i saw you on thursday at preston guild hall, and you did at least 3 full body length dives, and also returned the shuttle!! how do u manage to do this and not get hurt?? well, at least it seemed that you weren't hurt...
Diving i m not the player u saw diving obviously but i do full stretch diving shots. the most important thing is your arms. because they are the "landing gears". my left forearm will be ready to cushion for the fall. the right arm (not the forearm, but the tricep area) will be cushioning the right side. diving can be dangerous, use with caution and in desperation only. u can break your bones and rackets if done incorrectly.
Hi Guys Well about the question with diving, i must say that i actually dont think that much about the technique, i just do it. I have done it all my life, and believe me when i say it hurts if you dont do it correctly. I think i agree on what Avatar say about the arms, because when i´m finished with a match or tournaments, my right arm is totally bruised. I have several scars on my right arm, because it is allways that arm who hit the floor first. Try seeing some of my matches (if you got some) and do it in slow, then you might see how i do, and then copy the technique Regards Thomas
Diving o wow, i m honoured to be agreed by the great Thomas Laybourn! i do get bruises too on my arms too sometimes, when u do diving so often, u will get battle-scars on your arm, even if it is done properly. Thomas is one of the most hard-fought professionals on the circuit. study Thomas's dives, and u can pick it up. i have been playing for 20 yrs myself. i study a lot of moves in the game. diving is one move which i don't study from the others because 1. coaches don't encourage it and they don't teach it. 2. it's hard to see dives being done often. i learned it by myself much like Thomas. I was inspired by Boris Becker's Pike Dive. and then it happened one day to me in a tournament. and then from that point on, i just do it whenever i m desperately out of position. besides Thomas, you can also watch Lin Dan. Lin Dan dives quite often. You can easily see him dive 2-3 times in a match. Notice Lin's hands when he dives, they are always in a "pushed up" position for landing to prevent injuries. and he is very quick to recover too. Jonas Rasmussen also dives occasionally.
I dived a total of 1 times in my life...and it was mainly because I've got a hamstring injury (deap lunges are hard) and my opponent after 43 rallies realized there's also such a thign as a "slow drop" wich send me crawling to the front. I sorta dived and can't remember what I felt...but I can't see how the pro's can possibly dive on a cross-court smash..awesome anticipation/reflexes edit, was just watching fu/cai vs sigit/candra and somewhere at the beginning (3-2 or something) you can see fu/cai do a dive a a failed drop shot..quite amusing to see him "walk on his arms" to absorb the hit.. http://195.236.75.108:8080/index.jsp second match form the top.
Yeah, I know the dive you're talking about. I think he just tries to stay on his hands so as not to get sweat on the court.
Yeah, he was going to dive himself and then saw the drop wasn't going over. I just watched a few of Thomas and Kamilla's matches from the 2005 All England - Thomas, your dives are truly inspiring to watch! I also hope I can learn something from your slices, which you play to great effect. How is the Men's Doubles with Lars going? I'm really looking forward to following Denmark at the Thomas Cup Finals. I wish I were actually WATCHING Denmark at the Thomas Cup Finals... but I can't afford a trip to Tokyo at the moment.
well, no. I meant Thomas...EK, sorry for the wrong naming..It's the European Master, in Holland this year
well if i'm perfectly honest i very rarely dive in my opinion i feel that if you haven't over committed yourself and if your footwork is good then there is no need to dive obvisously mistakes do happen and sometimes players feel it necessary to dive however remember if you are in a tournament and you dive in your 1st game you will be feeling that dive for the rest of the tournament also if you dive in the opening points you WILL be in some pain for the rest of the match so my advice for what its worth is to work on footwork and to try not to over commit yourself to any shot that way you wont ever need to dive
I don't knwo about the average players. But I believe the professionals dive for a shot mainly because despite their excellent footwork, its still a very difficult to retrieve. Afterall, everybody in top class tournaments are very good players who can make difficult-to-return shots.
I aggree that diving can be dangerous, but under suitable conditions(very sweaty) you can slide, its fun.... just saying...
