This article is a guest posting by Semi-Pro Justin Ma. He’s a top-ranked badminton player in the US and has great knowledge about the sport. Make sure you check out his blog at https://badmintonjustin.com/. Here he helps you understand follow up shots.
In a singles match between similarly skilled players, most rallies are not won with a single shot. A smash, a tight net drop, or one fast push aare all variable in their outcome. Aside from rallies where a simple mistake is made, players will have to fight for every point. Small opportunities to win the rallies are key in high-level matches and come from follow up shots.
What is a Follow Up Shot?
Follow up shots are the shots that come after an initial shot. The shot you hit after you smash, the shot you hit after a net drop or a shot you hit after a push for example.
In this post, I will explore different ways to engineer these opportunities in a rally. I will also reveal the thinking and strategies behind commonly played follow up shots.
Finding Opportunities
In most rallies, we can look back to the shot prior to the winning shot and see its impact and influence on the winning shot – these are called the set up shots. We are “setting up” opportunities for ourselves to hit a winner – or, the follow up shot.
This video shows Chou Tien Chen hitting a lot of smash winners. Pay close attention to how he engineers these smash opportunities. In almost all cases, the shot prior to the finishing shot is what gave him the chance to hit a smash winner.
Chou Tien Chen is able to find opportunities in many rallies by leading smashes with a tight net drop. This forces a short lift or pushes Lin Dan out of position. This is done with a front push or a half smash. Let’s explore common ways that we can find these opportunities in our own matches.
Weak Corners
Through a singles match, you may start to see that some of your opponent’s corners are weaker than the others. Maybe your opponent’s backhand clears only go half-court, your opponent’s lifts from the forehand side are always short, or your opponent is slow to return to their base position. Use this to your advantage – find chances to hit more to these corners, and follow up these weaker shots with a winner.
Anticipating Patterns
Players generally tend to play within their playstyle. Within their playstyles, players also have their own patterns and tendencies. For example, one player may always drive straight from their forehand side, while another player may always hit a drop from the same position.
Throughout the match, try and learn the common shots your opponent is playing. This gives you a head start on the next shot by anticipating the pattern. Anticipation is a great way to turn lead your set up shot into a follow up shot. The video below shows anticipation in action. Lin Dan predicts his opponents’ shots to his forehand side and is able to hit winners off of it.
Play to your Strengths
Try your best to play to your strong points and create chances for yourself. If you are an attacking player with a strong smash, you will want to find ways to creatue opportunities to use it. You want to use the smash as your winner, so you can hit to your opponent’s weak corners and anticipate their shots. Or hit common shots that would lead to a smash opportunity. This is something we will touch on more in the next section. The important thing to note is to not force your strengths. Sometimes, you will still have to let the game come to you.
Common Patterns
Although every badminton matchup is different, there are still many common patterns of a set up shot into a follow up shot. We will discuss some of the most common ones below.
Smash & Kill
The smash into a kill or push shot is the most common follow up shot, and arguably the most exciting. At a high level, most lifts and clears will be high quality and all the way to the baseline. This means that trying to smashes will be easier to return when playing defense as they will be slower crossing the net, and winners should not be expected immediately. For attacking players, they have to master the next shot after the smash, by following up the smash as fast as possible with a push or kill.
Here is a great video explaining the smash & kill, and a short drill on how to practice it.
Net Drop into Smash
The next pattern, a tight net drop into a smash, is an extremely commonly played pattern by all types of players. When hitting net drops, players can generally expect 2 shots to be returned: another net drop, or a lift. When you hit a high quality net drop, it is much harder for an opponent to hit a high quality net drop or lift back to you – this is your opportunity.
Commonly, players will attempt to lift tight net drops as it is harder to try and re-net drop back. Here, you should follow up your net drop with a smash – in some cases, you will also follow up your smash, as mentioned above, with another kill.
Kento Momota demonstrates this pattern often, as he commonly leads his smashes with net drops.
Net Drop into Kill
As briefly mentioned above, most players have two options when faced with a net drop: either to net drop back or to lift. Previously, we talked about the scenario when the player decides to lift – here, we will talk about when the player decides to net drop back to you.
If you hit a good net drop, it is less likely for your opponent to hit a good net drop back to you. At the same time, you are also much closer to the front of the court since you had just hit a net drop. This presents you with a small, but winnable, opportunity to push or kill the net drop.
Learning to follow up your net drops with a kill takes a lot of practice, anticipation, and timing. Try to read your opponent’s tendencies and follow up some of your good net drops with a push, if the opportunity arises.
Follow Up Shots – Final Word
The winning shot of a badminton rally is undeniably the most exciting, as they are usually won with big smashes, tight net drops, or some deceptive shot. However, not many players consider the importance of the shot prior to the winning shot. Try to find opportunities in your own game to add more set up shots that will lead to a winning follow up shot. Practice the common patterns and see how it plays out in your own games!
About the Author
I am Justin Ma, a semi-professional US badminton player and founder of BadmintonJustin, currently aiming for the 2024 Olympics. I started playing badminton at the age of 10 after my brother started playing in high school, and began playing competitively at age 11. Throughout my career, I have won many national and Pan American singles titles and various other local and regional tournaments.
My all-time idols are both Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei – it is amazing to see two players battle it out over and over during their careers.
My biggest tip for players is to never forget how much fun you had when you just started playing. When you start training and competing seriously, it is easy to focus on results and growth rather than the fact you are doing what you love. Thanks again to Shuttle Smash for the opportunity to Guest Post on their site!
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