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I went back to read Tony Gunawan website to check to see what’s new. I know that he was in World Championship this year, and was stopped in the quarter final, so I want to see what he has to say about it. Usually, he has some explanation on why/how he lost a game. A good player always reflect on his performance whether he win or lose a match to what he can improve upon. This time he provides some insight to the new trend in world class doubles game.

Here is a quote from his blog.

”

For me, the learning continues. Badminton games always evolve throughout the years. Certainly for men’s doubles now, one of the characteristics shared by many top pairs is the quickness in both hand and leg coordination to attack. It is not only about big smash anymore. It is the combination of fast smash, drive, defense, net, and counter-attack. From all four semifinalists this year, three are considered the new generation of men’s doubles. Only Lee Wan Wah and Choong Tan Fook have been around for more than ten years. Also, only Lee Wan Wah and Choong Tan Fook have different playing style. They depend mostly on their solid defense first and as soon as they place a great shot, then they launch their smashes.

The other three pairs (Kido/Setiawan, Lee/Jung, Ikeda/Sakamoto) - along with Koo/Tan and Cai/Fu start off each rally by attacking right away. All have quick reflexes to return the coming shots. They all play effectively and they waste no time; especially in the new rally system where all that matters is to collect as many points in the shortest amount of time possible. They rely on their fitness in jumping left and right to get to the shot right away. To defeat them, you either as fit (or fitter) than they are or you have an extremely solid defense to tired them out first.

“

There you have it. As he said, it’s not about setting up for big smash anymore. Today’s double is about fast pace all around. Whoever blink first, lose.

Today, I’m going to talk about the best way to improve your badminton game. It’s not how to hit backhand. It’s not how to smasher harder. The most important thing in badminton is “footwork”.

Regardless of how hard your smash, or how deceptive your shots are, you will not get to perform those if you are on the other side of the court On the other hand, if you can get there earlier, you have more time to pick and choose where to attack, plus you are going to be in more balance posture after that shot, versus running to a bird on the other side hitting the bird with outreach arm and let momentum carries you out of the court. Getting to the bird early benefit you two folds!

So how to practice to improve the footwork? Running the court is the way to go. If you watch badminton single match, you will see that they almost making steps in the exact same way to reach either side of the court all the time. They practically almost step in the same place that they step before. They don’t shuffle they feet too much, so the movement is efficient and elegant. It’s all muscle memory. That’s how. Practically speaking though, it’s pretty hard for weekend warrior like most of us to get time alone on the court, just to run the court.

Another way to improve your footwork, or to precisely saying it, to improve “getting there” is to loose weight. No kidding. I tried that and it works. I gained weight after having a child and didn’t have much time to exercise. I noticed that my game suffer in many dimensions. I reacted slower to the smash. My touch was not as sharp. My friends improved. Those I couldn’t do anything about it. It was about playing time. However, I decide to see if I can improve my “getting there” by loosing weight, and it works wonderfully. I can start off my toe much faster. I don’t loose balance after I hit a bird. I can stop on a dime, and change direction quicker. I can hang back for a hard smash, allowing more react time, knowing that I can still go to the net to retrieve a drop if I have to. Try that and let me know.

This blog may sound like the tip for a successful business, especially the real estate here in Southern California, butg it is not. It’s actually about one of the effective way to improve your skill. On the list of things to do to improve your game, this one is on the hard side and probably require a lot of time, a lot of patience.

Back when I was a beginner, I practiced a lot and overtime, I was able to smash harder and harder. My wrist was getting stronger, the timing was getting better, and the impact felt really good. I was confident that my smash was hard and fast and in fact, during practice, the smash looked and sounded fearsome, according to people in the club. But when I play games, often my opponent returned my smash back, and sometime went back to my trouble spots, which I had to scramble to retrieve it back. That exchange usually ended with me getting smashed instead.

There are many factors to be considered. First of all, my opponents were usually experienced men, which don’t winch by a hard smash. They had seen this before. A strong smash is just faster and require more anticipation, faster preparation and quicker reaction. Second, my drop posture wasn’t deceptive enough yet, so they could tell well before I hit the bird if it’s going to be a smash, or a drop. I smashed most of the time, so they were hanging way back, knowing that I less likely will execute a drop. Third, I did not really pay attention of much of where I hit to. I just knew a ball park of where the bird would go, but I had no precise control to make the bird go within even 6 inches of where I aimed.

The first factor, being the amount of experience of your opponents, you have no control over that. Unless, you rigged the tournament, or have an insider.

The second one, there is more to be said on that, and I’ll blog about it later.

The third one is something I have been working on. You need to be able to control where your shots are going to. Not only the smash, but every kind of shot. Badminton is 3 dimension, and the shot placement also has to be precise on all dimensions for it to be effective. Since we already started talking about smashing, let’s discuss that here for a minute. I’ll blog more on placements of other shots later on.

There are 3 dimensions you have to care about, the depth (how far/short the bird will land), the width (this is left and right on your target), and height (how high above the ground is your target) When smashing, you don’t really have to worry about the depth that much, because it’s governed by how high you aim your smash. You can only aim left/right and the hight.

Now, there are a couple places that you can aim at. Body shot is a good one providing that you have a strong smash. This shot usually prevent your opponent from taking a big swing because his body is in the way, creating a short lift for an easy kill in the next shot. However, you try that, and your opponent returns it easily, that means the smash isn’t fast enough to jam him, and it’s time to try something else. It’s either down the line or down the middle. The middle is preferred over down-the-line for many reasons. First of all, it confuses your opponents of who should take that smash, if the smash is really right between them. They may also afraid of clashing rackets. Second, even if the smash is off, it’s still a good one because you allow your partner to have a chance to intercept the return better than down-the-line smash.

Down-the-line or to-the-side smash should be used discretely. If you are so good at your aiming down that pipe, go for it. It might surprise your opponent and get a weak return back, allowing easy kill. But if it’s not well place, and not fast enough, your partner is in for trouble. Your opponent can drive down-the-line back at your. He can flick a cross to your backhand, making your run to retrieve it. He can also do a weak return cross court, making your partner retrieving it. He can follow up on it and forcing your partner to lift, switching the offense immediately. Go to the middle is a much safer bet. That’s why Pro eight go to the body or down the middle most of the time.

I hope that this can give you something to try this weekend. If you have any comment, suggestion, you can post it on this blog by clicking the comment link below. Game on.