How to improve the speed of moving towards back court

Discussion in 'Techniques / Training' started by alien9113, Dec 29, 2014.

  1. alien9113

    alien9113 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2013
    Messages:
    707
    Likes Received:
    66
    Location:
    Singapore
    I find that my movement towards back court is slow and puts me under a lot of pressure when my opponent clears or lifts to me. My choices are limited to clearing or dropping the shuttle, which is making my games much more predictable.

    I feel that I have hit a plateau when it comes to movement towards the back court despite regular practice.

    Any ideas on how to improve it?
     
  2. opikbidin

    opikbidin Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2014
    Messages:
    734
    Likes Received:
    59
    Occupation:
    Student
    Location:
    Sydney, NSW, Australia
    Maybe you're just rushing yourself. If it's a clear and lift, surely there must be time for preparation. If it's too low, then you can just jump on the 1st step rather than moving back in 2 steps.
     
  3. PinkDawg

    PinkDawg Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 14, 2012
    Messages:
    488
    Likes Received:
    4
    Location:
    U.S.
    How have you practiced the skill so far? (purely physical training and purely court training)
     
  4. alien9113

    alien9113 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2013
    Messages:
    707
    Likes Received:
    66
    Location:
    Singapore
  5. opikbidin

    opikbidin Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2014
    Messages:
    734
    Likes Received:
    59
    Occupation:
    Student
    Location:
    Sydney, NSW, Australia
    Do it faster, use weight on your ankles. I think the video is showing the slow motion

    you can do the V transition for the back:
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=OybFgazesS0

    or this from 3:12 :
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjYKGMTcb3E

    I often see many players walk or run backwards rather than turn their body and shuffle to the back. It's dangerous as I see many can't stop their run and just continue to go out of the court and fall (well, sometimes it's funny seeing them fall by themselves) Make sure you turn your body than shuffle rather than running backwards. the key points are:
    1. Turn
    2. Shuffle

    Do not:
    1. Face forward
    2. Run backwards
     
    #5 opikbidin, Dec 30, 2014
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2014
  6. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2002
    Messages:
    23,817
    Likes Received:
    4,791
    Occupation:
    wannabe badminton phototaker
    Location:
    Outside the box
    Often players have a stronger side and a weaker side.

    Do you notice if moving back to your forehand side is weaker or is the round the head more difficult?

    Often a small adjustment in positioning can close off areas of the court. Your base position might be very central in the court so that you are trying to cover four corners equally. Let's say the opponent plays a clear, if you stand dead on in the centre, you will have to cover each corner at roughly 25% chance. That's quite hard to do. If you have your position one step further back, you change these percentages. You have closed down the area behind and start encouraging the opponent to play to the forecourt. So now, you are controlling what replies he might do. The percentages may now change to 33% chance of the opponent hitting to the rear court and 66% to the forecourt. Because you gave a bigger area of the forecourt to hit to, you expect the opponent is more likely to hit to the forecourt and helping your anticipation. Because you are positioned back a little more, then clears will be a little easier to reach.

    You may also want to look at what shots you play that allows the opponent to put you under pressure. Are your clears too short? Do your clears not go over the opponent's racquet head enough? Are you lifts short?

    For this movement, the first step is crucial. How about your split step? Are you landing both feet together so that you can optimise the first step movement? If you feet are landing even very slightly alternately on the ground, that can slow you down quite a lot.

    If going to the overhead area is slow, have you got the flying step movement? 'Fei bo' as they describe in Cantonese.

    Btw, that video you linked shows the scissor kick in the forehand corner. This is quite basic and good for training. However, in game play, we would only use it if the shuttle has been hit very high.


    Just saying clears and lifts are giving you problems is not specific enough. There must be certain types of clears and lifts from particular areas of the court that are giving you problems. Can you give a better description?
     
    #6 Cheung, Dec 30, 2014
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2014
  7. alien9113

    alien9113 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2013
    Messages:
    707
    Likes Received:
    66
    Location:
    Singapore
    Moving to my forehand side is more difficult.

    Thanks, I will try to adjust my base position. My base position is indeed central. This works well against players who are slow as compared to me, but against better players, I am very pressured.

    When I'm under pressure and I clear back, yes, the clears are not of quality. When I'm not under pressure, the clears are decent. For lifts, not so much of a problem as I can cover the front/mid court fast enough.

    My feet are landing alternately, but not by much. Another area for me to look into.

    Clears that give me problems - Very fast clears (need not to be attacking clears, some of them are so high up but flies at a fast speed), especially after if I do a slow lift (but they are still of decent height and length).

    If I change the pace of the lifts by making them faster but flatter, then the chances of my opponents returning with another fast or attacking clear are lowered.

    Lifts that give me problems - Lifts towards my forehand side. The lifts aren't fast or deep. Quite a lot of times I am caught and have to resort to drop shots.
     
    arsh likes this.
  8. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2002
    Messages:
    23,817
    Likes Received:
    4,791
    Occupation:
    wannabe badminton phototaker
    Location:
    Outside the box
    Taking the difficulty reaching clears: also check your foot position on the split step. Usually, we would say have the right foot slightly closer to the net and the left slightly back. I believe the timing of the bounce is OK as you haven't described moving forward for drop shots as a problem.

    Other things to look at are the first step with the right leg - it may not be a big enough a step.
    The 2nd and 3rd step should be a shuffle - some people cross the left leg behind the right leg slightly. That would make you a bit late on the shuttle and feel a bit off balance.

    With the first step, check that you prepare your right arm and pull it up behind your body. Some people drop the arm first before pulling it up to prepare for the shot slowing their stroke.
     
  9. alien9113

    alien9113 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2013
    Messages:
    707
    Likes Received:
    66
    Location:
    Singapore
    Thanks Cheung. I will pay attention to these details. I seldom cross my left leg to behind my right leg as a matter of habit. Unless I am in lazy mode.
     
  10. alien9113

    alien9113 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2013
    Messages:
    707
    Likes Received:
    66
    Location:
    Singapore
    Found another problem while working on this with my coach - the explosiveness of my split step.

    It isn't good enough to start me off in addition to all other issues mentioned in this thread. Adding a bit of explosiveness added some speed. Although the speed improvement isn't by a lot, combined with other corrections as mentioned by Cheung, the differences are much more significant.

    I can now get behind the shuttle or at least in line with the shuttle even if under pressure and clear back more decently or vary my strokes more instead of just using the drop shot.
     
  11. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2002
    Messages:
    23,817
    Likes Received:
    4,791
    Occupation:
    wannabe badminton phototaker
    Location:
    Outside the box
    It's the bounce that would inhibit you. A poor bounce with the feet landing alternately will kill your speed on the first step. I believe your centre is ok as you can move forward without problems. But just in case, try to keep the shoulders forward and lower to lower the centre of gravity.

    The previous suggestion of using some ankle weights is quite good but be specific and add them gradually in the routine. I have 2.5lbs weights. I have been told not all weights are the same. My ones are from Nike with Velcro. The interesting thing is that they are shaped to fit the arch of the foot. This means they are very stable and do not spin around my ankle.

    Last time I used them for training was for exactly this diagonal step out to the deep forehand, quick side step and jump to the shuttle (without turning).

    This is a link that refers to the 5lb version.

    http://reviews.nike.com/9191/FE0032/nike-5-lb-ankle-weights-reviews/reviews.htm
     
    #11 Cheung, Jan 4, 2015
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2015
  12. alien9113

    alien9113 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2013
    Messages:
    707
    Likes Received:
    66
    Location:
    Singapore
    Thank you Cheung. I will definitely look into adding weights when the time is suitable. Need more time for practice to incorporate all the corrections first before I can add in the weights.
     
  13. FeatherBlaster

    FeatherBlaster Regular Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2014
    Messages:
    920
    Likes Received:
    323
    Location:
    Denmark
    Cheung has a lot of good points. In particular court position. Often increasing your speed and confidence going to the front court, will help your coverage of the back court, because you can better place yourself there between shots. Also simply reading the game and tactics will help. You never go for the base position on all shots, but vary based on where you come from and where you played your opponent. Like moving up court on good attacking clears and steep drops and netdrops.

    Always practice tp get your movement dynamic, accelerating at the split step and recovery, easing up getting into the splitstep. Fast slow fast slow dynamic fluid movement. Peter Rasmussrn has a good video out there og practicing footwork without shuttle. His comments are the good stuff.

    As for the physics, I'd rather go for something else than ancle weights to get speed and coordination. Unless you need explosion power to jump hogher etc.

    Some good excersices are rope skipping (fast ropes) and latter training. Stuff than trains the quickness and tension of your lower legs. It's very important both during physical training and actual game play, that you get to your front foot, not on the heels. As practiced when skipping. That's really key in getting fast split step.

    Then also most players don't move enough up/down to generate power, and don't come out wide enough during skip step. Both things covered by Peter's comments in the video I mentioned.

    You might need to trisn you hamstrings/thighs/buttocks to be able to work with a lower point of gravity and wider stance.

    Good luck,
    The Blaster
     
  14. FeatherBlaster

    FeatherBlaster Regular Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2014
    Messages:
    920
    Likes Received:
    323
    Location:
    Denmark
  15. FeatherBlaster

    FeatherBlaster Regular Member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2014
    Messages:
    920
    Likes Received:
    323
    Location:
    Denmark
    Not for this excercise in particular (though its a good one) but for his comments which are spot on.
     
  16. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2002
    Messages:
    23,817
    Likes Received:
    4,791
    Occupation:
    wannabe badminton phototaker
    Location:
    Outside the box
    Good extra points by featherblaster. I do have a skipping rope in my bag.
     
  17. MSeeley

    MSeeley Regular Member

    Joined:
    Mar 20, 2009
    Messages:
    2,049
    Likes Received:
    735
    Occupation:
    Professional
    Location:
    England
    The best thing I ever did to increase my speed around the court was the Insanity workout programme ;) works a treat :)

    Good luck!
     
  18. R20190

    R20190 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2004
    Messages:
    2,458
    Likes Received:
    414
    Occupation:
    Chartered Civil Engineer
    Location:
    London, UK
    I don't play singles but I really enjoy reading your advice on techniques especially footwork.

    The post you made about Fei-Bo years ago, ought to be a sticky. It's really good info. I discovered after watching a video of myself a long time ago that I already do the Fei-Bo without being taught it. But it was really interesting to read about how it is taught, which made me more conscious of doing it when I play and I emphasis it a bit more.

    However, one thing I still struggle with is being deceived (by good deceptive players) and although I don't want to digress from the subject of this thread, I think the point you made above about landing alternately relates to it and I'd be interested to know your thoughts. Timing wise, I don't land alternately, but I do put more weight one leg than the other - which I do subconsciously.
     
  19. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2002
    Messages:
    23,817
    Likes Received:
    4,791
    Occupation:
    wannabe badminton phototaker
    Location:
    Outside the box
    Thanks for the compliment! Was the fei bo post that good a description? I can't find it at the moment but yes, it can go into a sticky. Perhaps a badmintoncentral video if ever I get the time. But then I'd have to write a script and stuff like that. Although there are many videos around, I haven't come across one that breaks it down step by step. Admittedly, I haven't done a comprehensive search.

    I was with an adult group last night and quite a few guys play singles. I would say good level but learnt as kids but didn't take it to high competitive level. It started off saying to one guy about how his shot choice was too predictable making it easy for the opponent. Then another one asked about singles defence and obviously, bounce is very important. Then after that, I showed the recovery position and foot placement after playing the block defense to get to the next shot.

    One of the guys did some shadow practice and then I picked up on his incorrect bounce and positioning on his backhand side. As said earlier, players usually have a weaker side.

    You know, maybe these guys didn't take their game to a higher level because of fundamental areas of their game not being suited for singles? And then they couldn't work out why....
     
    #19 Cheung, Jan 8, 2015
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2015
  20. alien9113

    alien9113 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2013
    Messages:
    707
    Likes Received:
    66
    Location:
    Singapore
    A few questions if I may.

    1. What's latter training? Do you mean ladder training?
    2. Stuff than trains the quickness and tension of your lower legs - I don't understand this sentence. I think the sentence is incomplete? Or have I totally misinterpreted it?
    3. Insanity workout programme - LOL. I think I could guess why it's called Insanity workout programme. :eek: But the exercises are so generic that I have no idea where to start. Must I really purchase their DVD?
     

Share This Page