Apologies I haven't read all posts, so may have missed something. Clearing video 2: better body positioning behind the shuttle, contact is still quite low. Whilst you are easily able to perform clears from midcourt whilst facing forward (no sideways turn), this is not something that builds good habits. Try to make sure you adopt a sideways hitting position even when the shuttle is very short - I believe it will help you build consistency. Regarding forehand movement patterns: you are quite "upright" in your movement which gives the impression of "stiff", try to move in a more "athletic" position (meaning a little more crouched because you are a little less upright). Pretend you are Rasmussen and copy the way he holds his upper body posture as he moves! Apart from this the lunge footwork is painful to watch. Your foot should point in the direction you are moving i.e. when you look down at your lunging leg, the leg and foot are lined up. Just practice a few times and get used to the feeling of stepping powerfully forwards and coming "down" on your heel (before then landing with the whole foot). Regarding mixed movement patterns: your movement round the head does not include a noticeable flying step, but the movement you are using is fine (it is the same one Zhao Jianhua teaches in one of his videos). You said that in the video Kowichan does not move all the way to the back - in games you will vritually never need to move all the way to the back, you will need to make sure you can reach the back with your racket. That being said, footwork for jump smashes and for retrieving a high serve are different to what you would use for covering the corner during a regular rally. You only need to get all the way to the back line when the shuttle is dropping vertically (or coming from very high) and this only happens on a very high lift with plenty of time to move. Movements during rallies are very different than those for a high serve or a jump smash. Please ask if you have any questions!
Thanks for the comments - they're never too late! Cheung and Charlie covered the footwork quite extensively and I'm happy to adopt different footwork patterns for rallying, high serve, and jump smashing. It was also painful for me to watch my ankle after Cheung pointed it out...One of those things that if I demonstrate it to someone else, I'll consciously keep it straight, but I had no idea I wasn't keeping it straight myself when I wasn't looking. I'll try crouching lower a bit - it tends to feel more defensive, but on looking at my videos, I look really upright. Perhaps I should just feel like I'm defending more which would lead to a lower/wider split, and should give me the bounce i need. I have a strong feeling the feeling that I have to be towing the back tramline in rallies is due to me taking the shuttle too low. That may be caused by a tight grip as per the other thread. So I'm going to try out holding the racquet higher up in my fingers even if I don't get the full power. I feel like my shoulders are reasonably side on - must have made a habit out of being square to the net Plenty of training food to digest!
So as Matt and Cheung have brought up about your lunges, they make you prone to injury. Fixing this is an absolute must, put a cone just behind the T and practise your footwork in the front court a bit. There's one more issue I'm seeing that could make you prone to injury. At the moment, when you jump out, you're landing on your right foot with your right foot facing towards the net. Now this isn't entirely wrong, but you are predisposing yourself to injury here. My recommendation would be that your left leg comes down first, not hard, but just enough to gain some traction and control of your movement. So when you jump: You are rotating your body to hit the shuttle. Your right leg should be raised more to increase reach/lean. Your left leg should be straighter (not locked out) to help act as a counter weight Your left leg should make contact before your right leg (this is most likely to occur on the inside edge of your foot, towards the ball of your foot) As you descend even that out and get more traction with your left When your right foot lands, you should be ready to step through with your left to move forward/back towards the centre Matt could likely provide better information on this, but from my experience personally and what I've observed, you're much more likely to roll an ankle with your foot turning inwards rather than outwards (although I've met people that have done both). Take a look again you may disagree with what I've put here but it's something that clocked with me.
I think I know what you're saying, but I'm struggling to see an example. Could you reference a movement or two in the videos, please? As far as I have in mind, I try to land with both feet at the same time, except for a jump smash, where I let the right land first, bring the left in, then jump.
Right here, like I said just something I clocked. This is in a drill, so you have more opportunity to control yourself, but it's a bit of a concern for games, you're taking all of that weight on your right leg as you land.
Good point about the standing too upright. It happens to me as well and I still do it at times. I really have to make a conscious effort to keep my shoulders down. The foot not pointing out enough on lunges. When you land, try having the foot rotated even more outwards like Peter Gade who IMO, does this really clearly. Do that in shadow work, then do it with shuttle drills. If you practice having some over rotation outwards on that lunging foot, you'll reduce the percentage of times having turned the foot in a considerable amout. Lee Chong Wei is not an especially great example to follow for this particular lunge and placement of foot (sticking my neck out here )
Not sure about Charlie's last post it looks like he is refering to two different situations in two paragraphs. For that rear court forehand shot where you leap out (not scissor kick), we covered very comprehensively the build up footwork. For the landing, both feet should land simulataneously. I think yours is OK. The right foot landing should not point directly to the net. But on the other hand, it is also impossible for the foot to point 90 degrees perpendicular to the net on landing. For improvement (wrt to the video footage), when you land, you are still a bit too upright. If you land and then sink down a bit more to lower your centre of gravity, your 1st recovery step back to base will be much more stable.
Sounds good! I had a go at a couple singles games with the strangr backhand foe previously. Good news is my footwork seems better with the flying step - had a point where I was able to smash and recover three times on lifts I would normally struggle to get back for. I can feel the difference when I remember to get my shoulders side on, and when I keep my racquet raised too. I'm just telling myself to keep my racquet hand at shoulder level rather than worrying about the racquet head position which seems to be easier on my habits. The forehand footwork was difficult. I adjusted to the chasse-chasse/chasse jump as the crossover-jump just took too long unless it was really high serve. Worked to get me in position, but I was so focused on getting to the shuttle, I'd forget to prepare my shot and I'd hit it late. Fine for a clear, but it started getting a bit predictable. The front lunging needs a lot of work :/ That one is ingrained so hard - every hard net shot I'd glance down and my foot would be turned inward I'll try the drills and shadows and focus on that. The front V transition seems like a good one to get it worked in I guess. One thing I'm finding is my Achilles tendons are getting slightly sore (slightly more on the left). I think the flying step and the larger chasses/jumps are taking their toll, so I think ill give full footwork drills a rest - perhaps just do them at half speed or at walking pace?
Sounds good. Just check when you do the scissor kick and land on your left foot, that foot points somewhat outwards towards the left hand side - not point forwards to the net. Yeah, just slow down a bit on the footwork drills. Remember you are just retraining muscle memory. It will take some time to consolidate. Half speed sounds good. But all in all, sounds like good progress!
Include some lunges in your warm up. Just basic "split, lunge, recover --- split, lunge, recover", moving towards the forehand and backhand net. Not too fast or intense, just work on quality. It takes less than 30 seconds. Do this every time before you play.
Exactly what my coach serves as my warm-up starter everytime! Great minds things alike I suppose And because it's a warm-up, the focus is always to do it methodical, rather than at game pace, or even drill pace.
Talking about pace, there is still another aspect of your movement which needs to be developed. You are not yet at the right 'rhythm'.
I haven't read all the posts so sorry if this is already mentioned but perhaps in order to allow your footwork/brain to fully express the movement getting to the baseline you should do a clearing drill where after every shot you return fully to the centre and then split step back to the baseline thus covering a larger area and allowing your brain to 'push' in order to get to the shuttle. Just my two cents
Yeah, I'm racing away in these footwork videos. I find it difficult without a shuttle in the air. Coach has already shown me the slower recovery into a pronounced split and burst of speed into retrieval vs. a constant speed rhythm, and when he got me to do them both, the constant speed rhythm really kills your stamina.
It's been a while since I've purposely looked at clearing and I have a new video. The main things I am thinking in my head for this drill are: 1) keep contact high (but less fussed if i am taking these on a forehand jump out - is this okay?) 2) keep arm relatively straight, even if out to the side 3) stay relaxed Note that I am playing on the far side in shorts: I think perhaps I'm a bit too relaxed in some of these shots - when looking at the video I appear to be moving very slowly in fact! I feel my arm/hand movement is okay though, and I'm not expending as much energy as I used to for these clears. The footwork I am using is to purposefully avoid a kick through on the forehand side and tends to be a jump out, or even a flying step + jump out into the forehand corner. On the backhand side, things are a little more varied, but I am trying to maintain a flying step + scissor forward. It seems I have a bit of trouble on the backhand side as my right foot looks like it swings out to the side as I step forward - can anyone suggest why this is? I've looked at the pro's, and if they scissor backwards, it looks like their dominant foot remains where it was as the play the stroke, then they step back to base afterwards as a separate movement. I also have a few mishits - I can make up excuses, but I think that this is simply lack of practice on doing extended 'rallies'. A couple of the drop shots are simply me zoning out and ending up having to take the shuttle late because i've not prepared my stroke meaning I can only play a drop shot What are your thoughts on my strengths / weaknesses, and where do you think I could improve my rearcourt footwork / technique the most?
You're still taking the shot a bit too much to the side. You can take it a bit more above your right shoulder which would give you a higher reach. Which secondarily allows you to have better deception and angle for smashes and drops. Now about your friend there, wow, I've never seen such violent clears... Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk
