Post videos of yourself playing

Overhead forehand - try and bring your elbow forward first so that your racquet drops down behind your head.

 

During the recent reopening of limited gym capacity in the San Francisco Bay Area (Northern California region), for nearly 2 months (Mar-May 2021), I played weekly sessions with a small group (have to book courts in advance) and recorded the matches, as well as created lots of short clips. We mostly play for fun/exercise but of course aim to win and hit as hard as possible. Prior to the virus, in 2018/2019, some of us participated in local tournaments (C&D levels) to gain more experience. We are obviously hoping things become safer and more open in the future to resume what we used to do (i.e. completely open 100% capacity gym and local tournaments being held again).

Here's my channel. Not entirely necessary, but if you have any feedback for any of us (I'm the shaved head player), that would be great. I mainly made these clips to rewatch and analyze gameplay, strategy, strokes, movements etc. and highlight some cool moves or funny moments we shared on the court. Not sure how much longer I'll consistently record, edit, and upload as it is a huge time commitment to do so (and why spend time editing old games when you can play new ones?!). As things open up, my time will be shifted to more playing anyways, and only occasional recording of events/special matches etc.

Anyways, there's still about 7-8 weeks worth of games and short clips in two playlists so I hope you enjoy watching some of them:

Shuttle Shenanigans
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE3y3w5PSwKg5sF7r2RWJJg

 

Cool rally! One note, you're one of those players who are very relaxed and tend to carry your racket low by your ankles at all times. You'll have to change that bad habit when you start playing against faster players.

Sent from my SM-G988W using Tapatalk

 

Is this directed at the rally on my channel? Yeah, I have a very bad habit (I think most of my playing friends do) of keeping the racket down and not holding it up. Also, me being on the shorter side, smashes are coming to me at head or slightly above head height so your advice is duly noted. It's difficult because sometimes I want to try and lift it back, but their (inconsistently angled) smashes don't always come to where I'm holding the racket best for a lift, resulting in me having to raise it for either a block or drive sometimes.

Also, we tend to not split step and stand almost vertically straight, and not move back to "center" a lot. In singles, I'm more aware of split stepping and doing proper movements, but in doubles, at our level, it's pretty much anything goes since often times, due to lack of or mis-communication, shots are taken late. Also, I've noticed from other players/partners that if I split stepped, or made any movement, even if the shuttle is not coming to me, they will think I am going for it when instead they are the more optimal player to take the shot. It's led to much confusion which is why I stopped split stepping in doubles, and that leads to being slower overall. =/

 

been a while since my last post here

im the guy in green, tell me how can i improve my game, any tips appreciated, thanks in advance

 

Three things I observed that could make a big difference:
1. Split step could be wider and you need to stay lower/more on your toes to prime the leg muscles. This would help your court speed significantly.
2. Too passive on a number of shots, especially after serving. You could apply a lot more pressure by hitting shots earlier, and after serving, putting your racquet up. If I was your opponent I'd play long net returns (service line length) to the sides and you would not be ready for them.
3. The overhead technique is too "wristy". You cannot generate power because you're only relying on your forearm and wrist to smash/clear/drop. This is also why your dropshots are very slow and most of the time it's telegraphed. In order to put more of your bodyweight behind your overhead shots (and therefore power+speed on the shuttle), you need to rotate more on overhead shots. In preparation, you need to be side on so that your body is facing the side of the court (imagine that you should be facing the walls on the sides when preparing to hit), have your elbows up to a comfortable height just below shoulder height, then rotate your body as you hit through the shot. Tobias Wadenka has a great video on this technique

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The thing with this overhead action is that it's not just for smashing, it would be the same action for clears/drops/cuts/smashes/forehand deep corner jump/recovery shots, so then your shots can no longer be anticipated.

 

Thanks, nice video, he explain how to throw the elbow better, and isolate training on how to do that properly, this is the first time i see someone do that, thanks.

Wider stance and improve mobility on the court also good idea, i play 3 times a week, been planning to do some training exercises outside my badminton schedule for quite some time, but work and life got in the way. Also im near 40, and i feel like my physical ability is dropping significantly, anybody here also going through the same? Even 3 times badminton schedule feel like a problem now let alone exercise during off day lol

 

I'm red shirt. I don't usually record myself, but today my opponent did. Not my best games. Not his best games. But they're the ones that are on film. Feel free to comment. I don't often see myself playing, and it's been a while since I've had coaching, so if anything stands out or is worth noting, please do. Unfortunately not the best camera angles either, and I apologise for the white shuttle on white opponent on white lines on white walls.

 

Thanks!

 

Two things stood out to me that will impact almost every shot:
1. You often don't turn your racket side into the corner, instead you tend to keep your body facing more parallel towards the net. As a result you have to move more.
2. Your non-racket arm doesn't do a lot. On lunges, it doesn't go back, on overhead shots, it sometimes stays almost limp. This impacts your balance and places more load on other muscle groups to compensate, namely your torso and the chain from your racket foot to your hips (i.e. the muscles catching your lunge).

Working on this is hard and it's not a game-changer, but it could impact almost every shot you make. If you want to do it, I'd recommend doing focused and very conscious shadow footwork and filming yourself regularly.

I have the same problem so I can relate quite well

 

Sparring match from recent training session....feel free to comment and leave any kind of feedback. I'm wearing the yellow & blue shirt

Oh, and @SnowWhite - moments like 1:26, 1:56 are exactly what I meant when I said I could relate to suboptimal footwork to the short backhand corner

 

I watched a bit too, at @ 7 minutes. You sent many shots out and wide. Your sparring partner had it easy.

 

Thanks for the response. It's funny - I received the same feedback only 2 days ago as well - it's really hard to avoid your defaults under pressure, and this one is quite ingrained for me. Now that the shoulder is getting better again I'll consciously try and clear more.
And yeah, he does know me - I'd guess right now we play 3-5 matches vs each other in a good week, and have been in the same team for years

Yeah, I've had a dip in form for a couple of weeks now, maybe exhaustion. Feeling sluggish and unexplosive, and making errors because I feel I'm late to the shuttle (and unstable). I've never been a super consistent player, but it had been trending up before this recent dip.... this is far from my worst match
I'm slowly getting better with not dragging shots out the sideline when I have to play shots moving backwards (it's been unbelievably bad on my backhand side, and is now much better -> bad), but it's far from satisfactory for me.


Still - feeling some progress, and enjoying the process. I knew it was going to be a grind to get back into singles, but so far it's really been worth it.

 

After lots of hurdles (travel, sickness, injury...) I'm on my way back to 100% and can at least move normally again, even if the shoulder is still at less than 80%. Had some decent sparring in the one of the last training sessions, feel free to chime in with sth.
I'm the taller one with the currently weird hair style, if you haven't seen me before

Match 1, game 3:

Match 2: