I have a lot of problems clearing to the baseline despite being coached for about 2 years for twice a week. I'm not even standing anywhere near baseline yet (somewhere between half and 3/4 court) and majority of my clears don't even land close to the baseline or they travel at a fairly low height for it to end up at the baseline. I have the following known problems: Poor hand-eye-leg coordination --> this creates a non-fluid movement when I have rotate and hit the shuttle at the same time. Slicing of the shuttle --> the shuttle almost never travels in a straight path. The shuttle mainly veers off my right, so it ends up on my coach's left hand side, which is his backhand. This occurs about 75% to 80% of the time. The rest of the time, it veers off to my left. However, it seldom ends up right in front of his forehand. It's slightly wider than that and he has to adjust his position to hit it. Lack of contact point --> although I seldom hit the frame or shaft now, but am still not able to hit the shuttle on the sweet spot and get the contact point right. Lack of a whipping action --> Coach says my hitting angle is very wide, not compact at all. There's no whipping action upon contact with the shuttle. Upper body will be pulled down upon completion of swing From empty swings, the first three problems aren't apparent. The last two problems are way more clearer from empty swings. Coach says it's because of the non-compact hitting angle. If it's compact, then it's not possible that my upper body will be pulled down, but it would remain fairly upright upon completion of the swing. Currently, other than practice and more practice, there seems to be no other ways to improve it. At the rate things are going, I think it's going to get very meaningless to practise it every session with no results. I'm also on the verge of giving up. Coach has told me to do the following: Practise throwing shuttles daily Practise empty swings daily Hang a shuttle and swing at it daily Do wrist exercises Nothing seems to help... Is there anything else I could do? Or I should just pick out one problem and focus on it until I get it right? For example, focus on getting a smooth body rotation first, ignore the swing (but I'm not sure if this will lead to bad habits). Or try to work on everything at once (which seems to me is the current situation, but will have either zero to very slow improvements).
Forget about everything else, including hitting to the baseline. First thing you need to get right is to hit the shuttle cleanly. Get someone to feed you shuttles and observe carefully the feel and sound it makes when you hit the shuttle cleanly. Aim to hit the cork bang in the centre of your string bed every time. Aim to hit with the racquet face perfectly square/perpendicular to the incoming shuttle. Aim to follow through the shuttle with a smooth action Don't worry about your stroke for now, don't even worry about hitting it far, hit the shuttle consistently cleanly first then work on the other aspects.
I would seriously suggest that you do the following things: 1. stop worrying - it doesn't help. You can work this out if you give yourself time. 2. observe where your shots are going, and do not view them as good or bad. Just accept what is happening, and then decide what you would like to happen instead. 3. To get the best contact point, put your racket in the place where you should make contact with the shuttle. Concentrate on how this looks (to you) to have your arm high up in the air and the racket reaching high and the strings pointing in the direction you want the shuttle to go. This image is what you need in order to help your body learn to recreate that image, and thus produce a good contact. 4. To get the best swing, try to find a very large mirror and stand in front of it with your coach. Ask your coach to just perform swings in front of the mirror, and then copy his swings. Just make your body look like his. Remember the feeling of the swing, and then go and practice. Good luck!
It is all about contact point, contact point and contact point...the fluid movement for transfer of energy from lower limb joints to upper limb joints comes afterwards.
Thanks all for the replies. I will try it. How do I improve the contact point issue? Sorry for being dense here.
Try the advice I gave you in point 3 of my post - learning where the correct contact point is, and teaching your body where it is, and then practising this.
Check this out: [video=youtube;qhe_rRJR9_Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhe_rRJR9_Y[/video] IMO, you need the correct footwork preparation before you hit the shuttle, always ensuring the shuttlecock is infront of you and not directly above you or behind you. The contact point needs to be you reaching up so your racket arm is straight at the point of contact and the racket face is hitting the shuttlecock perpendicularly, (i.e. open racket face). This will minimise slices. Think hip-hit, so you need to start rotating your hips before you make contact with the shuttlecock. This will ensure a nice fluid transfer or energy. Remain relaxed and you will have better follow through and whipping action. I hope this helps. Kindest regards, -Ajay- Quote of the Day Never knock on Death's door: ring the bell and run away! Death really hates that!