BadmintonGuy.com

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.

Lately, I don’t really have much time to catch up on things, let alone watching badminton matches. Today, I have some time in my hand, I search on YouTube for matches. I must confess that I’m a big fan of Tony Gunawan, so I search for him and found that he is in the Semi of All England this year. (That’s old news already for most of you) It’s a battle between 2 of my favorite teams,

Tony/Chandra vs Cai/Fu because both of them play really fast. More importantly, the net game of both Tony and Cai is something to behold. Both of them have very good anticipation and lightening reaction. Chandra and Fu, on the other hand, play superbly from the back, pounding the opponent with their power smashing. In my opinion, they both play very similar, with and edge to Tony/Chandra a bit that Chandra playing a bit better defense than Fu.

Enough said, here is the video, and more link to the other videos of this match below.

Badminton 2007 All England MD Semi Final [1/6]
Badminton 2007 All England MD Semi Final [2/6]
Badminton 2007 All England MD Semi Final [3/6]
Badminton 2007 All England MD Semi Final [4/6]
Badminton 2007 All England MD Semi Final [5/6]
Badminton 2007 All England MD Semi Final [6/6]

When I answer my customer’s emails, there is one type of questions that I receive all the time. It is about where the racket is made in, and why I claim that they are made in Japan, but the serial number ends with TH.

Let’s take a look at the serial number of a Yonex badminton racket. There are 2 parts of it. One is on the shaft. Another is on the cone of the handle. It looks something like 2752123 070275TH. The first part (2752123) is the actual serial number which is unique per racket, increased with each manufactured racket. The second part is the date code which is encoded the information about the date the racket is manufactured. The date code follow DDMMYxCC pattern where DD is the date, MM is the month, Y is the year after 2000, x is some arbitrary number, and CC is the distribution code.

Now, let’s move on to the next topic, which is the distribution code. It is the code of the country in which the racket is intended to be distributed in. For example, TH means the racket is intended to be sold in Thailand. This has effect on, for one thing, the term of the warranty of the racket. The Yonex of that country is the one who will honor the term of the warranty. The most important of all, this distribution code is not where the racket is made in.

Hopefully, this can clarify things up a bit.

Last time I talk about how to choose a badminton racket that work for you. There are so many rackets in the market, so answering what model is best for you is very difficult. I have been in that situation myself. I recommend that you try it out first, to see how you like it.

Once you try a racket out, you might get some idea of what ballpark you would like your racket to be. Head-light or Head heavy or even balance. Stiff shaft, flex shaft. Big grip, small grip. Another factor to consider is how your play your game. A lot of people say you are either offensive or defensive player. I’d rather think of it as hard hitter or finesse player. After all the so-called defensive player who like to counter attack is, in my opinion, an offensive player.

For hard hitter, those who like to hit hard, you most likely will need stiff shaft, and solid feel to produce fast, accurate smash. For finesse player, you will tend to like more flex shaft for quick reaction shot, and produce more whipping from your wrist action. Here is the Yonex racket chart that should help you narrow it down, and choose the racket that’s right for you. Game on.

Choosing the right badminton racket has been the topic that I’m sure has crossed your mind sometime in the past or even now. I must admit that, at first, when I started playing badminton, I want to go for the newest latest out there in the market, obviously for a good reason. The newest must be the best out there the money can buy, which should improve your game significantly, right? I found that methodology to be not quite true.

The latest badminton rackets usually incorporate the newest technology which, at least in theory, should help you improve your game, by transfer the energy better, smash harder, etc. But what if you don’t need those??

In my opinio, badminton racket is like clothing. It’s personal, and it’s your preferences that count. The racket should fit your game, and allow you to hit your shot the way you want, and you should feel comfortable with it, just like clothing. Say, your game is based on your quickness at the net, so you might need something that allow you to pump fake at the last second, or drop with the feather light touch. That’s personal, and the latest greatest may not help.

I own an eBay store and I always get this question about which racket I recommend. I always answer that I don’t really know. The best way to choose your next racket is to try it out. Borrow your friends’ racket. Test it out to see how you like it; to see how you feel about it. Hit some long lob, do some smashes, drives, drops. 5-10 minutes with a racket would give you some idea if you may like it or not. Playing with it for a game is even better. Of course, reading online review might help narrowing it down a bit, but you’ve got to know what you are looking for in the first place.

However, if this is the first racket, and you are a beginner, it’s going to be difficult for you because you don’t know what you want yet. Everybody has to starts somewhere. I would say aim for the middle of the pack or slightly closer to the top of the line, and have it head-light, so it’s easier to whip it around. The head heavy tends to require a little bit earlier preparation before hitting a shot, and usually beginners are going to be slow on that.

Summary

1) If you are beginner and big budget, aim a bit high, so your racket can grow with you. Choose light head or even balance for quick maneuverability and help you prepare for each shot faster.

2) Know yourself first. See what you may need in your game that your current racket lacks of.

3) Read online reviews, try it out before you buy.

Hopefully, all of this can help you find the perfect racket. Remember that racket a part of your game. The right racket can help your excel in the right direction, or hurt your game development if you choose a wrong one. However, it’s you and your skills that matter the most. Game on.