Hey Badminton Central! I'd like to offer my analysis and feedback of games, training, or even just short clips of YOU playing badminton - open to players of any level from anywhere in the world. I've recently done something similar for 30+ people from a smaller, US based Facebook group "Birds of a Feather". What are my credentials? I am a former U19 US Junior National Champion and have continued to win in many local Open level tournaments. I have recently got back into training competitively and aim to participate in international tournaments (as soon as we can travel again!) What can you expect? In the past, I provided game specific notes / general notes in a format like shown below (example shown is for the woman in a 30 minute mixed doubles match at an A/B level). However, this time I'd like to try something different, and directly commentate with a voice-over on the video instead. If you're interested in a summary like below, I'd still be happy to provide it! ** Game Notes - If bird is hit up (lift or clear) on your side straight, just watch down the alley and get ready for defense there. You should slide over as much as you can to cover the alley. In mixed, tend to smash 75% straight, 25% cross (especially if girl is straight side) Van should shift over towards the middle more, and cover middle / cross while you just watch the straight - Good setups in front, if you hit a good drop or push on the left side of the court (your backhand side), try to get ready for the cutoff with forehand rather than backhand - If you’re being stuck in the back (they keep lifting / clearing etc.) try your best to find an opportunity to move up. Maybe something you work out with Van, but something that works well for me is my partner smashing down the middle, or dropping and immediately running up and switching spots. Its hard position for you and Van if they keep pushing you to the back, because I see hesitation on when you guys wanna transition - If they drop down the middle (when you are side to side), try to capitalize on this by always going for those so you can stay in the front, even if its Van’s forehand - Try to lift cross if you know you guys will be going on defense. Helps because it is easier to follow up defense when you on cross - if they smash to Van, he can control / drive you can follow up to the front. If they smash to you, you have much more time to place the bird than you do on a straight smash. - Follow up quicker if you defend a smash with a cross drop. This gives pressure for the opponents to lift it to Van, because they know you are already waiting there. General Notes - You have very good setups (drop shots / half courts) and good coverage also. However, sometimes its a little predictable that you will be hitting drop shots, which isn’t bad! But, you have a very good opportunity to get super quick and easy points by mixing in some fast / hard push especially when receiving - Always have an eye out for following up / moving forward so you can play to your strengths! - Work on your front backhand side cutoffs using forehand. Lost a lot of points where overhead would have been an easier kill, but when using Bachand you would miss it / shot would be much slower - Mental game is EXTREMELY important in mixed. Your front court is way better than a lot of the other girls you are playing against. If you have opportunities to rush up to the front and put a little bit of pressure there by getting there 0.5 - 1sec early, your opponents will feel the pressure to lift more and will be much more afraid to play in the front. Gives you guys a big advantage. Plus, in close games when there are nerves, the chance of them hitting a good shot in the front is severely limited ** What's the catch? What do I get out of this? 1. If you are comfortable with it, I'd like to post the video reviews to my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCMwu0xEuG5v9kuvvVUD5lcg - if not, I'll still be happy to reply in this thread or a private message! 2. It has always been a long time goal of mine to spread badminton in any platform that I can, especially in the USA! 3. I want to give back to the badminton community that has always helped and given me so much. This is somewhere that I feel like I can help Hope to hear from you guys soon
Hi I record all of my games , trainings an good shots when I play I would appreciate your comments on my game or any critic. I’m trying to work one or two main things at a time
Hey! I watch all your training videos on youtube and try to incorporate a lot of them into my own training sessions! Started training last year and want to play at a higher level than I current am. Here is some footage I am the guy in black and orange shirt and black/red shoes. Thanks!
@Mason just had a chance to take a look through your videos and left some notes below! In general, you will want to work on using less steps in your footwork to move quicker and smoother, and hitting your shots with a less stiff elbow and arm. Great progress! P.S love your orange shoes Back left corner (backhand) 0:00, 0:32 “Sumo hop” (first hop) seems a little pronounced, you don’t need to bring your right leg as high as long as you can still rotate your body. At some points the sumo hop is less pronounced, so it seems like this is something to just keep in your mind Back right corner (forehand) 0:14, when you do the “right-left-right” footwork, your left leg is crossing your right leg excessively, causing the footwork to be a bit slower. You can keep this movement shorter as you already have long legs! 0:18, when you hit the shot after the “side step jump”, it seems as if you are hitting the shot on your side, rather than hitting the shot in front of you. It could be because you are doing shadow footwork, but it is good to imagine you are playing a real game while doing footwork practice 1:04, getting back to the center, you are taking too many steps (sometimes 3-4). If you already have the switch step / jump from your shot to have your right leg in front, you can recover to the middle with one single hop Smash to net Kill 1:38, gather to the smash is a little slow with many small steps. Following up is also 4 small steps - instead, you should aim to do 1 big hop followed up with 2 big steps. In actual games, if you see that you have a powerful shot, and the opponent has a bad return, you can also skip the big hop and take 2 BIG steps to get to the net faster 1:45, same notes as above ^. gather is a little slow, and too many steps to get to the front. If you are interested, you can see this video on how to take the 2 big steps to get to the front: Drop net crosscourt lift etc Again, same notes as ^ when getting to the front. Try to hop from the shot in the back, and follow up with 2 big steps (you can see the video on how to do that) 2:42 - From forehand front to backhand side, make sure you are still turning your body. You should do one hop back to the middle, and turn your body with the sumo hop like you did earlier in the video. At this point, you are going to the back but still facing forward, you need to make sure to turn your body early to 1) show your opponents that you will catch the shot early 2) give yourself more chance to hit a harder shot by turning your body 2:47 - From backhand net to forehand side, make sure you lead with a HOP from the front to the middle with your right foot in front. This is so that you can travel to the front right and back left easier if your opponent were to hit it there. If you know at a HIGH PERCENT that your opponent will hit it to the back right, then you can start by going back to the middle with your right foot in front Side to side looks good, no problems there! Badminton Shots video 0:04, your arm seems quite stiff and you seem to be generating most of your power from rotating your elbow instead of using your whole arm It looks like your follow through is cut short some times, you can see how your drilling partner is hitting clears and smashes and watch how he follow through all the way to the bottom When you hit drop shots behind you, you tend to stick your arm out first behind you and then hit the shot with a stiff form. Try to keep your arm movement smooth, and use your footwork to get behind the bird rather than relying on a stiff arm to hit the birds. In these rallies your shots went over but this won’t be as consistent as getting behind the bird and using your whole arm Your forehand front shots are also quite stiff. Same as before, try to get more movement in your wrists in your arm to have more control over your shot in the future A lot of time in the side / front, you tend to reach overhead and try to hit it with your forehand, causing shots that don’t have a lot of power. Trust in your backhand, practice it, and use it! Backdrop shots are generally good quality, but arm is still stiff. Against higher level players, they may be able to predict this and rush to the front and take advantage of your shots
@pcho wow really appreciate you watching my videos, that means a lot! Please what I can do to improve them and any other types of videos you'd like to see This was a fun game for me to watch, and thanks for clipping it so it only showed the rallies! In general, the back right corner seems weaker when your opponent hits more of a push shot. Try and understand why you are hitting the shots that you hit (i.e why do I hit a spin net drop, what's my goal? *so you can attack) so that you can control the flow of the rallies better, instead of having most rallies end with a lot of slow clears. Left the more specific notes for this game underneath. I'm really looking forward to seeing your progress in the future, you work really hard on the court and you play with a lot of passion Game Notes - On the forehand back side, you often stick your racket out behind / to the side of you and hit the bird with a stiff arm and only your wrist. This gives you less control on the types of shots you can hit (as its VERY hard to hit to the back with a stiff arm and only your wrist), and your opponent may soon be able to predict them. Instead, try to move quicker to the back so that you can add variety to these shots and be more flexible - Your movement to the back is quick and GREAT, but you tend to wait for the bird to come down / to you rather than taking advantage quicker. Instead, you can try to jump to the shots or just show some more explosiveness to scare your opponent and let them know you are attacking - ~1:24, the pace in this rally is a little slow (from both sides) with only high clears. You should find a way to take advantage - either by getting to the bird quicker and attacking his slow shot, or by increasing the pace of your clears with punch / fast clears - Forehand front, your form is a little stiff. Try to loosen up your arm and wrist so that your shots are cleaner and not as telegraphed - 1:45, SMASH this shot! you had a great setup at the net and moved quickly to the back. If you clear the next shot, you are wasting what you have already done in the rally! - Side defense shots, same notes about stiffness in arm. Work on this so your defensive shots are more flexible as well - you will be able to control if you want to defend with a drop, drive, or lift - When you have the opportunity to push in the front, really go for it. It seems you are still missing about a half a step to the front, and you are waiting for the shots to come to you. Step into the shot so you can finish the rally with a strong attack - Many defensive shots are too high and too loose. Against a more attacking player, they would find easy ways to finish the rally. To work on this, you can aim to hit your shots longer as long as they are flat. Don't force yourself and try to hit a tight shot to the net - if it's loose, it's too easy to attack - In the 2nd and 3rd games, you are being much more aggressive and smashing more when you have the chance. This is great! - Receiving on forehand side, when they serve to the corner on your forehand you often just lift it straight. Try to find ways to get offense even from receiving a serve - Make sure you follow up your smashes and go to the front! Many times you hit the smash but don't follow up when your opponent returns it, causing you to dive or loose the rally
Hello thanks for sharing your knowledge and good luck on getting into international competition! Here is a clip of mine (a bit dated but my skill did not change much since then), I am on the camera side. I have the opportunity to design my own practice session so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
Hey @SimonCarter thanks for the nice words and glad to hear you are pushing yourself and designing your own practice session. Left the detailed game notes below Regarding your training schedule, I have general advice to give and that would be to focus on your consistency and lower-shots (defense side and front). Consistency is extremely important when playing singles - most of your shots are already extremely solid but being able to rally longer without having mistakes would be very helpful. Additionally, it seems like your weakness is mostly in side and front, as you are a little slow to react to the drops and smashes. Some drills I would suggest: Consistency - any general shot drills will do, but try and count the number of shots you hit without mistake and have a set target. For example, if I were to practice a 1 on 1 offense drill, I would aim to hit 20 shots per rally without a mistake, and do this for X amount of sets. The transition drill (https://badmintonjustin.com/favorite-and-most-beneficial-badminton-drills-transition-drill/) is also a drill I commonly do to work on my own consistency. Defense - one drill I can suggest for defense is 2 on 1, with one person in the back (focusing on smashes and drops) and one person at the front focusing on nets and pushes. This will definitely help you with your side and front movement! If you have any specific questions about your training schedule I'd be happy to answer those as well! Game Notes - Receiving short serves, try to catch the bird earlier rather than waiting for the bird to fall. From the first 2 returns, I saw a low-caught net drop and a lift. If you take an extra step to get to the serve, you'll be able to put more pace into the rally from the start - Changing / twisting your body to get backhand side smashes is a bit slow, you'll want to work on that. Part of this is reacting to the bird sooner, and part of this is working on your core. One tip my coach gave me when i was younger is to move my racket first to the side where they hit it to. This way, the rest of your body will follow your arm and your racket (so aim to move your racket arm to the backhand first, and hopefully your body will follow) *As I kept watching, noticed the backhand front side had similar problems - Similar notes to receiving the serve, try to catch the bird early in the front after an attack or if the opponent hits a loose shot. You also tend to wait for the bird to drop rather than stepping into it. (3:35, 3:45 are good examples of catching it earlier) - Backhand drop shots are a little slow and floaty, work on hitting these shots with more pace as well. It is okay if these shots are long if they are also flat, and with speed. If the shots are slow and floaty, the opponent will have more chance to attack these - Find ways to get the offense in the back. You have a great first step to the forehand back side, where you jump and are able to hit tight drops or a smash. You need to look for more ways to get to the offense in the back - maybe you can get faster to the net to try and spin and get ready for a lift, or try and hit blocks when the opponent smashes and try to counterattack from that. Use your strengths to your advantage - 4:00, you should try to attack this shot with a smash since it was short, and 4:04 this shot should not have been a smash as you were out of position! Pay attention to when you are falling backwards versus where you are in control, and attack when you are in control - Backhand defense, try not to slice upwards as you will have less consistency - Think a bit about why you hit the shots you hit. Sometimes, you start with an offense but when they return to the net you tend to lift it high again. You should try to follow these up with a push or another net, to keep the offense. Similarly on defense, the goal is not to stay on defense for the whole rally (if this was the case, always playing defense would be so hard!). You should use your defensive shots (blocks, drives) to try and get the counterattack, so look more for these opportunities.
Thanks a lot for the extensive feedback ! I will definitely incorporate both drills in my routine schedule whenever I can. That is a lot of information to process. I think focussing on those two drills would be plenty of work already and I don't want to disperse my efforts. If I had to get three first points in order to improve from all this it would be : - get more consistent - get faster to the front and sides - find more opportunities to get on the offense from the back For the two first points do you think it is better to do just those two drillS every week or focus longer through a full training sessions but maybe only once a month or every two months. I'm pretty sure working those two drills every week is more beneficial. How long would you recommend to work on each? Thanks again for the helpful notes.
Yeah, those points sound great! I would say its best to do something to work on at least the first 2 points at least once a week at the minimum. Again, consistency is key and you should see yourself improving at these drills week after week with practice. For each, try to work your way up to sets around 10-15 minutes and in terms of consistency, try to reach a goal of at least 20 shots in a row without mistake! At this point, you should feel comfortable to work more on variations of these drills while working on other aspects of your game
No problem, always nice to know there are people in North America training hard for the sport. I like all the videos you post, maybe something more I would be interested in seeing is different angles of the training you doing so I can get a better feel of how fast/slow the shots are. Also, some singles tactics/ mental training would be interesting for me to watch. Thanks for the great analysis! I agree with you on my forehand backcourt comment, I tend to never be able to hit it from there to their forehand backcourt from this. When you tell me to jump for the shots do you mean I should try to cut them off with a single jump when they are lower clears? Do you have any recommended drills/ training I can do to help these areas? Thanks again!
Thanks @pcho for the suggestions, I'll try my best to get some more angles in! Working on a singles tactics / what I think on the court video as well right now. This video below might help explain what I mean by "jump" for the shots. Particularly 0:30-0:33 when LD goes for the smash. By "jumping" I mean more of exploding towards the shot, or a "change of pace". If you play at the same speed the whole rally, even though you go for a smash, the opponent can still keep up and return it. However, by injecting pace through your footwork into your movement, you can surprise your opponents with a more sudden shot. Some drills / training: - "Reaction" shadow footwork. Works better with a partner or you can work by yourself as well. With a partner, they point suddenly to one of 6 corners, and you explode as fast as you can to that corner. On the way back to the middle, you can go slowly to recover. Sets of 10-15 are good, 5-10 sets per session - Defense Counterattack drills (2 on 1, 1 on 1, or feeding). Working on when you defend a smash with a block, have the driller or feeder lift and you work on moving fast to the lift, and attacking it and following up with a sudden change of pace. I have an example video of defense counterattack in the post here (https://badmintonjustin.com/the-most-beneficial-badminton-drills-two-on-one-defense/) - General conditioning drills for explosiveness: plyometrics (bunny hops, squat jumps, jumping lunges if your knees are okay with this load), agility circuits (ladders, hops on your toes, jumprope, you can check more on my YouTube / have another blog post coming out soon with detailed exercises) Cheers and good luck with the training!
