I am a intermediate to advanced club junior player looking for tips on how to clear using just wrist power. Does anyone do this to be deceptive and can anyone provide tips. I know one old guy I play with uses a lot of wrist and is very deceptive. I most use pronation to get power and am not sure where and when wrist power is used. Feel free to list any videos and tips below. Also I have 10lb Dumbbells and need to know what exercises players to do strengthen wrists and forearms. Mentions sets and reps as well. Thanks
Hi, You could do wrist curls to improve your forearm strength with your dumbbells but honestly I don't it makes that much of a difference. A lot of deception comes from holding your racquet or showing a certain action and then changing it at the last second. The timing of the shot and contact point is more important then raw strength. As for a deceptive clear, your opponent may be waiting for you to move before hitting the shot thus leading you to be off-balanced. A better clear would be a fast one that makes your opponent off balance without relying on the shuttle to drop to be deceptive. I think some people use the term a "punch clear" I don't really know what everyone calls shots around the world.
A deceptive clear is normally called a punch clear. Do not worry about using the wrist/forearm etc - all you need to do is have a very slow moving racket (it may look like a drop shot) then suddenly speed up the racket to perform a clear (the sudden speeding up is a bit like using the racket to punch through the shuttle). You will be using your wrist and fingers a lot, just like you would at the end of a normal clear. Good luck!
And the trajectory is very important in a punch clear. It has to be fast and high enough to pass the player's reach, yet low and controlled enough that it won't go out the baseline and that the doubles partner can't get there in time (if playing doubles.)
Pullela gopichand won the all england in 2001. He was very deceptive and had an amazing punch clear. Watch his match vs peter gade in the semi finals. I don't know of many tutorial videos. I think Lee jae bok demonstrates a punch clear in one of his videos but the instruction is not that good. Good luck!
Watch this video and see if it is what I mean. Watch Lin Dan's part. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VZU4CI4zOQ
That is an example. Its far from the best example I have seen. Watch Pullela Gopichand - he is actually deceptive. Lin Dan is hitting a punch clear though.
Another way to set this up, if you're nit playing at world top 10 level, is to do a delayed clear masked as a deceptice drop shot. Must be "set up" during the match though. First you must show one or two drop shots with the same feet (scissor) and body movement as a clear, taking out the power very late. Then in the 2nd set, you do the same, but time it a slight bit early, allowing you to perform the feet and body movement of the clear, holding the arm, then hitting the clear late (punch style). It'll make it look like you're doing the deceptive drop, then with just the tiny delay you clear the bird anyway. Highly effective against opponents that are good at reading the game. Your delay should offset the pretension movement of your opponent. Depending on opponent size and speed, it might be most effective to punch clear straight over his head and not to the corner. As with all deceptions, timing in the movement is the key.
Check out this match http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zGGBrJ2CNA Tai Tzu Ying uses the Punch Clear a lot to win points. Morten Frost keeps commenting about it too.