The All England Badminton Championships always attracts the best players in the world. This gives me the ideal setting to study hitting technique, movement, body skills and mental skills from the cream of the worlds players.

First on court, Lee Chong Wei. A superb performance, always in control, never seemed hurried.

Next on, Gabby White and Jenny Wallwork from England playing a Japanese pairing. English girls won the first game after a misunderstanding between brought the scores to 20-20. I commented at the time that they looked tired and whilst they won the first game, errors soon crept into their game. The Japanese girls still looked fresh which certainly made me question the level of fitness of our players. As you know, if you’re not fit enough, when tiredness sets in, you make more mistakes. At club level, this is acceptable. After all, we go to work and play in our leisure time. But, full time professional players…there’s no excuse!

Next on, Taufik playing against Englands Smith. I haven’t seen Smith play before so I was very interested to see him in action. Sadly, his talent is wasted because he lacks the mental discipline required to beat the best. He has good technique, although a little slow in the turns. Whilst the scores were close at 21-18, 21-14 I always felt Taufik had another gear.

Smith is very expressive on court and this breaks his concentration. He seems impatient and wants to finish the rally too quickly. I wondered about his fitness too. If the match had gone to a third game, would he have the reserves to win – I doubt it. On another note, those long shorts look rediculous!

Mens Doubles – I saw three great pairs in action, Kido and Setiawan, Paaske and Rasmussen and Dae with Sung. All three showed why they are still outstanding pairs. The speed of each match was breathtaking, defences were rock solid (hint – this is where the best make a difference) and bags of power.

Despite all the big smashes, there were very few winners – take note!. Most smashes were returned and so doubles became a game of attrition. The constant pounding, with changes in pace and direction set up the short lift or easy kill at the net. There was no big ego smash here as players expected their smash to be returned – a big lesson to everyone. Always expect the shuttle to be returned and then you’re ready for the next shot.

I also witnessed the defeat of Englands best doubles pairing of Clarke and Robertson. Sorry to say, not their best performance, especially Robertson. I thought Clarke played well but in the end his covering of Robertson led to too many mistakes. Clarke really impressed me with his ability to move the shuttle around the court. He’s fast but he looks overweight. I wondered how good he could have been if he’d been slimmer/fitter?

Robertson did not impress me at all. He made amends in mixed doubles later in the day but I didn’t see that game. Personally, he had an off match, although I didn’t think his concentration was that good and overall effort was way below that of Clarke.

Lesson here is that if you’re a pair, you both need to be on your game to win. At any level, one player cannot cover the other unless done for tactical reasons.

A Quick Summary

At this level, you need to move fast and hit fast. There’s no player demonstrating better technique than any other. The winner of the match is simply the player that consistently demonstrates good technique, is mentally strong and fit enough for the game. Even at this level, more points are won on mistakes than winners.

But, if you haven’t got a good defence, any decent attack, consistently applied will beat you!

One of the hottest topics I’ll be covering in my online coaching program is increasing power to your badminton smash.

Wherever I travel to coach, there are always two major questions I’m asked

1. How to improve the backhand
2. How to get more power in the smash

There are a number of simple adjustments you can make that will help you increase power and improve your accuracy in the smash, so let’s get started…

Let’s Begin With Your Feet!

Why your feet? Simple. If you haven’t the speed to get behind the shuttle before you hit it, then there is no way you are going to hit a good powerful accurate smash. You need to be behind the shuttle so your bodyweight is ready to move in the direction of your smash. Adding your bodyweight to the smash provides more power.

How far behind the shuttle should you stand? Ideally, you need to be far enough that the shuttle would land slightly ahead of your non racket leg, but in alignment with your racket shoulder.

Exercise 1

You need to test whether you are moving fast enough to get behind the shuttle. Stand on the front service line and ask your feeder to lift the shuttle towards the back line. Now, with your racket in your hand, try to beat the shuttle. But, you mustn’t hit the shuttle! Instead, allow it to hit the floor and note the position it lands in relation to your body.

Where is the shuttle? Is it sufficiently in front of your body that you can hit it down, allowing your bodyweight to move forward? If not, you’ve just discovered one key element you need to improve that will add more power to your smash.

So try again, and this time move faster, going beyond where you would normally stop. Test again. Any better? If so, repeat this exercise until you are comfortable that you’ve got it right.

Finally, test again by moving back and this time hit the shuttle. Work it and it’s likely the first few shots will fall into the net!

Grip

There are so many club and league players I’ve seen that seem to move and hit with excessive tension in their bodies. This tension is caused by pressure getting to the shuttle on time, frustration from wanting to hit the shuttle better or score more points and most likely a host of minor reasons that are causing a major issue.

When the body is tense, it is unable to perform anywhere near its optimum capability. A tense body cannot move as fast, hit as fast or as powerfully as one that is free from tension. Think about it. If you were to go onto court to play against a player you know you can easily beat, why is it your shots are so much better and you appear to move so much faster? Yes, you’re not under pressure and therefore playing with a sense of freedom – freedom from tension.

One of the major adjustments I ask of most players is the way in which they grip their racket. I’m not talking about correct forehand or backhand grips here, although that does feature high on my list.

In this article I’m talking about the strength of your grip. If you grip your racket too tight, then your muscles are constantly under tension. This does not allow them to flow and carry out you instructions to move in a certain way in order to hit the shuttle. They are almost fighting to move in the right sequence.

A tight grip then restricts the amount of power available to these muscles, which only leads to a poor result and disappointment for the player. If you consistently grip the shuttle too tight, then you’re running the risk of injuring your elbow. Tennis or golfers elbow is extremely painful and is frequently caused by your grip being too tight, or your racket grip being too small for the size of your hand.

Exercise 2

Go on court and hit shuttles with a very relaxed grip. Grip the racket firm enough that it won’t slip out of your hand – you don’t want to see the whites of your knuckles or you’re gripping too tight! Play a few overhead shots and the second before your racket connects with the shuttle, squeeze a little tighter.

I expect you’ll find that you’re hitting the shuttle harder as your racket can accelerate quicker towards the shuttle without the tension to apply the brakes.

Your backswing can make all the difference

Looking back over the last 30 years or so, preparation for an overhead shot has changed. This is mainly due to the significant improvements in racket technology. No longer are we playing with steel framed rackets, weighing considerably more than the average 85g in todays rackets. The lightweight, one-piece carbon construction has meant that you can now prepare and hit in a second. There’s no need for a long backswing – an almost tennis-like serve in order to hit an overhead shot in badminton.

What I do see so often is almost a “corkscrew” action whereby the racket is moved with the shoulder turn. So why is this wrong?

Whenever you move a muscle, or series of muscles, they always want to return to a neutral position i.e. go back to where they started from.

A corkscrew action therefore usually creates a reverse action. This means that instead of the racket being thrown in a direct line at the shuttle, it’s almost moving across the path of the shuttle. Catch the shuttle at precisely the right point and you may hit a good smash.

But, this method is extremely unpredictable and inaccurate too.

Exercise 3

Stand in a space with sufficient clearance around you to swing your racket. From a defensive stance, place your non racket hand onto the front of your shoulder to feel the muscles move.

Now, with your non-racket hand still on your shoulder, prepare to hit an overhead and feel which way your arm and shoulder are moving. Got it? Now play the shot and pay attention to the follow through and where your racket finishes.

Do the same exercise again, but this time lift your racket straight over your shoulder as though you are scratching your back. Your elbow should be pointing virtually upright. Can you feel a difference? If you can, that suggests you’re more likely to be using a corkscrew action in your preparation.

If you didn’t feel a difference, turn your shoulders as though you are going to hit the shuttle. Your racket will move to its usual position.

When you throw the racket from here, watch the line of the racket. Is it going out in direct line to where you want to hit the shuttle, or is it falling across your body towards your non-racket leg?

If your racket is going in a straight line then you’ve got great technique and chances are you’re already hitting the shuttle pretty hard. Focus on exercises 1 and 2 to see if you can improve in these areas.

If your racket is somewhere near your non-racket foot, then you may find that you hit stronger and more consistently cross court than you do straight. If you do, then the corkscrew action is a cause. Also, you may find that you pull most of your round-the-head shots out of court.

Quick Summary

OK, we’ve covered some basic ground here, but from what I continue to see in clubs, a huge percentage of players can improve the power of their badminton smashes by improving in one, two or all three of these key areas.

Have some fun testing these exercises out, and hopefully you’ll find the one area where you quickly find a little more focus makes a huge difference in the result of your smash.

This article is not meant to be a complete checklist of ways to improve the power of your badminton smash. I’ve chosen my “big three” because they are relatively easy for you to check for yourself when you haven’t the luxury of working with a coach.