Here is my match for the men's singles finals at the 2015 Trinidad and Tobago National Championships. Just sharing it, I did make unnecessary mistakes, venue/draft was interesting. Overall just sharing for the sake of it not looking for advice about it really. I am in the red muscle shirt and also won the match 21-14, 21-16 yes there could have been a larger margin of victory but that's alright. [video=youtube;LNjUeL1tpAU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNjUeL1tpAU&list=UUpEC9SYB1JopHnDHIu_4Yog[/video]
Cheung: Thank you, we used Yonex AS 30 shuttles...speeds were horribly fast and yeah no service judge. Footwork: Haha dont worry I agree and had a pretty easy tournament as you can see, had some fun in the final messing around more than I should >.<
Hey everyone! Havent posted much on the forum nowadays but good news, I've been getting 1-on-1 coaching for the past season and I've managed to record these videos whilst I was playing on Friday. The last time I posted videos was on the 31/08/2014 (Post 2143) or if some of you remember my previous videos let me know if you think there have been some improvements but most importantly the improvements that can be made from these videos. I'm playing in all red in these 2 videos. [video=youtube;qetCzVHAzcE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qetCzVHAzcE[/video] This particular game I felt I made of mistakes and it showed in the score. [video=youtube;LXo8WcXxrv8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXo8WcXxrv8[/video] This one, I was more comfortable as one the opponents wasn't consistent so my partner and I were able to exploit it.
Hi Drew, Definitely an improvement. There are small things and I think if you keep working on them, they will get ironed out. It's getting harder to pull apart your technique Sometimes your technique breaks down under pressure. That's where your coaching is coming in to a) learn the technique, and b) be able to perform under pressure. I reviewed the first video. I always never point out everything that can be improved but here are some main areas to work on. - serve return from right hand side. Be careful of your initial starting position. Your feet are not quite in one straight line of left foot to right foot to server. It means you tend to prefer to hit net shots or go for the backhand are of the opponents. Try also mixing in hitting to the forehand areas a bit more. - serve return grip from right hand side. The grip position is not quite backhand enough so you will tend to use a bit of forearm rather than fingers. The disguise will not be so good. - serve return. Body acceleration is a bit slow. Definitely an area where you have the ability to improve 'explosiveness' to take the shuttle earlier and be more aggressive and intimidating. - after returning serve and also after service, your racket is really low. You can bring the racket head up immediately. This is very important at the net. - your clip down shot is a bit poor. You do not have to hit it hard but just make sure it doesn't 'float' and goes in a straight path downwards. - court awareness. E.g. At 6.15, best shot to play was a little push to the service line. Take the shuttle earlier so that the opponents must lift. - court awareness. You play very straight from the edges of the court. You are opening up the angles that the opponent can reply to you making it difficult for your partner. Play a few overheads towards the centreline. You will find that opponents start to hit out because they are trying to aim for the corners or the sides. I think you have shown a good improvement. Your overhead preparation can still be improved. Your twisting is not fast and raising the racket head is not consistently good. Try concentrating on a consistently good contact with the shuttle rather than the power. Then later, start adding a little more power.
I agree with Cheung about your clips and racket prep. Sometimes your racket goes straight from knees to back-swing! I also agree that you've improved - I think you're overhead technique is significantly better now. 3:30 (vid1), 1.32 (vid2) at the net positioning. I think you are too close to the T, and so your habit/instinct is to be split-jumping backwards when your partner strikes. I think it would be better to be doing the opposite - start further back and have neutral or slightly forward split-step momentum. You do go further back at ~1.45 (vid2), when your partner is right in the b/h corner, but you stick to the centre line. This leaves much more front/mid-court uncovered on your b/h side which is bad because straight is the most likely direction for reply. 4:26 (vid2) notice how your partner is in the left-hand service box when you're attacking from b/h corner? I think this is a much better position. Actually you do this as well at ~5:20! In this rally notice how you have lots of time for your smashes, but they are still very flat. You may need to adjust your contact point or wrist motion or maybe even change the way you grip-tighten to improve this consistently.
You seem a little slow/tense, both with your racket, but also with your legs/hips. Therefore, 2 things I would recommend you to work on: 1. Racket skills, finger power, wrist power. You lack some wrist/finger power and therefore often hit more with the arm instead of playing more with a short snap of the wrist and using finger power. That's the reason why some strokes (especially at netplay and drives) seem a little stiff and glumpsy. 2. General physical abilities, agilty and speed of motion. Yeah, we of course all have to work on that. But you seem quite slow at times. Do footwork drills, agility ladders, rope jumping, strenth exercises, core stability, you name it.
One thing I noticed: When you are returning serve, you get down low, but your weight is not forwards. Try shifting your weight more onto your front foot. At the moment your weight looks evenly centred, which will make it difficult to push off quickly. Compare this to your partner in the first game. Your receiving position looks slightly hesitant, whereas his looks more aggressive.
Drew, good improvements from last year! As others mentioned, one thing you'll need to work on is your smash angles...at the moment more like drives... You'll need to bring down your elbow a bit as you smash or clip down a bit with your wrist for half smashes.
I won't reiterate what other people have said, but one thing I noticed was in your smash returns. You're using a very large movement to try and lift from a smash, when this is actually helping your opponents. By lifting, you're setting them up for a follow up smash. A smaller action to play it to the net can even the odds, and if you can get them to force a lift, you're back on the offensive. You're playing quite a flat game, a lot of attacking clears and drives. You need to work on some defensive clears that'll be a little harder for them to smash back, and give you more preparation time. You also need to work on your drops, they're quite loose. From this angle, it looks like you're missing some kill opprtunities and aren't always intercepting where you could produce a good angle smash/kill. (Irrelevant to you, but it's bugging me, to me it looks like the guy in the white shirt and black shorts is performing serves with his racket head a bit high... *Ahem*) Seen you both do it on your side, you ought to work on court movement; you're taking backhands where you could comfortably take a forehand shot. In the second game you're playing more tactically, you're using more net shots and drops. When your opponents are playing shots just over you and just out of your reach, keep making the movements as if you're going to try and take them. You ended up falling a bit flat on your feet. That's all I have. Hope it helps and best of luck! You're doing well, just make sure you're aggressive enough on court!
Hi Guys, Pretty new to this forum (well joined 2012), but just came across this thread today. Having seen some of the vids that has been posted I'm a bit skeptic on posting any of my vids of me playing lol. Some / most of you guys are great players!
Hey, even if it's late, here are my 2 cents...what I noticed most was your racket position and general play from the front. As others pointed out, you'll have to work on your racket position, holding it higher when getting ready for an opponent's shot (I know what I'm talking about. I hold it too low all the time!). Also, your drives have a pretty big back swing, maybe try to work on grip strength and technique a little, try to get as much power as you can out of a short tap forwards with no back swing. Lastly, some tactical advice - you play almost no net shots from the front, even when you're not in position to exert pressure by playing a drive, and as a result you get outplayed sometimes when they move you side to side and your drives get weaker and higher. Try to 'reset' sometimes, playing a short net shot and covering the net, allowing you to get back into a better position and (preferrably) forcing them to lift high to your partner. Hope this helps, and keep having fun playing!
Videos of me Playing! Be Gentle! Hey guys, Decided to record myself playing and post it up. Please be gentle I'm sure I'm probably doing everything wrong. Never had coaching literally just lifted up a racket and played as a hobby for about a decade. Had a few knee injuries from football over the years which hampered lunges etc but my knee has improved over the last couple of years. I'm the Asian guy (wearing yellow or purple top) [video=youtube;z0V0He-ax8U]https://youtu.be/z0V0He-ax8U[/video] [video=youtube;aUKVsEDZ35w]https://youtu.be/aUKVsEDZ35w[/video] Looking forward to hearing pointers! Thanks,
This is really good advice. Playing drives all the time can seem like you're attacking more, but it also gives your opponents chances to counter-attack and it puts a lot more pressure on your recovery and your partner's recovery. Often playing to the net instead will guarantee a lift, giving you a more certain attack even though it doesn't win the rally immediately. It also gives you and your partner more time to recover (the "reset" that j4ckie mentioned).
I looked at a few minutes, here are some thoughts: I like your aggression moving forwards to the net. This is a crucial part of doubles, and many "hobby" players completely lack this. Well done. You also fill the space left by your partner, and you communicate well. Again, this makes a big difference in doubles. I think the biggest area to improve would be your grip. At the moment, you are very committed to a panhandle grip, which has a huge influence on your style of play. You do use a thumb grip when you are serving, but immediately after and for the rest of the rally it looks like you're stuck on panhandle. It would be better to wait with a more "neutral" grip, such as the basic grip. This would be much more flexible. For example, it will help you change to a thumb grip when you play a backhand net shot. The panhandle grip is a particular problem at the back of the court, as it limits your power and causes you to take the shuttle low. Your smashes and drops would be much more effective if you hit them downwards, rather than flat. Focus on reaching up for a higher contact point -- this works well with a more neutral grip. It can take quite a long time to change your grip, because you will also need to change the way you hit. You can always try changing it a little bit at a time. In general, I would also recommend trying to relax the grip more. Hold it lightly in the fingers, rather than clenched tight in the palm.
Hi Gollum, Thank you for the tips and pointers. Interesting about my grip....it's something I haven't noticed before. I will definitely work on this the upcoming weeks and record my playing again. I read a posts about grips and when to use them etc after your point...and I read panhandle grip is used mainly for killing at the net, is this correct? Should I also use a basic grip for smashing? It's very interesting that you mentioned it would limit my power from the back of the court. Could you elaborate on this a bit more? I do have a problem of hitting the shuttles too low and always wondered why. Thanks, Michael
