Serving is most important and least practised.  Players need to be able to exploit opponents’ weaknesses, and to do that one must first find out what those weaknesses are.  In terms of the serve, this means that you must be able to serve the shuttle to the exact place you require.  This means practise.

Practise a stock, reliable low serve to the T. Your fallback, steady serve.

Practise serving to each of the 4 corners of the service area.

Make a target in the service area, and then practise hitting it.  Move it, then hit it again.

You need backhand and forehand serve. You need to know the rules regarding serve.

Fundamentals:

Backhand serve - thumb grip, racquet held in the fingers.  Push the shuttle, racquet face almost parallel to the net (ie almost vertical), to ensure a flat trajectory. Move the wrist as little as possible.  Nice relaxed grip. When you go to do the flick serve, simply squeeze the racquet grip just before you hit the shuttle.

Forehand serve - start with the racquet behind you, ensure you give yourself plenty of room for a nice smooth swing.  As the racquet swings forward towards the shuttle, allow your weight to shift from your back foot to your front foot.  Just before impact, whip the racquet through, turning your hand over (or your wrist over, or your forearm, it’s all the same).

Remember what you’re aiming to do with every serve. And practise.

Back from holiday - many thanks to Joanne for covering in my absence.

We’re concentrating on mixed tactics, so read back to previous entries.  We practised the push shot, remember to keep the racket head about shoulder height, bend your knees to meet a dropping shuttle rather than drop your racket.  Remember that the trajectory for a push shot is relatively flat, so that it doen’t really give your opponents much advantage.  A lift gives away the attack, and should be used generally as a defensive shot, only really when you have to.

Keep practising the footwork drills, skipping as ever.

Concentration more on the tactics for mixed badminton.  Remember that you’re working together as a team to try and make your opponents lift so that your partner can play a winner.  That is, the man is driving to the corners, carefully dropping to the net corners, or punishing short lifts with a smash.  The lady is pushing just past the opposing lady, into the tramlines, playing a net-shot (to force a lift) or winning the point with a netkill.  You’ll generally serve low to the man and high to the lady (to drive her to the back and break up their formation). However, if the high serve is being battered back then think again !

Mixed Doubles is a game of accuracy, patience and consistency.  It lacks the power of level doubles, but includes a degree of thought and trickery not found in the level doubles game - definitely a team game !

Homework as normal.  Practise the cross-in-front or cross-behind step. 

Further work on the backhand.  Always remember the basics, and the rest will come:

- correct grip (at the moment we’ll use the “backhand grip” where the thumb is along the small bevel, for all backhand shots

- hit by rotating (supanating) the forearm. No big swing of the arm, no hitting with just the wrist, just a sudden swift rotation of the forearm

- it’s a “rebound” action, so little or no follow-through, and the racket rebounds back at the end

Practise hitting backhand drives and clears in a straight direction. It’s not going to be your strongest shot, so playing it straight will generally give you the best chance.  We can get clever later!

Many thanks to Joanne for running the last two sessions - I’m back properly on the 23rd.

Homework - skipping for 15 mins daily, plus the forearm turning exercise.

Basics of the backhand this week. We’re embarking upon 3-4 weeks on the backhand, interspersed with other stuff too.

Fundamentals are:

 - correct grip to allow rotation of the forearm,

 - elbow raised,

 - and then finally “hitting with the forearm”, rather than using just the wrist. 

This means, with the wrist cocked, the forearm supanates very quickly just before impact, giving sudden acceleration to the racket head, which transfers to the shuttle powering it away ! (eventually).  Don’t forget it’s hit with a rebound action, so there is no follow through - the racket stops immediately after impact.  Practise this gradually, since it relies on muscles that may not be very strong yet. Buid it up gradually.

Loads of skipping please - 10 mins daily.

Emphasis once again on kick-through on striking overheads, correct striking action (V shape, L shape and then pronate as you strike through), bouncing as your opponent strikes the shuttle to prepare you for movement to the shuttle.

Remember the 4 parts to the shot cycle - (1) Prepare to move (bounce)    (2) move    (3) execute the shot   (4) recover. 

Recover to your base is most important.  It prepares you for the next shot in the rally, thereby giving you that extra half second that may make all the difference.  Your “base” is elusively defined as “the best place from which to start the next shot cycle”.  This means that you must (a) have a reason for playing your shot  (b) understand what your opponent will do in certain circumstances (c) anticipate what and where the return may be  (d) move to probably the best place to cover the most likely return(s).  Easy really !!

Homework as normal.  You should be up to 400 skips daily by now.

Following on from last week, remembering to do the split/bounce every time your opponent hits the shuttle.

Also, the action that we use to strike the shuttle.  V shape as the racket comes back (strings facing down of course), L shape as the racket comes up in the vertical plane, forearm supinated. Then strike by swinging and pronating the forearm. A lot to remember I know, but practise will make it all automatic.

We spent some time on the net-kill.  Key points are

(1) take the shuttle at the net, not back at the service line!  

(2) Pan-handle grip.  Yup, this is the one time I’ll let you use it !  

(3) No big swing needed! Just a fast tapping action to snap the shuttle downwards  

(4) You’ll hit this shot in a hurry, so you’ll probably have leapt at this, and hit the shuttle before your feet hit the ground.  All-or-nothing shot; total commitment !  Gail Emms is a master at this.

Don’t forget, this net-kill shot applies equally to men and ladies.  Very useful in Level doubles as well as Mixed.  Once we all get the hang of doing the forehand, we’ll have a go at the backhand.

Homework - as normal, skipping and arm rotation.  Practise your footwork drills please.

Looking mainly at fundamentals again this week. 

Split-step, or bounce, every time your opponent(s) hit the shuttle, in preparation to move towards the shuttle in order to play your next shot.

Fundamental action in striking the shuttle - the turning (or pronation) of the forearm.  Particularly obvious in forehand overheads, this fundamental movement prevails throughout badminton strokes.  The forearm turns as you are striking the shuttle, so that you use the large muscles in the forearm (as well as the wrist) when striking the shuttle.  It is imperative that the correct grip is used.  Also, try to relax right up to the point of impact, at which time you should grip the racket tighter, to further emphasise the muscle usage. Relax immediately afterwards.  When you get the hang of that, then move on to turning the forearm the opposite way just before you strike the shuttle, so that you turn it slightly one way before turning it the other way to strike the shuttle.

Homework:

Skip at least 300 times daily.  Try 5 minutes every day, aiming to do between 60 and 80 skips every minute.

The “water drips on the ends of your fingers” exercise, to build up the pronation/supanation muscles.  Remember you want the sudden stop at the end, and the “swan’s neck” shape of your bent arm and wrist.

2 minutes daily on the arc-step, or kick-through.  Remember the 1-2-3 count, weight moving forwards, elbow kept high, V-shape then L-shape then hit.

Emphasis on the split step.  The split-step is that little bounce that you do just before every movement.  It sets up the leg muscles to move you quickly around the court.  It should be timed to happen the moment after your opponent hits the shuttle.  As soon as you hear the sound of them hitting the shuttle, bounce into the split-step and then move.  Practise this particularly when knocking up.

Bounce every time your opponents hit the shuttle.  You don’t know that it’s not coming to you, particularly with players that use a lot of deception (Vic and Kelly for instance).  Develop this habit quickly.

Homework:

Arc Step  5 mins daily

Skipping - 300 skips per day. Aim to complete 60+ skips in a minute, every minute.

MAKE SURE YOU BRING YOUR SKIPPING ROPE WITH YOU EVERY WEEK.

There will be no coaching this week - I’m on a course !  Do your homework and I’ll see you all next week.