OK so I taken everyones suggestions and really have been focusing on relaxing and not being so tense. I have made a new video below. Please let me know if I am least heading in the right direction with progress. Also as usual I would appreciate any feedback.
The stroke is look better but I dont understand why you had to pull back your left arm before start swinging. your left arm should be swinging back at the same time you start the stroke like swimming.
It's better. when you start the stroke, the racquet head is to the side of your head. I usually like it further back a bit nearly behind the head and slightly higher than the head with the racquet shaft pointing upward.
The focused strokes is an interesting case that you say looks awkward, but looks half right to me (and half odd). This is because you're doing a compact, quick focused movement...then extending the end just to get your racquet head by your left hip. So you get this quick, focused swing, then a transition into an elongated follow-through that is unnecessary. ZJH shows the focused idea in the form of a point smash and tells us that once you contact the shuttle, there's no need to follow through all the way round. In the case of a clear, the stroke moves in a one plane quite in-line with your racquet on the right side of your body, then after shuttle contact, naturally moves over to the left to get rid of excess energy. Your racquet head does not swing across your body as part of the main swing. Here's Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei warming up - slow it down to 0.5x or even 0.25x to really see the quick, compact straight line clear, then the follow through from racquet pointing to the racquet foot and gently drifting over to the left hip naturally. Note that the reason your stroke looks odd is that I think with a shuttle, youd find your focused clears are going short. Focused doesn't mean less power, it just means channelling it in a more compact motion - the follow through in the above video is a result of getting rid of excess energy from that powerful, compact swing.
Yes I have watched that video many times. After I focus my power I’ll work on just relaxing and let the racket go where it may on the follow through .... is that’s correct ?
So i have set up a string and birdie in my garage to try to get some more practice in. I wanted to get everyones opinion on my swing again but mostly my hips and body position. I currently turn my hip and upper body a lot before hit the shuttle. It feels right to me but it looks wrong on video. If i try to turn less , then it looks much better. I have a video of both methods, please let me know which one is closer to being correct so that i can practice the right way. Also let me know how my swing looks too. Thanks again. https://eur03.safelinks.protection....ZcJbilHUB3GceqhorF4BZbkEhaTAG/Blc=&reserved=0
I have watched your videos, and in my view both are not quite right: I am not a fan of the way in which your whole body (including hips and shoulders) are facing directly forwards before you make the final forward swing with the racket to contact the shuttle. From that point of view, both swings are the same: moments before you reach up to hit the shuttle, your whole body has stopped moving, and then you extend the arm and hit the shuttle. In my view this is robbing you of all your power (quite considerably!). To correct the sequence, remain with your feet sideways on and only twist the body and hips forwards because your contact point is forwards: this would mean that your hips and shoulder may be fully forwards AS you make contact, but not before you even swing. I personally prefer the "current" method - you are actually loading the back leg prior to contact etc. However, the sequencing and power is slightly off as per my observation above. If I were your coach, I wouldn't be worrying at all about the different between your new and current methods: I would be trying to fix the whole swing such that you stay sideways on as you push upwards with the legs, and only turn the hips and shoulders forwards AS you do the final tiny bit of arm extension to hit the shuttle. Cheers! Good luck
Thank you for the feedback!! Just to put this simply for my brain to handle, after I load my right leg and turn sideways, should I start my swing sooner than I am now, so that the momentum of the rotation forward is used more fully? Or is my swing timing correct and I should be Rotating my body Later in the sequence so that I can use the momentum more fully? I just want to make sure i understand how to correct this properly.
It is difficult to describe. I would suggest that you should load your right leg, start swinging upwards towards the shuttle, and the rotation of the body will happen as part of the swing. Its not a seperate element: the body rotates as you swing your racket. Thus, the rotation you perform will be BECAUSE you are swinging forwards, rather than rotating and swinging as seperate elements. Realistically, none of the elements will look much different than it does now, but the sequence of movements will then be correct. Thus, if you just turn sideways look at the shuttle and then swing and reach up and hit it as high as possible, you will get the sequence right. If you turn your body noticeably first, then swing, the sequence looks just a little awkward.
It look strange to me because of where your racquet is when you first raise it. Can you see the racquet head is quite low and next to your head. For beginners , I prefer that they bring it backwards behind the head a bit more and higher than the head. This means your right elbow will be around shoulder height in this starting position. I notice copying the pros is a bit deceptive because they have the racquet head a bit lower when they first raise the racquet. However, their stroke is much faster and stronger than ours so they get away with it.
The other reason why it doesn't look quite right is because of the body coordination. Lower body is ok. However as you turn, your shoulders are turning at the same time as your hips so your torso looks like a rigid stick. What should be happening is you turn your hips first and then your shoulder rotates slightly after it.
His shoulder and elbow are not reaching upwards enough. The shoulder also needs to tilt upwards reaching higher at the point of hitting the shuttle. At the moment, both shoulders are horizontal.
May be if you were practicing your stroke with a little footwork (say from an imaginary base point —> 2 steps backwards —> stroke —> 2 steps forward back to the imaginary base position) it could eventually help you to find some momentum/flow in your stroke.
I would recommend to work on your footwork. Footwork is the most neglected aspect of Badminton especially at beginner and intermediate level. I also noticed that your upper body is stiff. You need to do exercises which make your body flexible. Just my two cents. Hopefully they help.
When I practice this with my coach there are three distinct steps. 1-racket up by the ear (I would also raise it up more) 2- The second position is your racket almost against your back going straight down your back like a spine. You do this by moving your elbow but you need to keep your elbow very close to your body (my coach makes me practice this move with my chest and legs almost touching a wall. As I bring my elbow forward (and racket back) I can't hit my racket or my elbow against the wall. 3-The third position is hitting it in front of you at the highest point. Stretching out your arm higher than you would do naturally. A slight stretch. You seem to be skipping step 2 entirely. When you train with a coach he calls out "1,2,3" and you need to hit each step deliberately. Maybe count out in your head and that will help you be more precise.
