Is Attacking With More Power Always Better? – Steve’s Badminton Blog and Website

This is an interesting topic which Han Jian often talks about. He often critizies us when we go in with full power smashes and tells us that a more precise less powerful smash would have worked better. Let’s discuss.

When I was training as a youth player, the logic which I followed was that more power was better. A smash which I put in as much power as I possibly can would mean a point. As a youth, our defenses are not fully developed, as with our technique. So, if I hit it hard, chances are my opponents are not able to get into position with the defensive stance, and they would not be able to block or lift it. That is often the case.

When playing against amateurs, this is also true. Hitting hard enough would mean they are not able to react fast enough to get the shot. And that leads to a point. When the technique is not good, the swing likely be a full arm swing. That means slower response times, and a shuttle traveling at higher speeds would require faster response times, meaning the player can’t get the shot. It makes perfect sense.

Now, if we are playing in a match against highly skilled players who have fully developed techniques. They would be able to get the shots back no matter how hard it is coming at them as long as they are in their defensive stance. Then, is more power better?

When we watch men’s doubles matches, we will often see wonderful rallies where one pair will be doing the attacking, and the other defending. And, these rallies keep going because despite the attackers’ countless attacks and pressure, the defenders keep getting it back. And in men’s doubles, there is no shortage of power. Both sides has what it takes to generate a lot of power, otherwise, they wouldn’t be up there. And both sides would have well developed techniques, otherwise, they wouldn’t be there. So, how do the defenders keep getting the shots back?

In the rally highlighted above, Kusumawardana and Rambitan were on the attack. Despite the shots coming in fast and hard, Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi could block all the attacks. Smashes, drives, drop shots, everything was repelled. But when the opportunity came for Liu Yi to attack, he chose to do a sliced drop. That allowed him to win the rally. What happened here?

The sliced drop landed before Kusumawardana’s feet. It landed close to the front service line. In this case, it was the steepness of the shot which won the point. Liu Yi reduced the power of the shot, then added steepness to it by using a slice. That caused Kusumawardana huge problems. Had Liu Yi opted for a smash, Kusumawardana would have blocked that without much problems.

There are 2 things at play here. The first is obviously the less powerful shot won the point. The second is the variation of the shot, by not doing the typical powerful smash, that left the opponent flat footed. Let’s talk about the first thing.

A powerful smash has a lot of energy even when it reaches the other side. The defender can make use of that energy when he blocks the shot. If the defender hits the smash with a clean flat hit, without slicing the shuttle, the shuttle will fly straight and true. The defender does not have to put in a lot of power to make the shuttle go far. As long as he is able to get a clean hit, the shuttle will go far. There is no need to do a massive swing here. A simple wrist movement at the right moment will see the shuttle go far.

In this clip above, we can see Kusumawardana and Rambitan clearing the smashes from Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi easily. They did not need to put a lot of power into their lifts. But hitting the shuttle squarely and at the right time, they send the shuttle back to the other side with ease. They are using the velocity of the shuttle to generate the power needed to send it back as a lift.

Have a look at the classic rally between Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei. In this rally, both of them take turns going for the attack with no breakthrough. Each time their attacks were on the powerful side. And the other just blocked it without much issues. The rally went on until Lin Dan did a reversed slice on Lee Chong Wei’s backhand side. Lee Chong Wei reached the shot without problems, but he misjudged the power in the shot, and when he blocked it, it did not go over the net.

When Lin Dan was doing a smash or even a half smash, Lee Chong Wei could get it without problems. Same thing the other way as well. Even when Lee Chong Wei attacks with a smash or half smash, Lin Dan is able to retrieve it. But when a slice is used by Lin Dan, that is when Lee Chong Wei could not return it.

In this case, a lower powered shot won the rally. A slice may look like a smash, but it has a different trajectory, and it has losses power much quicker than a smash. The slicing motion done by the player makes the shuttle spin either faster or slower, and this changes its trajectory.

A left hander’s reverse slice makes a shuttle’s trajectory similar to a fast drop, but with less power for the defender to feed off. That means that a block which is used to retrieve a smash is not going to work. The defender has to put power into his block to push the shuttle over the net. Otherwise, it is not going to have enough power in the return to go over the net.

And this is exactly what happened to Lee Chong Wei: his block did not go over the net. The deception from Lin Dan is that the swing for the shot looks like a half smash, and its trajectory is like a fast drop. But, it has less power than a half smash, maybe even less than a fast drop in this case. Lee Chong Wei could not see that it was a slice, until after he blocked it and realized it was not moving over the net. Only then he realized it was a slice and not a half smash.

It is instances like this which makes a lower powered shot more difficult to defend against. A half smash requires the player to put power into the block in order to lift it. If the player want to send it right over the net, then there is no issue as the shuttle still has enough power to go over the net when blocked. But there is not enough power for to do a lift when it is a half smash. And that would mean a lift which is either not far enough, or not high enough, or both. This is how a half smash can be very effective in doubles.

In singles, where the objective of the block is to send the shuttle right over the net, then a slice plays a similar role. When the attacker uses a slice, there is not enough power for the defender to feed off. The defender has to add in power into the block to get the shuttle over the net. Otherwise, the result would be exactly what Lee Chong Wei did. It does not go over the net.

The second thing is variation of the shots used would fool your opponent. If the player has been doing smashes most of the time, when he suddenly does a slice instead it would throw the opponent off. Let’s look back at Lin Dan vs Lee Chong Wei. For the entire rally, Lin Dan was hitting smashes and half smashes. This caused Lee Chong Wei to be expecting a smash or half smash. Lee Chong Wei became mentally prepared to retrieve those shots. He did not prepare himself for a slice. And when Lin Dan saw an opportunity to do the slice, Lee Chong Wei was caught unprepared for it.

By throwing in a variation in a series of smashes and half smashes, Lin Dan fooled Lee Chong Wei and got the point. Doing such variations throws the opponent off, and will get us an easy point. This is applicable in doubles as well. If the player were to suddenly switch to a half smash after releasing a flurry of smashes, the opponent might make a mistake and apply the same amout of power in his blocks. That would lead to an easy interception, or a half court smash kill.

This leaves something for us to think about. We should always try to vary the power of the shots in a game. This gives us a chance to catch our opponents by surprise and gain us an easy point.

This is the reason why Han Jian keeps scolding us. It is not because we are using power smashes all the time, it is for not varying our shots.

That’s all for this entry.

Until the next update, eat well, get plenty of rest, and keep the badminton going!