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There are three main overhead strokes:
1. Clears (attacking and defensive)
2. Smash
3. Drop shot

Each of these shots consist of three main parts
1. Preparation - As in all activities sound preparation is the all important foundation. In it are included movement to the shuttle and the back swing which leaves the striker actually ready to hit the shuttle.

2. Execution - It consists of the forward swing and the actual impact with the shuttle.

3. Completion - If not as exciting as the execution, but just as important. The follow through finally launches the shuttle under control and on-target. The recovery sends you quickly on your way to the next stroke


Defensive clear

Now turn these general terms into specific actions. First, however, understand the purpose of the clear. It is a shot hit high and deep to the back line of your opponents court. High, partly in order to avoid early interception and probably annihilation, and partly to give you time to recover safely back to your base, deep to the base line itself to blunt the effectiveness of your opponents returns.

Length is very important with this shot a shuttle decelerates very fast. So a shuttle struck from the very back of the court will, when you receive it, be travelling shorter or more slowly than one struck from 0.6 further forward. It will, therefore be more easily returnable.

So to the actual playing of the clear. You are, as we have already seen, mid-court in a position of readiness. As soon as you sport the flight of the shuttle to the back of your court you must obviously dance back two or three paces to position yourself sideways on so that if you allowed the shuttle to drop it would fall on your back foot. At the same time raise your racket directly upwards and drop it down over your right shoulder to scratch your back when he shuttle is just reaching its highest point. To do this your elbow is bent and your wrist cocked back.

So you are now sideways, with your weight on the back foot and your knees slightly bent. As the shuttle starts to drop throw the racket upwards with the heel of the hand leading. At the sane time spiral your body upwards to put your full weight into the shot. So 0.5m before impact uncock the wrist strongly but not fully, still hitting upwards. Make impact with the shuttle with a straight arm just to the right and just in front of your head. The racket-head is still angled upwards a 45o to obtain height with maximum length.

Now sweep the racket down to about waist height but keeping it on line to give the shuttle a last 'push' to its destined target thus sweeping down, you, well-balanced, are heading back to base, hopefully arrive there before your opponent can actually hit your return. A well-played shot and you are ready to play another equally good one.

Enough 'do's' to last you some time. Concentrate on these and you won't need the following 'don'ts'.

So don't fail to get behind the shuttle or your clear will be all height and no length.

Don't delay your back swing until the shuttle has actually begun to fall. That way your shot will be hurried and, without straight arm impact, lacking in power.

Don't fail above all other errors, push the racket forward instead of throwing it upwards. Lack of height and power will be the result.

Don't fail to put your body into the shot as well as arm and wrist.


Don't let your racket-head waver by a sudden relaxation of rip, turn of the wrist, or loss of balance at impact or your shot won't be on target. And don't stand there admiring your shot or you'll be in a whole heap of trouble with your next on.




Attacking clear

There are circumstances and techniques when the defensive clear can be changed into an attacking clear. It is a slightly advanced stroke - not difficult in technique, but too rarely used at club level through lack of tactical forethought rather than inability.

The circumstances for its use are when you are well placed and on balance at the back of the court while your opponent, lured into the net by drop-shots, is still reeling back off-balance and there is an inviting gap behind him/her. Or, when your smash has proved unavailing and a well-dug-in defender is clearly expecting yet another smash. Or even when defensive clears of impeccable length have forced your opponent into a belated and apparently irreversible race to recover to his/her central base.

So with your opponent off-balance or with a gape behind him/her, use your attacking clear. For deception and ease of technique play it exactly like your defensive clear. Except that … your point of impact is now more in front of your head and at impact your racket is angled upwards only very slightly. Your resultant punched shot therefore flies fast and almost flat, but just out of your opponent's despairing reach, to the unguarded space at the back of the court. You are well placed and in no need of time to recover so it is your turn to make your opponent hurry and to gain a satisfying outright winner or force a weak return.



The Drop Shot

In contrast, the delicate and attacking drop-shot gives a big return for a small expenditure of energy. It is a shot played, like the defensive clear, from between the two back lines. Although it is hit gently it is an attacking shot because it is hit down, not up. Its aim, the converse of the clear's, is to draw your opponent as far forward in court towards he net as possible to create possible opening behind him/her, or to attack him/her as he/she hurriedly retreats, off balance. The nearer the shuttle can be and the further your opponent has to advance and retreat.

Play it therefore exactly as you do a clear and so take your opponent by surprise. The only differences are that your point of impact is now just in front of your head. Your arm speed is dramatically reduced in its last 0.5m before impact, and the shuttle is gently but firstly hit down to fall no further back in your opponent's court than his/her front service line. Anything deeper than that will present him/her with no difficulties in returning it or recovering to base. Gradually, learn to drop it short and shorter and


Cautions! The drop shot at its best is a delicate and beautiful shot. As such it must be safeguarded by deception, for if it is spotted early for what it is. It has no defences. You must therefore make a full back swing and a forceful shot to within 0.5 of impact. Above all you must hit down, and don't over use the shot to the exclusion of others.




The Drop Shot (fast)

This is played exactly like the slow drop shot except that it is hit a little harder to drop about 1.2 - 1.5m behind the front service line. It is much used in mixed doubles when there is someone ready waiting at the net to destroy a slow drop.



The Smash

The third overhead shot is the smash, it’s the power shot, the shot that by sheer speed scorches through your opponent's defence. It is the clincher of rallies, the winner of points, the climax of a dozen previous shots. It is played with much the same action, which you have already mastered in the clears and the drop-shots. All three must be played similarly up to the last fraction of a second so that each is invested with deception as well as its own particular qualities. It differs from the clear only in these respects. You must position yourself further behind the shuttle since you are going to take it earlier and some 0.5 in front of your face. At impact the wrist full - and powerfully - uncocks so that the racket face is directed downwards. And because of this downward sweep the follow through is longer, down past the legs. But not so long that the racket cannot be quickly brought into action again to kill off the weak reply elicited. On occasions you will score an outright winner with your first shot. On others, your sash is only the first of a barrage, each eliciting a slightly shorter and shorter reply until after perhaps three or four sashes you can administer the coup de grace.

'Don'ts':

Don't be sluggish in your footwork.

Don't attempt to gain power by brute strength alone; remember that it is best achieved by the perfect synchronisation of each phase of the shot in a steadily rising crescendo of speed by timing.

Don't let the shuttle drop to low. Remember the old physics law- the longer the lever, the greater the power exerted. Remember, too that in these days of light racket manoeuvrability and fast reactions, speed alone will not always gain the day.

To be fully effective I needs three allies. The first is steepness. The hardest smash hit flat but not downwards can be attacked, driven downwards. If it is hit steeply, by means of straight arm and crisply uncocked wrist, the return must be lifted. The hunt is still on! The second is placement. The sash should never be a wildly swung blow: it should be directed to the badminton point of the jaw, the inner hip, to elicit a cramped reply; or to the badminton solar plexus, a gap from which the shuttle will not be returned. And the third is consistency. It gains you nothing to achieve one rabble-rousing outright winner if the next two tear holes in the bottom of the net or spread alarm amongst side-line spectators.

Compiled by JC Gomez for eGallerie