Retraining from Right to Left

Discussion in 'Techniques / Training' started by Charlie-SWUK, Mar 10, 2015.

  1. Charlie-SWUK

    Charlie-SWUK Regular Member

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    Greetings,

    So a while back I made this thread: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/150303-Shoulder-oddity-Weakness-or-advantage

    Update on that thread:
    So, for a couple of months I said: let's experiment. If I can make this work, I have a reach that surpasses my height considerably. Here's what I've learned.
    • My shoulder being in a more forward position causes pronation problems
    • Trying to extend my arm to its full reach has resulted in some injury around the elbow
    • My shoulder's position difference makes it difficult to execute a backhand overhead clear without the racket pointing too far upwards
    • My reach is uneven. When I extend both arms straight out to the sides, they're the same length. In front, or up, the right is longer than the left. This makes it very hard to judge some shots.
    If this /is/ workable, I don't think I'm good enough to work it. I'm very worried about nerve damage from the pain in my elbow. It's very difficult to gauge, and as my arm becomes fatigued, it can slack slightly. Or the muscles can pull too hard and I'll frame the shot. This is not something I'm capable of taking up a level.

    So, where do I go from here? I can either scale back and only play casually, quit the game, or I can retrain myself.

    I'm currently playing 15-20 hours a week. I'm not about to quit. I'm not about to hurt myself either. So I need to retrain to use my left hand, where my shoulder doesn't have these complications.

    Retraining with the left hand:

    I'm looking for any advice on any of the following points:

    1. Footwork footwork footwork. I'm gonna need to redo all of my footwork. Luckily for me, my footwork sucked before. So this can only be an improvement.
    2. Hand eye coordination. At the moment, my coordination with my left hand is good to the front of me and on the left-handed backhand. My coordination is most lacking in the forehand.
    3. Grips and grip switching. This isn't going too badly either. I mirrored my right handed grip.
    4. Accuracy. Is it worth hitting shuttles at targets off a court? I mean practising a serve into a basket at home sort of thing. If for nothing else, to develop a feel for how much power I'd need for shots.
    5. Musculature. Oh boy. My left arm is tiny compared to my right. Where do I even begin here? Basic core exercises like press ups?
    6. Absolutely any other tips for transitioning to playing left handed from right handed.

    I understand this is going to be difficult. I have a coach lined ready and starting this weekend. Now as a coach myself, I'm hoping I can use some of the skills learned to accelerate this process.

    I would also like the input and advice of any BCers and the sage words they might offer, so please, any feedback would be immensely appreciated.

    Kind regards,
    Charlie
     
  2. Exert

    Exert Regular Member

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    My friend did this from left to right & she's an amazing player now despite having to change arms. Best of luck!
     
  3. Charlie-SWUK

    Charlie-SWUK Regular Member

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    Thanks. I'm gonna need it. Been doing service practise into a basket across the room; I can hit around 4 out 10 into the basket at the moment. Lots of work to be done.
     
  4. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    I have seen some people change because of injury but they went back to the dominant arm after the injury got better.

    I think it can be done. You can play football with the left foot, martial arts can be left side dominant so why not racquet sports? It's just the hours of training the leftside and unlearning the habits of the right side.

    One area where I think a potential issue is using the fingers. If you are using the non-dominant hand, fine manipulation using the fingers will be slower to learn. i.e. possibly spinning netshots, cross court netshots. You will just have to see.
     
  5. MSeeley

    MSeeley Regular Member

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    May I suggest you start shadowing perfect technique?

    I seriously recommend that you buy the Badmintonlife "Essentials of Technique" DVD. However, their website doesn't seem to be active any more :( They really had the best technique videos of any I have ever seen. Unfortunately, piracy exists.

    Here is one of the videos:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3fLdSZ2JzI

    The original would have helped you as it was left handed, but you should be able to use these flipped right handed ones as well.

    Good luck

    p.s. I am curious as to why you couldn't perform a backhand overhead. You can't hold your arm straight out to the side of your body at shoulder height?
     
  6. Charlie-SWUK

    Charlie-SWUK Regular Member

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    [MENTION=7]Cheung[/MENTION]
    We'll have to wait and see. I might be ok with it because I'm so used to typing on a computer and therefore have reasonable finger control on my left.
    [MENTION=47032]MSeeley[/MENTION]
    Yeah, right from the get-go I'm going to be shadowing perfect technique, and avoid bad habits. Having my level 1 and all of the information that goes with it should help. This should let me build a stronger foundation than if I were just starting.

    As for the backhand overhead clear...
    The actual shoulder joint is about an inch, maybe two inches forward. By the time my arm is directly out to the side, my wrist has already gone further than it should have, making it more smash-like. If I tried to compensate, then when my wrist was in the right position, my arm wasn't. If I tried to perform the action too high, the collar bone would sublux and dislocate. While it wasn't painful, it's kind of like the sharp action that comes with clicking your fingers. It'd either slow the shot down, or simply throw off my racket positioning.

    It made the shot really difficult to produce. This is just one of those things I couldn't learn to do.

    It's disappointing because with my left hand, I have pretty good coordination on the backhand (from being used to the forehand on that side) and can produce an ok backhand clear. Nothing amazing, but the angle the shuttle comes back is actually a bit better than my dominant hand.
     
  7. MSeeley

    MSeeley Regular Member

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    Not sure I understand, but I will have to trust you on it! Good luck to you. Feel free to post videos and I will gladly offer technical suggestions.

    You can also PM me if you want an idea for an easy way of learning how to hit the shuttle cleanly overhead (its very effective for turning panhandlers into the correct technique - takes around 20 mins - it may also hep you develop your coordination).

    Cheers
     
  8. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    Charlie, practice chopsticks with your left hand ;)

    Good luck to you! Good point about the footwork you made. Easy to start that again.
     
  9. Charlie-SWUK

    Charlie-SWUK Regular Member

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    I hope so haha, and now I have all of the model/perfect footworks in my mind and available to me, I should be able to form a really good movement set.
     
  10. Gollum

    Gollum Regular Member

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    You have me hooked, at least! :) What's the secret sauce?
     
  11. Charlie-SWUK

    Charlie-SWUK Regular Member

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    Ok, so something I forgot to ask.

    Playing with my right, I had fairly tight string beds. My two main rackets were strung at 24 and 26, but I feel like they're probably more like 21-22 and 23 respectively now.

    While I know, in theory, the correct technique for performing shots, would I be at a significant problem with those rackets? I'm worried the string bed will be too tight for low technique/low power. Especially my VTZF2 I expect it'll be too stiff and too hard to play good quality shots.

    What would BCers recommend I do with regards to rackets?
     
  12. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    I wouldn't worry about it. Just go ahead and use them.
     
  13. Gollum

    Gollum Regular Member

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    21 -- 23 lbs should be all right. Try it and see. If you feel it's too stiff, you can always get it restrung.
     
  14. Charlie-SWUK

    Charlie-SWUK Regular Member

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    As I thought, the VT ZF2 was way too hard for me to use. I need the slightly bigger string bed, and I don't like head heavy when I'm re-learning the overheads. It's difficult to time as a beginner again.

    My Arc 9 will do nicely though.

    Out of curiosity, I haven't seen anything in the rules, but there might be an umpire precedent I'm unaware of; is there anything to say you can't change handedness mid rally? It'd be a pretty useful tool if I could smash and clear on both hands.
     
  15. Exert

    Exert Regular Member

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    Pretty sure you can change hands but just not have two racquets LOL
     
  16. Charlie-SWUK

    Charlie-SWUK Regular Member

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    I couldn't find anything outright banning this either, but I imagine serves would be very difficult with two rackets. Surely the only serve someone could perform would be an underarm serve.

    Either way, it's shown I can't sustain many games on my right arm without weakness setting in - but if it means I never have to be on the backhand rear court, it could make an interesting dynamic of play. After all, a regular forehand clear is much easier to do than a backhand clear.

    Don't think it'd make an enormity of difference at the net, unless you were going for a leaping shot, but then you probably wouldn't have the time to switch anyway. Same thing for mid court, it's too fast to justify switching. Maybe it'd be useful for emergency lifts.
     
  17. MSeeley

    MSeeley Regular Member

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    I believe you would fall afoul of the rules to do with the maximum strung area of the racket you use - so unless you used two rackets with a smaller strung area on each, you would be against the rules.
     
  18. Charlie-SWUK

    Charlie-SWUK Regular Member

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    Oooh that's an interesting one, yeah. But if switching is fine, I might've found a fun weapon.
     
  19. Charlie-SWUK

    Charlie-SWUK Regular Member

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    I'm gonna update this every now and then because I think it's a little strange to change handedness. For anyone that ever needs to consider it, it might provide them some insight into the process, and what work I had to do to change. I have a former (Poland) national player and current county player as my coach; I have a level 1 qualification. I play for around 10-20 hours per week.

    Update: Day 0
    So I tried to play right handed (my dominant hand) yesterday. The general exercises weren't too bad ( clears, drops, net play), but after the 1st hour, where we started doing some games/matches, it started to hit me hard.

    My grip weakened tremendously to the point where my left and untrained hand had a stronger grip. There was numbness in my right shoulder, despite clean contact, and despite using my 'kinder' racket (not head heavy, looser string bed). My ability to play dropped rapidly, going from a 7-8 loss to a county player, to a 10-5 win against a non-county player, to a 5-11 loss against a county player, to a 3-15 loss to a non-county player.

    My clears weren't able to go from base line to base line, my net shots were uncordinated, and my play level had decreased tremendously over that half hour. Smashes lacked power, and the only advantage I could gain was through drops and net play.

    Update: Day 1:
    I had arranged a coaching session for today either way - whether this was to improve my right handed game, or start on my left. Because of the events yesterday, I opted for my left.

    We started off with the fundamentals. Making sure the grip was correct on my left hand. It wasn't too bad, but it required a little adjustment; the fingers were moved closer together and more toward the end of the handle to provide me with more power.

    As expected, my coordination wasn't there for my left. The first set of feeds I probably only managed 7/20 over the net, and they weren't really clears, more like bad drops. My now-non-racket-arm (right arm) was poor, it wasn't moving back as I was clearing, and I was over stepping through. Racket facing was wrong leading to cross courts rather than straights. By the end of the session, I was able to clear around 17+/20 to the mid court/mid rear court.

    Net shots went a little better, I wasn't meeting the sweet spot particularly well - again a coordination issue. Because the shot was less demanding physically (and in general, is a slower shot), I was able to change and fix my technique a lot faster.

    Combining the two shots was difficult. The exercise was simple - I had to stand in the mid court base position, and move to the forehand rearcourt for a clear, then back to base position, then play a net shot from the forehand front corner. The most difficult aspect of this was getting into position, and then setting myself up for the shot. One problem I had was that the forehand feeds were going a little deeper (to the service line) rather than tight to the net, so I didn't have a great gauge on those shots.

    Footwork, footwork, footwork. Oooh. On my right hand, I would always try to play round the head shots in that corner. This gave me some conflicts in changing my movement. Because I was already used to moving into that corner for a forehand shot, it meant my feet got muddled up at points. If you play forehand shots in the backhand corner, you might find yourself in similar situations should you switch.

    With regards to the session overall, I'm feeling positive. In two hours I managed to make a good amount of progress. Despite my arm having no conditioning to it (less muscle than my dominant hand etc.) my shoulder had no pain, and my arm had no numbness. I had some weakness due to fatigue, but that was to be expected, and mainly set in during the combined shot exercise after the 80th or so feed.
     
  20. Charlie-SWUK

    Charlie-SWUK Regular Member

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    Update: Day 28
    It's been almost a month and I've just done my third private training session to improve my left, putting it at 6 hours coached.

    Today we worked on smashes, defense, cross court net shots, and serves.

    The smashes didn't go well. I had real issues getting myself into position to play a smash in time. My footwork is slower moving into the left because I'm still having to think about it. My body positioning is a bit off right now for everything overhead - I keep lining my body up for the right hand side, which puts me too close to the shuttle for a left handed shot. I'm not entirely confident I would play a smash from that position; the shots were quite far up into the forehand corner, and I think I'd likely play it safer and go with a drop.

    During rallies with my left, I've been able to smash, and that's generally when the shuttle is in a better position compared to my body. The smashes are too flat right now, and I'm hoping that'll change as I improve and refine the technique.

    Pronation timing is wrong right now. My shots are drifting to the right and going cross court more, especially on overheads. I believe I must be pronating early.

    Defense (mid court, wide shots) started shakily as clears did previously, the coordination on my forehand just isn't there right now. I'm still shaky and unsure about my response when the shuttle is coming towards my forehand side waist, even though with my right hand I'd probably turn the racket and play on the forehand, this just hasn't been happening with my left.

    It too improved as time went on, but I'm still not very confident with those shots. I think it'll take time to improve this.

    Cross court net shots actually only really had the standard problems you'd expect, depth and width. I did them on both the forehand and backhand. On the forehand, some shots went a little wide into the doubles line. On the backhand side, there was the complication of going wide, but also too deep into the court. I need to explore more with how I'm gripping the racket with those shots - I found a bevel grip was working better for the motion, and that at my point of contact, a full thumb grip was leading to the strings facing too much towards the rear court.

    Serves are... frustrating. My backhand low serve is ok. I don't have the control to deliberately push a serve wide or flick, for now I'm just sticking to the standard - near the T. It's the forehand high serve that's giving me big problems. I'm having real issues getting the flowing motion needed to generate power behind that serve.

    I tried rotating my body more, but then I was pushing them wide into the wrong service court. I tried more of a panhandle grip but I haven't produced enough power that way. I think right now, I'm actually holding the shuttle on the string for too long. I think maybe more of a snapping action would help.

    I'll update this again in a month or so.

    As a note, because on my right hand I played at a reasonably high level, I can't really play with the same people with my left hand. I'm therefore taking a hiatus from clubs, and at times I play on my right to give people a good game. I am still confident that developing my right arm would lead to a brick wall. When I feel my standard is higher on my left, I'll gradually transition more. Again I hope documenting this will help anyone that needs to change handedness and understsanding the process that follows.
     

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