Imagine a situation late in the rubber game. It is 18-all, and there is nothing to separate you and your opponent. All points are hard fought. That is long rallies, cross-court tours, smashes, slices, drops, clears, the works. You drop another one at the net. Your opponent stretches and digs out the shuttle for a hair-pin. The shuttle rises above the net. Like what happened here -- Umpire says ... well, have a listen. The video clearly shows the shuttle was played on the Green-side of the net. The law is clear on what should happen in this case. How to train for plays such as this?
I think it was right at the midpoint over the net. I can understand how it would have appeared to Victor. But I'm not sure if the brush kill was a fault.
Net-plays are the most exciting of all rallies, in any racquet sport (squash, which has no net, has those wall-shots). Properly train for this? Hmmm. Firstly, have your dominant eye on the netcord. Most people do not have true binocular vision, one eye is stronger than the other. Secondly, these are three things to focus when determining legality of play, or stroke. In order of movement, they are (i) the net, (ii) the shuttle, and (iii) the striking racquet. Of the three, the net is fixed. (know that a player can hit/touch net and is legal only when the shuttle is dead). The shuttle must be hit on the striker side, so any part that crosses the net on the striker side can be hit legally. Now comes the fastest of the three - the racquet head. Human eyes cannot match the 'shutter speed' of cameras. The eye can usually detect at about 1/10 of a second resolution, so the equivalent FPS would be 10. Some people can train to 30 to 60 fps equivalent. Incidentally, that is the current fps of videos online. The racquet head will move much faster than the eye can detect. Here's a little exercise you can do while reading this. Fan out your fingers, and swivel your hand. with your arm stretched. At what speed of your swivelling hand can you see the fingers? The racquet head movement will therefore be very difficult to actually see. Instead note where the racquet handle is. This will travel slower than the racquet head. Fix that position when determining from where the shuttle will be struck. The closer that position is to the net, the more vertical the racquet will be. For a 'brush-kill' that is not a fault, the racquet shaft will be parallel to the net. The more the racquet is leaning, the more the chance of the top of racquet head invading the opponent court prior to striking the shuttle. Hoep this helps.
