowly working on this but I expect it to take a number of years to fully recover.
     
  8. LenaicM

    LenaicM Regular Member

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    I was referring to the kind of low short serves you perform on the first video at 1:28 for example. Low short serve where the birdie’s trajectory is a bit high above the net and can be killed.

    As far as serving rapidly to try to kind of surprise the opponent, that advantage might not benefit you anymore when meeting experienced players. First they won’t be that surprised, and if your opponent is a minimum experienced he will take his time and get in “ready to receive the serve” position slowly. Thus you can’t perform this kind of trickery and he could even let your shuttle pass and say he wasn’t ready and a let will be called. It’s not the server who impose its rhythm on service (unless the receiver doesn’t know the rules) but service shall be performed only when both players are ready to serve and receive. Also according to the rules:

    14.2 It shall be a "let”, if:
    14.2.1 the server serves before the receiver is ready

    Service is just the beginning of the rally and I understand how at a certain level it can give you an advantage using the surprise card however I believe you would be better off serving properly with consistency and accuracy on the long term. Though a flick is always welcome to show your opponent he is positioned a little bit too forward on court. :)
     
    #8 LenaicM, Nov 6, 2018
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2018
  9. Fern

    Fern New Member

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    In regards to your first point I agree, that serve was definitely too high, however usually it is much cleaner than that - I do need to slow down as you say so that I can serve more consistently. I do feel that the pressure from my standard rapid serve forces my opponent to stand back giving me more leeway for those poor serves, but I do understand that at a higher level it would be a fatal mistake.

    I do always wait for my opponents to be ready for the serve, as they know it is coming, and as of yet I have rarely had anyone state that they have been unprepared. Regarding the serve itself, the surprise factor is just an added bonus to the serve. It forces a weak return due to the awkward positioning and speed, which I can usually take advantage of. I have played against semi-professional (nationals) players who obviously outskill me massively, but even their response to the serve is just to neutralise the court with a clean clear so we're both on an equal footing, rather than the usual response of them having to play on the defence. I feel that switching my serve up would only truly make a noticeable difference at extremely high levels of play (which I doubt I'll reach anyway). I'll add it to the list of things to work on though, and I'll eventually get to it haha
     
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  10. CRZ-ZF1

    CRZ-ZF1 Regular Member

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    You shouldn't have the mind set in attempt to surprise your opponent in serving. It hurts you more if your opponent being able to give you a surprise return (or deceptive return). You only need to serve the shuttle to a location your opponent will be hard to return. Obviously you need to assess your opponent standing position. But if your opponent's defense is tight enough then one should be able to return any serve in the 4 corners.

    Just because your opponent neutralize the court by clearing your serve, the question would be whether you can utilize that to an offensive advantage/shot on your own to create a difficult return to your opponent and win the point. Your opponent could well be waiting for your weak return so that he/she can use to his/her advantage too.
     
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  11. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    Unfortunately, this is only a tactic that works at your level. I noticed you hit it out a few times on the serve.

    Because they are experienced enough to know that moving you around the court and being patient is the best option. To be honest, it doesn't take a national player to know this and eventually, they just keep the rally going to humour you until you make a mistake.

    With your footwork and strokes, you are definitely not at an equal footing when they play a neutral clear.

    Not sure what level you want to achieve. It does sound like you are semi competitive. It takes a lot of patience to drill the basics so be prepared for that.
     
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  12. Fern

    Fern New Member

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    Yep you're right, I'll practice footwork and repost a progress update in a couple of months. Thanks for the feedback!
     
  13. DarkHiatus

    DarkHiatus Regular Member

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    I had the impression your singles game is influenced by your doubles experience too. You feeling the need to push your opponents away from the net on serve is a key indication of this.

    In singles, even if your opponent stands further back, a perfect short serve that lands on the service line will still be easily retrieved with a net shot or a lift. No advantage will have been gained by the server unless the serve return is terrible. In fact, the receiver is likely to have a slight advantage in the rally as 1) he has moved the server away from the centre into a corner, and 2) he is relatively central, as almost all serves are played to the centreline (i won’t go into wide serves, but they are not a good idea to start a rally neutrally). Equally, if you flick it and the receiver clears it to a corner, he achieves the same as before - server in a corner, receiver centrally based (in order to retrieve your flick, he will be 1 step from the middle, rather than with his feet in the back tramlines).

    You can see now that the receiver often has the (slight) advantage after serve! What will make your singles much, much stronger is accepting this fact, and focusing on the rally itself, trying to play long rallies. Force your opponent to make an unforced error and rally with him until he does. It’s likely you won’t be able to to begin because your technique/footwork will fail before his does, but it will improve if you focus on longer rallies and grinding your opponent down, rather than trying to trick him and smash him whenever possible.

    This is exactly what I’m trying to learn too - you must be confident in rallying and defence to be a strong singles player. Once you need to get through several rounds in tournament play, rallying will save you a huge amount of energy in early rounds!
     
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  14. BadBadmintonPlayer

    BadBadmintonPlayer Regular Member

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    First question: What is your goal?

    (1) Play a little better at a fun level or (2) gradually improve yourself with significant upward potential? If the answer is (2), then learn again and learn it correctly. This is hard at the beginning and can lead to worse results. In the long run you will not be limited and will be able to play badminton better. (1) and (2) are both legitimate options.

    For example, right now your serve is a weapon in your eyes. In the long run, however, you won't be able to get any better with your serve.

    My suggestion:
    1) Footwork
    2) Technique
    3) Stamina
    4) Tactics

    I like this badminton channel:
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXYpDcoYJk8CTGLUscj2Tgg/videos
     
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  15. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    From my experience (and I am fairly good at sports), it took six months to start getting comfortable with footwork. I was training twice a week two hours a time (for three months) and had other games sessions. For my games sessions, I didn't worry much about my skills but more on whether my footwork pattern was correct and if I could reach the shuttle. I was also watching a lot of videos to apply theory to practice and putting in extra time at home to groove footwork patterns in correct positioning. I remember suddenly shooting up in ability at around 8-9 months and that's with being on court four days a week for at least two hours each time.

    I worked really hard and quite obsessively at footwork. If you go back to my posts from 1999, you'll see my footwork questions on this forum :)

    So, even though we think we can learn fast, it's not that easy.
     
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  16. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    Just looked at that channel. Very good. I clicked on the one where the kid jumps down from the bench to train split step. I hadn't seen that before but only a couple of weeks ago, I started my kid doing the same thing at home jumping off a bosuball to train her split step and moving off.
     
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