[addyhemmige]

Thanks a lot Mayank for those tips. I'm one of those who get tired pretty early into the playing session. I have another question.

How should I do up my warmup routine?

The place I play in has three courts side by side and I jog the breadth of the courts for 4-5 laps. After the jog, I do some stretching and then move directly onto the court. On the court, we play a few tosses before we start the game. There have been days where I have to directly enter the court without any warmup (when there are lot of people vying for the same court, if I'm late etc). Is the jog and stretch good enough or should I do more?

Also please do suggest a warm-down routine. Currently, I'm not following any warm-down routine.

[jealousdiamond]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Good good, you've inspired me to put on my non marking shoes and restring my racket and hit the courts again.

I just have one tip: Badminton is a thinking game. You need to plan ahead.

All the best!

Its never too late , all it takes is a couple of strokes and back in form again .

Wow !!! Those are the golden lines . It definately is a thinking game apart from the regular stuff, tricks, tweaks, flicks, dodges, false shots etc, etc .
The brain has to be very cool and always focused on the opponent and their moves . A calm and composed mind is the key .

@ MAyank : Awaiting the other shot narrations . Keep it coming Mate

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

Thanks a lot Mayank for those tips. I'm one of those who get tired pretty early into the playing session. I have another question.

How should I do up my warmup routine?

The place I play in has three courts side by side and I jog the breadth of the courts for 4-5 laps. After the jog, I do some stretching and then move directly onto the court. On the court, we play a few tosses before we start the game. There have been days where I have to directly enter the court without any warmup (when there are lot of people vying for the same court, if I'm late etc). Is the jog and stretch good enough or should I do more?

Also please do suggest a warm-down routine. Currently, I'm not following any warm-down routine.

Thats kinda comprehensive schedule you have .
A quick warmup schedule can be a 100-150 skips/jumps with a skipping rope (assuming you are light on your feet ) hardly takes a few minutes to get you warmed up . Also , dont start playing the smashes/ jump smashes / overtiring shots from game 1 itself . Save some energy and let your body get into a rythm , before playing power shots . All I would say , DO NOT ENTER the court without a warm up .

[mayankjha1806]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Good good, you've inspired me to put on my non marking shoes and restring my racket and hit the courts again.

I just have one tip: Badminton is a thinking game. You need to plan ahead.

All the best!

Wow a special one lands on the thread. Thanks for the nice comments. Which state you represented in which year?

Although i agree on the rest slightly disagree on the thinking game part, i believe its a instinctive game. Most of the time you go with gutt and instincts than proper thought process. Anyway either way appreciate the nice comments, and yes please pick up the game least it makes you fitter

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

I jog the breadth of the courts for 4-5 laps.
I do some stretching and then move directly onto the court. On the court, we play a few tosses before we start the game.

Lol's do you get tired even before the start of the game, just kidding. I think what you are doing enough already. What i do is something like this

• Do about 50 of the stretches for my elbow and wrist with the small rubber thingy listed on post #4
• Do about 20 with abs rollers (Picture listed below)
• Do about 10 crunches
• About 10 pulls Dumble (3kg)
• Change to Contact lenses , grab few Cashews and Badams.
• And finally run to the court which is about 5 floors down and then 500 Mts away carrying about 2Kg Kit bag.

Takes about 30 mins before i am ready to run to the court. Enough warm up for about 3 games in weekdays and about 3Doubles and 4 Singles games on weekends.

Days when i am not playing i do most of the above and run on treadmill for about 4-5Kms in 30mins

Originally Posted by jealousdiamond

@ MAyank : Awaiting the other shot narrations . Keep it coming Mate

Cant post until i have tried successfully myself hence the delay and i am currently thinking of changing the racquet first. Also text narration isn't looking very exciting hence thinking of capturing video.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

Wow a special one lands on the thread. Thanks for the nice comments. Which state you represented in which year?

Although i agree on the rest slightly disagree on the thinking game part, i believe its a instinctive game. Most of the time you go with gutt and instincts than proper thought process. Anyway either way appreciate the nice comments, and yes please pick up the game least it makes you fitter

Thanks. I believe somewhere between the years 1997-99. Maharashtra.

Thinking game because you need to set up the next three shots with your first shot. You need to make your opponent do all the work and tire him out. In my experience, power players win the first few points or the first game but tire out by the end.

Anyways, let me stop preaching, to each his own!
Keep up the good work with this thread.

Last tip (don't know if it's already mentioned, not gone through the entire thread ): After the game, change immediately into a dry T and wear a sweat shirt / jacket till your body temperature equalizes. It takes a week to get used to wearing a sweatshirt but once you are used to it, it's just wonderful. You should also wear it in between games.

Accha now a layman type question:

What are the good brands of shuttles available nowadays? We used to have skylark and the cheaper albatross a decade ago. What's the cost. I hated those plastic shuttles.

[mayankjha1806]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

What are the good brands of shuttles available nowadays? We used to have skylark and the cheaper albatross a decade ago. What's the cost. I hated those plastic shuttles.

We use Yonex/Mavis, generally for games we use Yonex Mavis 350 or Mavis 500. They are plastic but believe me times have changed. A box of six can cost you 500-600. I also made faces when saw folks playing with plastic but when started playing found it very close to feather shuttles.

For tournament practice i use Yonex Aerosensa 40.

Skylark/albatross are no longer easily available in the market, i don't think they are now tournament grade as well.

[mayankjha1806]

Finally the new racquet arrived after much of trials and deliberations. The choice was between Voltric 70/80, ArcSaber 10. I had to go to the shop multiple times to try various flavors of racquets.

I was almost sold on ArcSacer 10 as the Voltric is sort of replacement of Armourtec series and as such is very head heavy. I liked the head heaviness and it did improve certain areas in my game but i was never able to tame it. Also being head heavy and Flex there was too much head movement that i found difficult to adjust. Being head heavy it helped immensely on my backhand clears it suddenly changed from good to explosive, but it impacted my smashes as i felt the flex made the head move slightly making my timing off by a fraction and hence the smashes were puny.

ArcSaber 10 seemed like a good balance and before closing the purchase he mentioned there is new ArcSaber that has arrived after 10 and that is 8Dx. Requested me to try and as soon as i held it in my hands it felt great. Its good lovely even balance to it and the slight head heaviness does not feel much. It was feeling powerful when just the slight touch of the shuttle made it go straight to the opponents baseline. It had loads of power but unlike the Z Slash it is easier to tame. More on this later, here are the pictures of this beauty.

My BIL decided to buy a Nanospeed 2000 at the same time. Will try this as well on the court and let folks know how it feels.

[mayankjha1806]

This morning got an opportunity to play with a MP State level player of 2003/04 batch and boy what a game he had. More then focus on winning i was mesmerized with his movements on the court. Alright back to the new racquet.

Found the 8Dx to be a quiet balanced racquet, and while playing i noticed that my net plays have never been so good before, absolutely touching the net and no more than a few inches above the tape, awesome was the feeling. The smashes were adequate although i did not get enough and more opportunity to fire them but yes whenever i smashed it felt good and the shuttle flue at decent speeds.

The rear court play was also effortless and the clears went past the opponent to the baseline every time. Somehow i felt i got a perfect racquet which suits my game to very well.

[mayankjha1806]

Backhand Return On the Net

Although there is no replacement to strengthening the elbow and wrist especially in the case of backhand one could still get around this problem to a certain degree. There are three areas from where you can use backhand return.

• Backhand returns from closer to the net
• Backhand returns from mid court
• Backhand returns from baseline

Out of these three the first two do not need a lot of strength of the elbow and the wrist and can be mastered with ease. Only the third one needs more preparation and precision.

First we will look at making a backhand return from closer to the net, for this keep the following things in mind.

• Observe the change in grip from Forehand to backhand grip below. Note most of the stuff is same only the position of the thumb changes slightly.
• For the backhand return closer to the net do not swing the racquet as they do in Tennis, just position the thumb rightly and a with a slight flick either drop the shuttle closer to the net or send it flying towards the baseline. As most of the power is generated through the wrist and thumb its difficult for the opponent to anticipate what you are intending to do.
• For right handed player always move your right leg forward closer to the shuttle for both backhand and forehand net play. This way your shoulders are open and facing the opponent giving you the ability to return the shuttle to any part of the court as desired. If one moves the left leg forward the left part of the body and shoulder block the right hand to some extent making it more difficult to place the return anywhere on the opponents court.

Forehand Grip, notice the place of thumb



Backhand Grip, note the thumb moves slightly and now rests on the grip.


For the backhand return closer to the net, notice the movement of the thumb and the the power generated through the thumb and wrist combination. There is not much racquet movement and hence difficult to spot and anticipate the intentions until one finally hits the shuttle.




The same rule applies for returns on forehand closer to the net, only this time there is no change in thumb position and all the power gets generated by the wrist. Note always the right leg moves closer to the net giving you an ability to place the shuttle to any part of the opponents court.



Tomorrow we talk about Backhand returns from mid court

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

What are the good brands of shuttles available nowadays? We used to have skylark and the cheaper albatross a decade ago. What's the cost. I hated those plastic shuttles.

Well shuttles have become super expensive with the prices going through the roof.The best ones today after the Yonexes would be Samrat,especially the cut feather ones.They come at a princely INR480-500 for a box of 10.The flight I must admit is quite remarkable.There is another brand called White Wings which is also pretty good,so is a brand called Sputnik.

The Yonex AS2 is priced around 800-900 a box.The price rise is attributed to non-availability of duck feather and most of the duck feather now a days comes in from Bangladesh and what is interesting to note is that irrespective of the brand of shuttles,they are all manufactured in Uluberia in Kolkata!

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

We use Yonex/Mavis, generally for games we use Yonex Mavis 350 or Mavis 500. They are plastic but believe me times have changed. A box of six can cost you 500-600. I also made faces when saw folks playing with plastic but when started playing found it very close to feather shuttles.

For tournament practice i use Yonex Aerosensa 40.

Skylark/albatross are no longer easily available in the market, i don't think they are now tournament grade as well.

Lovely thread Mayank,I must admit.Am sure its helping a lot many people here.Keep up the great work.

Just a tip from my side not sure if its already been mentioned somewhere on the thread.For all those people who play with feather shuttles,if you want to preserve the flight and keep the shuttle going for longer periods of time,then just make sure you dont leave those boxes lying in your cars or any place exposed to direct heat.Store them up in your freezer compartments in the refrigerator and see the difference for yourself.The only difference between the Mavises and the feather ones is that when it comes to net play,the plastic shuttles lose out.Plastic shuttles are very good for endless rallies as they slow down in the air.

Mayank,just an afterthought,would it be a good idea for you to include details of amateur tournaments that you hear of in Bangalore into this thread?am sure that would be enriching as well.I used to be a winner at the citinest tournaments(not even sure if those things happen anymore)and they used to be fun as more than anything else it gives people an opportunity to measure their level of games against newer people.

Once again many thanks for starting off something like this.

[predatorwheelz]

@Mayank - First of all, thanks for an absolutely fantastic thread. You dunno how many times I've read through it, start to finish, trying to grapple every little bit of advice you throw our way.

I've been a strictly average (but regular) badminton player through my school and college days. Had an uncle who played Badminton at a national level in the 70's. Though he never gave me any direct tutelage, the enthusiasm definitely came from seeing his exploits! Never received any formal coaching, and learnt whatever I did on court (and from other advanced players). When I read your explanations on this thread, it makes me rue the fact :(. It has also made me sit up and renew my SAI badminton court membership. Just looking for a good partner in Kolkata to go practice with everyday.

After passing some time with crap entry level equipment, someone got me a decent "Wish" racket. Was surprised to see how much of a difference good equipment makes to your game. Played with it for many years. Much later in life, bought a Yonex Carbonex 8000. Both are still with me, in good condition. Time to shake off the dust!

Anyway, I'm totally hooked on to this thread. Keep writing, keep explaining the finer nuances of the game to us.

Just out of general interest, here's a list of the world's top ranked players and the equipment they use:

MTAG Sports

[mayankjha1806]

Originally Posted by predatorwheelz

@Mayank - First of all, thanks for an absolutely fantastic thread. You dunno how many times I've read through it, start to finish, trying to grapple every little bit of advice you throw our way.

Anyway, I'm totally hooked on to this thread. Keep writing, keep explaining the finer nuances of the game to us.

Just out of general interest, here's a list of the world's top ranked players and the equipment they use:

I am glad you liked it, creating and writing this thread has been a learning experience for me as well. I did not play Nationals but went upto division selection trials for the state level juniors, and then retired (about 20 years ago).

Picked up the sport again 2 years back when one day one of my very good friend (and a very pathetic player at that, beat me pink and blue). Took it up as challenge and in 2-3 weeks consistently beat him back. These days i am in an endeavor to beat a player who is younger (11 years to be exact), and hugely better in terms of technique and stamina (Just to give an idea, he smashes on backhand from baseline ), but in six months time i will pull 50% of the games i play with him (Thats the goal). So moral of the story, its never too late to start.

Last week i pulled one game out of many games i played with him and two things that helped me achieve that (Apart from his not being in the groove and me being wonderfully there for that one game), is change of my contact lenses, and change of my shoes. I am planning to cover that as well along with some exercises on the court that can help body movement.

I am still struggling with posting quality stuff (especially with backhand and jump smash) and only video posting can do justice to the message hence focussed on taking videos as of now. Once they are ready will post them.

BTW its interesting to read what the champions use (Thanks for the link) but keep in mind most of them use customized equipment and not the ones available in the market.

[mayankjha1806]

On Shoes and Vision

Two of the most critical pieces of equipment after the racket itself. Few words of advise

1. Dont wear shoes to the court, carry them in a bag and wear them on the court.
   Well i say this because my earlier shoes were Yonex badminton shoes and i used to wear them to the court after walking through about .5 Kms of paved footpath near my apartment complex. In one year (And some would argue that's a reasonable time for them to go bad) they felt like roller skates on the wooden court. The sole of the Shoes looked fine, also while playing doubles they were fine as well, but when i played a much better player who would surprise me with his wrist i needed to change my natural body flow direction really quickly to get to the shuttle. Under these circumstances they gave up and it would affect my response times. Changed them to another bunch of Yonex badminton shoes and they are fine. One of my friend uses a Artengo 650 man training shoe (Artengo - Artengo 650 man training shoe - FOOTWEAR SHOES / BOOTS shoes - Designed for *EXPERT badminton or squash players.) and i believe they are much better suited for wooden courts. Yonex are better on synthetic courts.
   
   One needs to remember if you are used to sliding while returning these shoes will make your ankles pain slightly as the body expects the legs to slide and lessen the impact where as the shoes aren't letting you slide thereby increasing the stress on your ankles. This is fine and usually not a cause of worry and this pain should go away in a few days. If it does not a doctor visit might be necessary.
   
   
2. For those of you who wear eye glasses, there will come a time when the rallies are longer (and its a real stretch for the body and it sweats a lot). This sweat most of the time either comes on the glasses or because of body heat there is mist that gets formed on the glass. Which slows your reaction times and in this game a fraction of a second slower is all it takes to loose the rally. I have personally tried Johnson & Johnson and Bausch and Lomb, Pure Vision 2. I found the Pure Vision to be better in terms of visibility but more irritating to the eye for a new contact lens user.

These were the two most important changes that i made in last two weeks that made me at least stand on the court and fight the champ. There are few more finer points that needs fixing and i am working on them.

[mayankjha1806]

Some of the videos that i am struggling to put together, do watch them.

This one talks about court movement, and stepping from Peter Rasmussen, this i do it as a shadow practice every day and trust me it gets more tiring then actually playing a rally. Watch from 5min section onwards it specifically talks about body position post the shuttle return. It should be such that it naturally lends itself to the next return.

Peter Rasmussen - Footwork Drill - YouTube

This is another video by Peter Gade although its in Danish its not too difficult to understand what he is trying to say. Observe the way he jumps to the net to receive the shuttle. Peter Gade is someone who is oldest in the circuit and still one of the best (He is consistently have been top 5 ranked player)

Peter Gade Instructional Video Moving to Backhand Net - YouTube

[mayankjha1806]

My first video upload on the grip changes from forehand to backhand. Other videos will be uploaded after personal review. Guys let me know if this is more helpful or your views if this should be done differently.

I have used a replacement grip and a over grip recquet. Over grips make the grip thicker and hence make it slightly more difficult to rotate although more comfortable to hold.

video-2011-10-16-06-06-20.mp4 - YouTube

[mayankjha1806]

Another excellent video on grips explanation, this one also talks about grip for the use from the rear of the court.

To generate power what is more important is to generate good amount of head speed and not the full racquet speed. In forehand you have a choice to swing the racket (the lead time is more) to generate the required head speed. In backhand its usually not there hence the importance of thumb.

Badminton : Proper Racket Grip in Badminton - YouTube

What is also important is the use of wrist+elbow to generate power (Forehand and backhand) it makes it difficult for your opponent to anticipate what you are intending to do.

So moral of the story Dont swing the racquet like they do in tennis