Practice The Badminton Smash

Smash is the most important technique for a player to win in a badminton game. In a game, there are many smashes perform by a player. If you wish to win in a game, you need to be very offensive by doing smart and powerful smash.

You might be what’s called a touch player where you try to smash the shuttlecock around the court with angled shots and deception. It would be best if you smashed sharply and accurately without wasting too much of your energy. To master the skill, you will need to practice it.

Badminton Smash

The badminton smash is one of the hardest shots in badminton to defend against. It is executed by bringing your racket up high over your head—almost as if you were serving in a game of tennis – and then hitting the shuttlecock with as much force as possible down towards the surface of your opponent’s court.

Since your opponent’s return shot must travel upwards, the smash sets you up for several shots. You can do a tight, spinning net shot, yet another smash to the opposite sideline of your opponent’s court, or a cross-court drop shot. If your opponent backs away from the net, expecting another smash, you can also choose to block the shuttlecock to the net.

How to Smash in Badminton with Power

Most people can’t perform powerful smashes when playing badminton. They do not lack power, but they do not use the power properly.

From the forced perspective, deconstructing a complete smashing action can be divided into the following 6 processes. They involve chest strengthening, abdomen strengthening, elbow releasing, inner rotation, chest contraction, and abdomen contraction.

1. Chest strengthening

The first step is to strengthen the chest fully. In short, it is the contraction of the back muscles and the development of the pectoral muscles. The synergy between them is indispensable.

From the perspective of movement, chest expansion is the process of raising the upper arm and adducting the scapula.

The movement of the chest is similar to that of throwing the javelin.

2. Abdomen strengthening

It is not enough to only strengthen the chest muscles. It would be best if you also strengthen the abdominal muscles. Don’t worry if you don’t have abdominal muscles. Your abdominal muscles are hidden under the fat, and they can be pulled out from the fat when you need it.

To strengthen your abdomen, you need to strengthen your stomach and straight your back. By doing so, it will pull your abdomen muscle. After the first two processes are completed, the racking process is completed.

3. Swift your elbow

At this moment, be prepared to release the power.

From the swing action, it is the process from the rack to the shot. At this point, the grip is behind the head, and the palm is facing obliquely rearward.

At the moment of release, you need to turn your elbow. When turning elbows, the elbows should not be too close to the front body nor too close to the face. This is to keep the muscles tight and ready to do a powerful smash.

4. The inner rotation

Inner rotation is the moment to release your energy.

At this point, the arm is stretched and quickly rotated forward to the back of the hand to hit the shuttle—the wrist bands with the back of the hand during the shot.

The elbow joint is moved forward by the forearm and the hip rotation, while the center of gravity is reclined to the back.

5. Chest contraction

Now is the time for you to contact your chest. It is performed at the same time you do the inner rotation.

The scapula is abducted, the chest muscles contract and the back muscles are strengthening.

6. Abdomen contraction

It is the same as chest contraction. The abdomen and the back are naturally bent. The powerful smash action is completed.

Where To Smash

In a singles match, the most common badminton smash shot is towards your opponent’s sideline. This can be very effective because it forces your opponent to cover the full width of the court.

When you smash to a sideline, your opponent has to move quickly sideways to reach the shuttlecock. This can force your opponent to take the shuttlecock at full stretch or even behind the body, making it more difficult for them to do a good return shot.

The disadvantage of a cross-court smash is that your opponent’s return is the easiest – the straight block – which forces you to travel diagonally.

The Body Smash

Another valid tactic in badminton is to make badminton smash shot directly at your opponent’s body. In this case, your opponent may not be able to get his racket into a good position to return the smash. This smash is generally played as an attempted winning shot.

However, the body smash may not be as effective as a smash towards a sideline because it doesn’t force your opponent to cover more of the court.

A straight badminton smash shot is a safe smash as this effectively limits your opponent’s ability to return the smash at several different angles. Also, straight smashes are much faster than cross-court smashes as they need to travel a shorter distance.

How Do You Block a Smash in Badminton?

To execute this shot, you hold your racket about head high with its face open and square to the net. You observe the shuttlecock as your opponent smashes it and then move the racket’s head quickly into the path of the shuttlecock. You then block the shuttlecock without swinging the racket at all.

Instead, you let the shuttlecock hit the face of your racket and then drop down into your opponent’s side of the court. The best block to the net is where the shuttlecock lands near your opponent’s short service line.

A block to your opponent’s middle is rarely a good idea as all this does limit your opponent’s return angles. A straight block is the easiest shot and the best choice if your opponent has smashed cross-court.

This is because a straight block will force your opponent to travel the longest possible distance to return it. The downside is that the shot is very predictable, and your opponent may be expecting you to play it.

The best response after a straight smash is a cross-court block because it forces your opponent to change direction and cover more distance. However, it is also more difficult to execute, especially when the smash is hit very hard.

Read also: How to Play Badminton With Different Strategies?

Try A Lift

Another way to return a badminton smash shot is with a lift, but it is generally not as effective. A lift, or high, looping return, can allow your opponent to continue smashing. However, a series of these smashes can wear out your opponent. But you do need to make sure you get good height and depth on the lifts.

In badminton, a well-placed smash can mean a winning shot. But if you’re on the receiving end of the badminton smash shot, don’t despair. As you have read, there are several things you can do to effectively return a smash and even take control of the net.

Badminton Smash Drill for Beginners

There is one drill that beginners can use to improve the power of their smashing.

Instead of tackling the smashing by itself, there is a simple drill to break it down. By practicing this drill, it is much easier for you to use full power when doing smashing. And at the same time, it is much easier for you to get the swing and the angle correct.

What you need to do first is you need to get a partner to feed you the shuttles in front of the net.

You start with your left leg right behind the line, with your racket always up and in the ready stance. Your partner can start throwing the shuttles, and you do the smash. You can start the drill by swing, return, swing, return and repeat many times.

The trick is, when you do this tapping or net-kill, you need to use your strength to the maximum. This differs from the common technique where you use your wrist. The purpose of the drill is to practice using full power when you are still a beginner.

Badminton Smash Grip

What is the grip for you to perform a powerful smash? In fact, it is a natural transformation process. During the smashing process, don’t deliberately keep the “standard grip.”

When smashing, it is the forehand grip method. After smashing, you should grip the racket like a fist.

In the process of smashing, you should change your grip like this:

1. You begin with the standard forehand grip.
2. Then, when hitting the shuttle, your index finger slides down against the middle finger and grips the racket.
3. Your thumb needs to “circle a little.”
4. Therefore, when you smash the shuttle, your grip should turn into a fist grip.

If you can use the strength from your thumb, you can increase the power of your smash by 15%.

This means if your thumb is down and grip rounded a bit, you will be able to use the strength from your thumb.

Workout to Strengthen your Smash

If you want to improve your smash shot in badminton, then strength training is required.

Flat bench press

The flat bench press is mainly aimed at the process of improving the elasticity of the chest.

Abdominal muscle training

Abdominal muscle training is very simple. Do 1 set of sit up for 25 times, a total of 3 sets.

This training also improves the elasticity of the abdomen muscles.

Back muscle training

The training of the upper back is mainly based on rowing and pull-ups.

Standard pull-ups. Please pay attention to the arm when it is lowered. The arm needs to be straight.

Pay attention to the movement of the scapula when rowing and hardening, and feel the backward contraction of the scapula under the back muscle.

You can train your lower back with a back extension workout. The action needs to be standardized. Raise the head and don’t collapse the chest. Make sure the feet are slightly wider than the shoulders, and the knees are in the same direction.

How Do You Strengthen Your Arm For Badminton?

The easiest and most effective way to strengthen your arm is to do push-ups exercise.

1. Set the distance between your two hands

The distance between 2 hands is slightly wider (or slightly narrower) of the shoulders. Place the elbows parallel to the ground.

As long as the hands and shoulder width are not equal, the difficulty level of push-ups will increase accordingly. The method where hand distance is slightly wider than the shoulder focuses more on exercising the arm and shoulder muscle. At the same time, the method where hand distance is slightly narrower than the shoulder is more focused on exercising chest muscles and back muscles.

2. Hand and leg gesture

The technique can be divided into full palm support, fist support, and finger support.

It can be divided into three types of postures: forward, inward, and outward.

The whole palm support uses the whole palm to support the ground; the first support is to use the form of the fist to support the ground; the finger support is the method of supporting the ground with the first joint of the finger. The strength required for fingering is enormous, and the difficulty is the highest.

The foot can be divided into two forms: the first one is having two feet close to each other. The second one is slightly open the leg to keep a distance between them. They can also be supported by the instep or the arch of the foot.

3. Exercise frequency

You can practice by combining fast and slow speed. Do a few times of quick push-ups, and then do a few times slow one. You can set the number of push-ups you want to do and set the time you want it to be done.

Changes in frequency can better stimulate muscle growth. So, it is best for you to cross-use them, and you will not feel tired easily during exercise.

Practice push-ups need to go step by step, from easy to difficult. Before doing push-ups, you need to massage, swing, and stretch your upper limbs to prevent muscle stiffness.

When doing push-ups, you should explore push-ups that suit you and control the exercise load. Push-ups have a good effect on the muscles of the arm, abdomen, back, and chest.

Can you smash a serve in badminton?

Yes, you can! You can smash any shuttle that comes close to your upper body.

The smash on serve more often happens for singles. This is because there are more high serves being played in singles. While for doubles, most players will do the low serves, and the opponents will have less chance to smash on the serve.

Read also: Badminton Defensive Training and Tactics