hi all, i am a newbie, i joined the "badminton"gathering organised by my neighbor almost weekly. i find that i have difficulties returning smash directed on my right shoulder area ( i am a right handed). is there any thecnique i can learn to improve this? i also have difficulties receiving drop shot. i some how "cant really see " the shuttle until its quiet near me. i think that is the problem in general. probably advise on how to improve foot work or how to do foot work drill would helps too... thank you for the advice,
if you're from where you wrote you're from, I suggest to go join local club or get private classes with professional coaches, you'll see massive improvement as you have the privilige coming from a country having badminton as your national sport. I know of some young elite players from my region that undergo training at THA (Taufik's badminton school) and trained by Mulyo Handoyo, Taufik's own coach , a few of Indonesian national athletes also played here in Japanese clubs (Candra Wijaya, Hendra Setiawan, Alvent Yulianto) and we had Leony Mainaky to coach our doubles national team before he was called back to coach Ahsan/ Setiawan from end of last year.
i live in singapore. i dont have the time to regularly play and take classes. i play as and when i have the time. but for my own sake, i want to improve my skill...
one thing that you can drill on your own for smash return is wall practice. reflex and your stance when anticipating is the important part for smash defense wacth some Youtube videos about footwork drills, I'd recommend Zhao JianHua, Jimmy Lin or Kowi Chandra's tutorial^^
If you don't have time to train then your skills and consistency will not be as good as regular competition players (just like me).
yea, i am not looking at it in a professional level. i just love playing badminton and definitely want to improve my game. play to sweat and have fun.
Ok to receive smash to right shoulder you need to quickly decide if you want to take it on your backhand or forehand and if you want to take the shutlle in front or behind you. Taking it on the forehand and behind you may be the easiest option but you need to pivot your upper body to the right quickly to do this (you may also have to shift your body left as well to dodge it). With anything, the more you do it, the better you get, but that means you need to get the opponent/partner to keep smashing into that area of your body. Regarding the dropshop, you do need to focus on your opponent's racquet head and the shuttle proactively rather than react to the shuttle after they've hit it. Court speed would help retrieve drop shots so to improve court speed i can suggest that you wear ankle weights while playing games. These weights will improve your court movement without the need for drills. It's forcing you to use more energy and muscles to move around and would also force you to find the best technique to move around. If you keep wearing it for a certain amount of time, you will find when you take it off, your court speed should improve. Definitely not as good as getting training with a coach but you will improve court speed eventually.
I would strongly advise against this. You are risking injury playing with ankle weights. With all the lateral movements, skipping, lunging, and jumping in badminton you can seriously hurt your knees and ankles. Note that OP asked for footwork drills which to me says he doesn't know the correct footwork which makes it difficult for him to get drops. I went through quite a few videos and this is the most complete version of the 6 corner footwork i found. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjYKGMTcb3E once you know the actual movements, work on doing it quicker. you can practice this even when you don't have access to a court as long as you have enough space to do even a compact version of it. heres a great example of the ideal speed to aim for at the 20 sec mark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9O1jMkZqV0 you can also do this as a warm up before your games then again as cool down afterwards. about receiving a smash to your right shoulder, this is a flat smash and not really very good. if you're keeping your racket up, you just bend your knees lower and you'll be able to drive it back or just block it by just putting your racket up.
Without time to play regularly and take classes, you won't improve. It's very simple There's no magic bullet. (Try learning to play a musical instrument without practicing...)
Yup! Knowing the "how", does not translate into improvement. Sports is something that need both instruction and practice. Especially badminton, if your feet don't get you to the spot in time and in good balance, all the skills are..... (you can fill in the blank).
badminton isnt really a game where you have time to think HOW you want to hit a shot without first practising the technique and getting the HOW ingrained into your mind and muscles. Then you may have the time to be able to think WHERE am i going to place the shot. I have a lot off friends ask me how to improve. All i say these days is get a coach. You can tell them HOW to do something, but it doesnt mean you can physically make your body do it when you are in a game situation.
A dedicated practice time clearly will make you improve much faster, but even if you just play games when you can, you can still practice within it. Just be conscious about it and get the right instructions. You might play worse than usual but if you keep at it, you will certainly improve albeit slowly.
I've had the same problem. Something to pay attention to is to bend you knees slightly when receiving an attack (or if you already do so, maybe bend a little further). This way you will have a lower stance and can intercept smashes at (right) shoulder height easier with a forehand stroke. You will also be able to jump towards the sides or front (in case of dropshot) faster because of the tension on you muscles.
i too struggle with the body smash to right shoulder, but someone has posted the answer - right posture (bent knees), turn your body sideways,arms bent and take the shuttle as it fly past. Try watching LCW in his singles games, think he does it very well. - For taking drop shots, it's all in being able to anticipate and move to take the shuttle early. As others have mentioned, no silver bullet but practise more and you will get it. Best of luck.
That's the 'emergency' way. Preferable is to just use backhand grip (or pan handle if you're not flexible enough), with racket face above racket hand (approximately). It's NOT about anticipation at a fundamental level. It's about good balance, split step and explosive movement. If the drop shot is coming from a good length clear/lift then you definitely do NOT need anticipation if your mechanics are correct.
Yes, you never aim to take the shuttle late when defending. It's only a "last resort" shot. But sometimes BH returns for hard smashes to the racquet shoulder can be quite difficult especially if you don't have the strength/flexibility - which will likely end up being a weak return. You can sometimes play these with a FH 'drive-like' shot by having a slightly lower stance. It isn't ideal but if you have excellent hand-eye coordination this is a good counter-attacking shot. A lot of women players return high smashes with a FH - allows you to block it back or drive it back hard. It's useful if you're playing against a shorter person at the rear as their smashes are generally flatter.
