For my readers who are also badminton players: this is my love letter to you.
Much of the 3-day camp is a combination of unexpected technique and common-sense strategy. Here are my biggest takeaways.
Ankles = Power
For warmup, alternate shifting knees-and-toes, rocking side to side. For clears and drops, your strength originates from the narrow compass-like rotation about your foot. You can amplify your force further by contracting your upper frame in a C-curve upon swing.
Relevant Drills
- Straight drive with panhandle form. Exaggerate the grip hold if needed. Emphasize a loose hand and close the gap in the palm by squeezing the last three digits. All shots should make contact in front of the body.
- Forehand singles service to the back court. Return clear, drop, or smash.
- Cross-court side smash. Serve low, flat, and fast mid-court; whip laterally across your chest R to L.
- 2-on-1 drives to exercise proper footwork. Bend at the waist and crunch left or right to add speed and mobility.
- Soft block: stand in front of the service line and practice extended contact with the bird, 黏 (“sticky”), with racket face angled diagonally to the net. The racket should never be parallel to the ceiling. The active muscle is the forearm and not the wrist.
Contest the Net
Taking shots early and well-anticipated immediately places you in an offensive, aggressive play-style which matters most for doubles.
连贯
lián guàn, to me, is the closest synonym to coherency. I remember watching a professional match in Taipei for the first time and it occurred to me how the bird was alive. This quality of play is not the most beautiful, or won quickly, but rather the most connected and cohesive.
The simplest strategy to implement is to increase the speed of play. This adds tension and will eliminate novice players.
More than an understanding of yourself is the ability to read and respond to the situation. What shots are winning or losing you points? Continue whatever patterns of behavior grant you more control and less possibility for the opponent.
If you find yourself in an uncomfortable position to return, you have two options. 1) take that shot as early as possible and punch clear fast and hyperbolic to give your opponent less time to respond.
2) A high clear on a hypotenuse trajectory buys both you and your opponent more time to prepare. In your favor, however, is that once the bird drops vertically, the shuttle becomes harder to smash as the angle of the head faces straight downwards.
Work-ons specific to me
- In XD, as the woman, play the net and stay offensive as close as possible
- simplify the drive form to a flat contact of the bird; elbow snaps straight
- default to backhand form on the left-hand side: not around-the-head
- prepare for worst-case scenario on the next shot, BEFORE opponent’s impact