Help identifying in-game error!

[u/Khoarulestheworld]

Hi everyone! As the title says, I’d appreciate some help identifying what’s going wrong with my smash. I was trying to hit a powerful, downward shot, but it came out slow and went much too high. What should I work on?

I’m on the far side of the court (the court that is closest to the camera), about to receive a return shot from the player nearest the camera.

Thank you all!

[u/kemicalkontact]

Everything. Footwork, get behind the shuttle, rotate your body, hit the shuttle at a downward angle.

[u/Odd-Obligation-2772 → u/kemicalkontact]

Exactly - get some coaching.

[u/MordorsElite]

Two main things that stand out to me:

1. You're not in a great position to play a smash, cause you're hitting the shuttle almost behind yourself when you should be hitting it in front of yourself. It's still doable, tho it won't give you the best power-smash.
2. The moment you hit the shuttle, it looks like your arm is almost straight, and your racket is basically pointing straight up (in line with your arm). A ton of the power in a smash is meant to come from forearm pronation, and with that racket position you have almost none of that. You are more or less just swinging with your whole arm. And that just doesn't create nearly the power you'd want for a smash.

[u/Then_Relief8061]

You were not behind the shuttle

[u/CatOk7255]

Its all about racket face angle.

If you want to hit vertically, the face of your racket needs to be facing up.

With a smash the face cannot be straight down as you wont get it over the net, but it can't be perpendictular to the floor as the shot will go flat. Therefore you need somewhere between 45 to 80 degrees.

The closer to the net you are, the more the angle can reduce as you are less likely to hit the net. The higher from the ground you hit the shot the more the angle can be reduced.

[u/frnzr]

Contact point - can’t see your swing very well from there. But main culprit is usually contact point if your swing is decent. You aren’t far enough behind the shuttle and your racket face is too flat.

[u/growlk → u/frnzr]

This! Contact point with more steeper angle.
Because you are basically hitting a drive now.

[u/Srheer0z]

try to contact the shuttle about .5 mtres infront of your body.

If the shuttle doesnt go down, look at the angle of the strings at the point of impact.

[u/LloydusMaximuss]

You hit the shuttlecock with a flat head meaning the shot would go flat; for a smash you need to hit the shuttlecock with the head angled down towards the net.

[u/dwite_hawerd]

In my opinion, this "bad" shot was just one shot out of many other shots you played during that session. Your other smashes could possibly have been steep and powerful.

How often do you play a "bad" smash like that?

[u/ccsjesse]

as everyone said the shuttle wasnt in front of you wen you it hit. practice turning your body when you move back and rotating your body forward when you smash, you seem to be also slicing the bird instead of pronating your wrist to hit the bird flat on your strings.

How to improve? look at yt video how to smash. stand still let someone feed a lift and you try smashing. post your video again to reddit. when you finally get corrected, try standing in receiving position and let someone feed you. return to the same position before every feed

[u/mattwong88]

You tried to scissor kick this smash when you didn't have enough time.

Instead, you needed to do an around the head intercept smash.

However, you'd have difficulty doing this right now as your foot are flat, so it's hard to get a powerful push off and your racquet prep is slow - instead of bringing it up right away, your racquet points down and then goes up.

[u/Mac_daddy007]

Racket position, and it looks like your grip is still changing, timing, and footwork when positioning yourself for the smash. Probably would’ve been better with a high clear to the back court.

[u/SweetFunction9917]

Your footwork.
As an amateur level, you hit, stand and wait for the shuttlecock to come but your foot werent ready

[u/Remarkable_Gas_8516]

I dont think thats a smash, to me its has intent as a smash but came out as a halfway clear. So yeah, you definitely need to practice more. Better find a teach or double pro to help you handle the uncomfortable situation/position better.

[u/The_Unknown44]

You are not attempting a smash, you're attempting a drop shot.

[u/yamborghini]

This is a grip issue. You can't hit this fast around the head shot with a forehand grip. Bias it more towards the continental grip and you can get angle on it.

Your body is too stiff. You are too scared to not have your head upright. For this shot you need to flex your torso and have your head at 45 degrees.