Serve gone wrong - FIXED | Advanced - General Q&A | Discussion Forum

I thought I would tell you all a story of how I lost my serve completely but how Ive gotten it back again to 95%.

This all happened at the end of last season. I was rushing my serve a lot and found myself having to hit the shuttle as quickly as possible out of my hands. Al a case of nerves esp against better players who were standing close to the line. I actually couldnt physically hold it, I had to jus hit it! This meant a lot of my serves were in the net or too high to get killed.

In badminton, the rest of my game was fine nerves wise. But ive been here before with archery (target panic). Its where the archer cant physically pull the bow back the full way without the need to let go. Its due to pressure and nerves and its a habit and is taught into us.

The brain sees us doing the same shot over and over again and under pressure and therefore tries to make our life easier by speeding up the process. Its does this by taking out the aiming part lol but ofcourse this is not easier!!!

The problem was not physically as on my own I could serve and hold it no probs!! I had also found I couldn't flick serve, NO Power!!!! I was getting annoyed and confused. My serves 1 year ago were once told to me as being really good by an over 40s irish champion and now I couldnt do them. But I knew the fix. :)

I had to slow everything down. I had to force myself to slow down which def helped the low serve but still couldnt flick. It took me a few weeks of being on court and counting to 3 or 5 before I hit the shuttle and as time went on this worked but why couldnt i flick serve?? This was once again the smart brain shortening the sequence!! My technique was wrong!! I had hardly any backswing on my serve. Maybe an inch so for low serves, fine for low serves but I had no power from that to get the flick. I actually worked this out from watching a youtube video on how to low serve and I could see how far the pro backswung (maybe a good half a foot)!! Once I did this, I could flick serve and low serve under pressure no probs.

Am 95% there. I still have to be careful and take my time. Im the one under control, not my unconscious.

My words of advice here are sometimes obstacles will come up in your game. Slow the process down, check your technique and practice getting it right. It will take a bit of time but it will come. Try it against lower players 1st and then move on to the higher players after

I would say Paaske was the best server I have ever seen. And he was pretty handy in the midcourt and forecourt too! Something we should all aspire to!