How to Play A Backhand Clear In Badminton

Featured Image: Tsutomu Takasu

When asking players what the one thing is they want to improve on, the answer is always inevitable. They want to know how to play a backhand clear in badminton. This is probably the most common problem for amateur players in terms of shot strokes.

What Makes The Backhand So Difficult?

There is a reason the backhand is so difficult and it’s mainly anatomical. Novice players, with a bit of practice, can hit a fairly decent forehand overhead clear, even without the right technique.

This is because the shoulder joint allows forward rotation quite easily. The arm moves freely from the overhead position and the followthrough in front of your body is very natural. This allows you to generate more power as the joint allows you the play that shot with momentum.

This is not the case with the backhand. Your body does not allow you to swing at the same speed or allow the follow-through the same way. The backhand is all about technique, not strength and it’s this technique is what many players struggle with.

The Technique For The Backhand Clear In Badminton

In this article, I will talk you through the mechanics of how to play a backhand clear in badminton, splitting it into several stages. This is so that you can easily dissect the shot and perhaps focus on each individual element if you need to. I will not discuss how to improve your backhand (in terms of power) in this article. It’s much more important to get the technique correct first. I do intend to release an article later to help improve your backhand so stay tuned for that!

Grip

Before we get into the main crux of the article we do need to discuss the correct grip in order to play the backhand clear effectively.

Many players think that the thumb grip is the correct grip to play the backhand clear. Holding the racket in this way will not allow your wrist to move freely in the way needed to produce power and could lead to injury. The thumb grip is great for defensive shots and backhand drives, but for backhand clears we want to use the bevel grip.

The Bevel Grip

You might not be too familiar with this grip or even what the bevel is. If you look at the bottom of your racket handle, (where the brand of the racket usually is), you’ll notice the racket handle is octagonal in shape. The bevels are the four diagonal edges. Each of the edges obviously extends the length of the handle up until the shaft.

So for the bevel grip, your thumb lies along the bevel and you should loosely grip the racket with your other fingers. It should look similar to the image below. It’s important to maintain this relaxed grip throughout the duration of the shot until the point you hit the shuttle.

You should also grip the racket higher up the handle. This allows a more powerful whip effect that we will discuss below in stage 2

Shuttle Position

The shuttle shouldn’t be right above your head, or too close to your body. Instead, it should be a little further away from your body, roughly arm + racket length. This gives you more space for forearm supination, one of the key factors in producing more power in your backhand.

Stages Of The Backhand Clear

Stage 1 – Footwork To The Shuttle

I cannot stress how important footwork is in badminton, especially for the backhand clear. Just like any forehand shot you want to get behind the shuttle first. This gives you space, time and ability to play a more powerful shot. If your footwork is still a weaker area of your game, I would suggest you focus on this first. You won’t be able to play the backhand in a game if you can’t reach the shuttle in the first place!

Below are the steps for the footwork to approach the shuttle in order to play the backhand clear. Some are self-explanatory, others I will expand on a little. I am also going to assume a right-handed player. Obviously, if you are left-handed some of the movements will be the opposite.

1. Split Step – gives us the initial momentum to move in the desired direction.

2. Chasse – This is the movement towards the shuttle. It might be one or two movements depending on the distance you have to travel. It should not be any more than this. In many instances, you might find its one chasse and a small adjustment step.

3. Turn The Body – Leading with your hips, turn your back to the net. In doing so, this will naturally bring your right leg around allowing you to take the final step.

4. The Final Step – The final step ultimately takes us into the position from which we will play the shot. With our backs turned to the net, we step forward (away from the net) keeping the non-racket foot in place, allowing it to pivot as we take this step. The end result should look like the image below of Lee Chong Wei.

Stage 2 – Arm Action

In this stage, I will talk you through the arm actions that take place.

The difficulty in this section is understanding that the shuttle should be struck at the moment your final step lands. This is the link between stage one and two. In between landing your final step and actually hitting the shuttle – a lot happens in terms of your arm action!

1. Elbow rises – Up until this point, your elbow should be low. During the landing of your racket foot, your elbow rises to seemingly point at the shuttle. Imagine throwing your elbow towards the shuttle. your elbow will be about shoulder level and your shoulder should remain relaxed.

2. Wrist Cocks – You will also notice that raising your elbow slightly cocks your wrist very slightly. What I mean by this is that the wrist is bent inwards towards your body. So if you are right-handed, your wrist will bend to the left. Vice-versa for a leftie. The racket will come across your body as you raise your elbow and your wrist will naturally cock a little.

3. Forearm Supination – Your forearm now rotates from your elbow. When playing a backhand, this is known as supination. In doing so your elbow will fall to point down. Watch the below video paying attention to the rotation of the forearm. This is key to generating power.

4. Tighten Grip – Up until now, you should have had a loose grip on the racket. Right before you hit the shuttle, you should tighten your grip. This has the effect of creating a whiplash-like effect. It’s sometimes referred to as the wrist snapping. Although I don’t really like to use this term as it implies more of a wrist action when actually the supination is generating most of the power.

5. Strike The Shuttle – Finally, we are hitting the shuttle! This is done immediately after tightening your grip. The shuttle should be struck as high as possible which means your previous actions need to be with the intention of reaching that shuttle and hitting it as early and high as possible. It’s at this point your foot will have just landed on the floor!

Stage 3 – Recovery

Now that you’ve hit the shuttle we need to recover back to the base position.

1. Turn Back Into Court – On playing the shot, push off with your racket leg and turn your hips and body back to face the net. Think of it as your body following the shot around. If you keep your eyes on the shuttle at all times, you should find this easier as you will need to instinctively turn around to continue to watch the shuttle. Your racket foot should come around so now it is in front of your non-racket foot.

2. Chasse Back To Base position – From here you can now chasse or step back to the base position in order to recover for the next shot.

Putting It All Together

I have tried to be as comprehensive as possible in the above without wanting to be overbearing. I hope that the above does help in demonstrating how to play a backhand clear in badminton.

In terms of training, I would do the following:

1. Focus on footwork first! This means that you should practice step one and step 3 together, moving into the rear court and then recovering back to the base position.

2. Focus on getting the arm action right separately, without the footwork initially. Paying special attention to the raising of the elbow and the supination of the forearm. Do not use the shuttle here. Practice slowly, do not try and do this as fast as possible, and make sure it is controlled.

3. Once you have understood the above two steps, you can try putting them together. Have a feeder play the shuttle to the rear backhand corner and practice moving to the shuttle and playing the backhand clear! Do not worry about how far you’re hitting the shuttle at first. Just get comfortable with the action and making contact with the shuttle at the right height and with the right timing

4. As you become more capable, you can try to improve your power over time. As your technique improves you’ll find you will naturally start hitting the shuttle harder and faster.

Conclusion

This article was intended to give you an overview of the backhand and the individual components which go into playing the shot. I feel like it is important to understand the mechanics behind the shot in order to understand how to improve it, especially if you’re a beginner and just learning how to play a backhand clear in badminton.

Of course, there’s only so much detail I can go into here. The best thing you can do is have a coach show you and teach you the correct technique. Once you’ve got this down, it’s all about practice until you really nail it! In a separate article on the backhand, I will cover how to improve the power in your backhand clear and some common mistakes that might be limiting your power.

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