VIDEO: what's wrong with this smash?
- Thread starter kwun
- Start date
I've been looking into increasing my smash power as well, I'm currently shoulder pressing around 190lbs, see some gain but nothing like most players here, then found this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCNhuysZlaY
Think it will illustrate everything everyone's been talking about on this thread!
Hope its useful for you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCNhuysZlaY
Think it will illustrate everything everyone's been talking about on this thread!
Hope its useful for you!
Nah... I prefer this one...[video=youtube;DqthgAaeJMY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=DqthgAaeJMY[/video]
Same here.. And the GC's comments also add spice to that video..
GC :- "Loook at that shoooulder rotation.. The pronaation of the forearm, creates the power.. The bend of the racket.. Goodness me.. "
Nice slow motion video in an actual game situation.
2.38 I see TBH's smash. The preparation, his left elbow is at the level of the shoulder. This particular shot he is travelling backwards so I don't see his shoulder rotating so much. But at the end of the stroke, he does end up with his left leg closer to the net.
3.49 FHF has his elbow at the level of the shoulder and the racquet face is facing towards the net.
2.38 I see TBH's smash. The preparation, his left elbow is at the level of the shoulder. This particular shot he is travelling backwards so I don't see his shoulder rotating so much. But at the end of the stroke, he does end up with his left leg closer to the net.
3.49 FHF has his elbow at the level of the shoulder and the racquet face is facing towards the net.
visor
Regular Member
^^ Yep, the elbow position is quite important.
In preparation, the elbow should form a straight line thru both shoulders with the other arm/elbow raised pointing at the incoming shuttle.
Then going into smashing, the elbow should lead the stroke while the forearm is still coiled up in flexion/supination. Then extend and
pronate forearm into the shot.
And if you have enough time to rotate the hips and shoulder into the shot, *before* the above sequence, then you will have your 100% power smash.
In preparation, the elbow should form a straight line thru both shoulders with the other arm/elbow raised pointing at the incoming shuttle.
Then going into smashing, the elbow should lead the stroke while the forearm is still coiled up in flexion/supination. Then extend and
pronate forearm into the shot.
And if you have enough time to rotate the hips and shoulder into the shot, *before* the above sequence, then you will have your 100% power smash.
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I have revisited this thread after an interesting session on the courts. Occasionally, I will get a coach to work with and brush up on routines, work on consistency of shots. Let's face it - sometimes little bad habits on technique can work itself into your own game unwittingly. Note that my training before worked on singles play and I didnt really concentrate on doubles. Now, I stick mainly to doubles.
Yesterday, I worked with a coach who is specifically a doubles player at a professional level. Normally I have the same problem as the OP in wondering why I can't get that really nice smash technique. The coach tells me a few small things that make a big difference to my smash.
Preparation: a) he tells me to keep my elbow higher nearly to the level of my shoulder. My Dropping the elbow low means the windup needs to be bigger and greater chance of things going wrong - I.e. mistiming. I notice the OP's elbow is really quite low.
b) tells me my racquet head preparation is too closed - he wants me to prepare the racquet face more open (I.e. facing towards net). This puzzled me because the pronation movement is less. Again, shorter technique means less things go wrong. He tells me to think about how Jung Jae Sung prepares his racquet for the smash and then I immediately understand.
Striking the shuttle: a) he tells me my contact point is a bit low. Something I always need to remind myself.
Follow through: a) my shoulder is not rotating forward after hitting the shuttle. This is similar to the OP. The coach gets me to really rotate my shoulder much more after hitting the shuttle and to end up leaning forward at the end of the stroke.
b) lastly, I don't rotate my hips enough. Actually I used to do it a lot more in singles but sorta dropped out of doing it for doubles. Bad habits and laziness creeping in. We get the rotation going so my right leg and hip are forward after the stroke. You can see the OP doesn't really turn his lower body either so his right leg isn't forward after the shuttle is hit.
Results? Totally different sound. I get that nice huge explosive sound and have a nice big smile on my face
The shuttle travels much faster - my other training partners testified to this.
Contact point is a bit low - this will probably be the hardest part for me to change.
Very satisfied with the result.
This is really interesting as it seems to echo the problems I’ve had since returning to the game after 7 years off with injury.
After watching a video of myself playing recently I noticed some things that I never knew I do now that I didn’t before my injury.
The first obvious thing was that my elbow is quite low in my preparation, far lower than it used to be for some reason. The clip wasn’t good enough to see how I had my racquet face, but my grip has always been somewhere between pan handle and conventional forehand, but more towards pan handle with very little pronation.
I don’t struggle with power in my smashes if I have the time to prepare, but against good players you never have time to prepare and this is where your comment about keeping the whole stroke short is very true/useful. While I have a pretty powerful smash, when there’s little time to prepare, it is very poor. Something I certainly need to work on.
I never thought about all the little things that can help keep the stroke condensed, not only to help with mishits but also when there is little time to prepare.
The other thing, like you, my contact point is lower too. But I know why I do this, it’s because I’m trying to protect my shoulder from injury again semi-consciously.
With many years of little exercise and having a baby, I’ve put on a bit of weight and as such I find I can no longer jump up with both feet for a smash without losing balance on landing. So my jump smashes tend only be small jumps and the landing is more of a scissor kick than with both feet. I’ve lost a bit of power here too.
I need to relearn the jump smash again – difficult when stamina isn’t there anymore! L
Can you explain the point about JJS’s smash preparation? I’m not completely clear on this. How does the angle of your racquet face help with shortening the stroke? Do you mean his grip is more pan handle?
Gollum
Regular Member
I'm late to the party, but this is an interesting puzzle! From the video it's difficult to see how good the smash is, but I'll assume it really is weak, as stated.
Overall this guy has good technique. The most important message for him is encouragement. He is not that far from getting a good smash. I have a few suggestions, most of which have already been mentioned:
(1) He's leaning back too much before the smash. This reduces balance and means that, to some extent, his own body weight is holding him back.
(2) The elbow is too low in preparation -- sometimes much too low. Try raising it so that you could draw a straight line connecting the elbows and shoulders. This may be related to leaning back too far.
(3) I think he's slicing the smash, quite severely. That's what it sounds like to me, although it's hard to be sure with unfamiliar acoustics and a camera mic. His smash sound seems too similar to his backhand push sound. The grip doesn't look too bad, so I think it's just a timing issue. He appears to be using arm rotation well, but if the timing is off slightly then the shuttle can be heavily sliced. It would be interesting to know whether his smashes tend to travel off to one side.
(4) I think the grip tightening is wrong. He appears to tighten the grip much too early in the hitting action, when he is only just starting the forward swing. After this point the grip looks quite firm, but doesn't show much sign of tightening further. Perhaps try using a more relaxed grip initially, and delay tightening until nearer the impact point.
(5) I can see too much of the racket strings during his preparation. This suggests he could be over-rotating in his upper body and especially the arm. This could introduce too much tension in these muscles, which interferes with generating explosive power. It could also mean his body is "prepared" to generate power in the wrong direction -- i.e. off to his right, rather than straight ahead. He could try preparing in a more "neutral" posture, with the racket strings facing downwards and forwards, rather than facing out to his right. It's even possible that this could correct the slicing problem.
Overall this guy has good technique. The most important message for him is encouragement. He is not that far from getting a good smash. I have a few suggestions, most of which have already been mentioned:
(1) He's leaning back too much before the smash. This reduces balance and means that, to some extent, his own body weight is holding him back.
(2) The elbow is too low in preparation -- sometimes much too low. Try raising it so that you could draw a straight line connecting the elbows and shoulders. This may be related to leaning back too far.
(3) I think he's slicing the smash, quite severely. That's what it sounds like to me, although it's hard to be sure with unfamiliar acoustics and a camera mic. His smash sound seems too similar to his backhand push sound. The grip doesn't look too bad, so I think it's just a timing issue. He appears to be using arm rotation well, but if the timing is off slightly then the shuttle can be heavily sliced. It would be interesting to know whether his smashes tend to travel off to one side.
(4) I think the grip tightening is wrong. He appears to tighten the grip much too early in the hitting action, when he is only just starting the forward swing. After this point the grip looks quite firm, but doesn't show much sign of tightening further. Perhaps try using a more relaxed grip initially, and delay tightening until nearer the impact point.
(5) I can see too much of the racket strings during his preparation. This suggests he could be over-rotating in his upper body and especially the arm. This could introduce too much tension in these muscles, which interferes with generating explosive power. It could also mean his body is "prepared" to generate power in the wrong direction -- i.e. off to his right, rather than straight ahead. He could try preparing in a more "neutral" posture, with the racket strings facing downwards and forwards, rather than facing out to his right. It's even possible that this could correct the slicing problem.
visor
Regular Member
Actually, reviewing the OP video again, it does seem that the MX80 may be too stiff for him as there's practically no shaft bending noticeable, which should occur on such a power shot. I would suggest changing to a slightly flexier racket, like MX70, JJS, or 60, which would allow more whipping acceleration of the racket face into the bird at strike.
gundamzaku
Regular Member
how come bintang campbell looks sooooo much better in the video than in person???
i've seen this guy smash in person, it's not weak at all, if anything, it's has good angles.
Ohh, so you know "you know who"?
Thanks Gollum for the analysis.
I've never been coached, but picked up badminton about 3-4 yrs back, and now fine tuning one by one.. Good to read & understand about the finer aspects of the technical details..
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Gollum
Regular Member
Given that history, I think you should be very pleased with the quality of your technique.
Those are proper deep lifts in the video -- some may even be out the back! Most players will struggle to get much power from this position. It's a lot easier when the lifts are shorter!
visor
Regular Member
^^ Ashaan is not the subject in the OP video.
That person would be he-that-cannot-be-named...
C'mon, we all know who he is!
Yes, agree and had earlier mentioned that the feeder should not have lifted so deep to baseline for this particular drill. Makes it unnecessarily challenging for k**n.
That person would be he-that-cannot-be-named...
C'mon, we all know who he is!
Yes, agree and had earlier mentioned that the feeder should not have lifted so deep to baseline for this particular drill. Makes it unnecessarily challenging for k**n.
Gollum
Regular Member
Oh dear, I am easily confused by these players seeming to claim responsibility for those smashes. I assume actually naming him outright on this forum would be like invoking Cthulhu from across the abyssal void, and last time I did that it took months to get the unholy tentacles out of my hair.
So if it's The Boss (The Darkener of Feathers? The Nether Smasher?), maybe I have another idea: perhaps the player is judging his own performance very harshly! These Elder Gods are real perfectionists, or so I've heard.
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