Smash striking angle

[Martijn]

Hi guys,

I've been taking classes for a while now and am noticing some tangible improvements. However, one thing that I cannot seem to get down is the smash (and to some extension drop shots as they'd use the same striking angle).

I've been watching a lot of tutorials, asked my coach and some other veteran players and I'm getting some mixed information. Maybe I'm misunderstanding it. I understand the striking motion with ready position, elbow forward along with the body and fully extend before snapping downwards when about to hit the shuttle.

However, what confuses me is the striking angle. My coach tells me the optimal striking point is as high as possible to achieve a steeper angle, roughly at the highest point a bit in front of the forehead. Other players keep mentioning hitting at a 45 degree angle in front of me. So now I'm confused, is the 45 degrees they're talking about the optimal striking point to hit the shuttle, or the angle the racket head should hit the shuttle at, at the highest point (the previously mentioned position slightly in front of the forehead).

Could someone help me clear this up? It's a bit annoying to still not be able to smash consistently as it means I'm short a key attacking method.

I drew a terrible picture to illustrate what I mean.
For all intents and purposes, A is what i assume the veteran players are telling me. B is what I assume my coach means. Red is the racket, green is the shuttle.



Cheers!

 

[Budi]

The highest point mean when the shuttle ball (the one you hit & not the feather. Idk what it called) is still facing straight or abit upward so your stroke will be optimal for smashing & not to mention steep angle posibility when you hit high enough.
If you hit after the shuttle ball going downward, it wont be effective as most likely you hit the ball & the feather as well. Not only losing some power transfer but also its hard to direct your shot downward for smash. Ofcourse if you hit on low shuttle position, you can only return it flat & definitely cant do steep angle.

45", i think it mean you want to hit the shuttle in front of you & not when the shuttle already right up to your head which mean you are late for smash.

So, in combination of both you want to hit at the highest point where your position need to be behind the shuttle around 45" of your hand +racket length.

 

[visor]

Closer to B.

One way to tell is to line up as if you're about to smash, but don't strike the shuttle and let hit fall. If correct, it should land just in front of your non racket foot.

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[Martijn]

Closer to B.

One way to tell is to line up as if you're about to smash, but don't strike the shuttle and let hit fall. If correct, it should land on your right foot.

Sent from my SM-G988W using Tapatalk

this is actually a very interesting way of confirming my angle, hadn't thought of that. Thanks!

 

[visor]

this is actually a very interesting way of confirming my angle, hadn't thought of that. Thanks!

Ooops, corrected. Should be just in front of the non racket foot. See starting at 5:23 here in this great video



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[Martijn]

Watched the video and took into account the things you guys pointed out here. I think I made some pretty good progress. I was in fact hitting the shuttle way too far in front of me. I've been practicing hitting it up high (about 10 to 15 cm in front me in height) and managed to get some pretty powerful downwards shots without having to put too much power into it.

Thanks!

 

[Ballschubser]

Both are right, more or less.

A smash is special in the sense, that you want to hit it hard and only slightly above the net. When you hit the shuttle, the angle is more or less fix for the 'ideal' smash, considering that the shuttle should pass only slightly above the net.So, if you want to hit a steeper angle, you need to take the shuttle much higher, therefor you coach is right, take the shuttle at the highest point (even better a jump smash, which allows you to take the shuttle even higher resulting in an even steeper angle). Once you take it high, your racket needs to point more downward to generate the steepness, so your racket will approach 45° degree.

Eventually it is a combination of both, once you take the shuttle really high in relation to the distance to the net, your racket will face more downward to archive a steep angle.