Where to smash in badminton

You don’t always have to use power in your smashes to win a rally if you have proper technical knowledge on where to smash it will be much easier for you to win a point. In this article, I will tell you where you should be smashing in every discipline(singles, doubles).

Now if you are searching this it means that you have already learned how to hit a Smash but if you are still struggling with your technique you can read this article.

Where to Hit smash in

• Singles (men, women)
• Doubles (Men, women, mixed doubles)

Where to smash in Singles

Let’s start with men’s category

On lines

Now you might be thinking “it is one of the most obvious things, I know that you should hit a Smash on the line if your playing single”, yes you should be aiming for the line in singles but if you are not paying attention to your opponent body position then these smashes are pointless.

So I will teach you how to decide which side you should be aiming for.

Strategy no.1

Make your opponent off balance on one side of the cold and then hit A cross-court smash, I have seen lin dan using this technique so many time, what he would do is that he makes 4-5 short continuously to his opponent one side and when he sees that his opponent is off balance he suddenly hit cross Court Smash catching his opponent off guard .

Strategy no 2

Now if you continuously use strategy number one then your opponent might start anticipating your shots, so for a change instead of going for a cross smash hitting a straight smash in the same situation is a good tactic.

Body smash

This is one of those places where a beginner or even an intermediate player hit there smash because they think that their opponent can return it easily, but you might be doing it all wrong.

When it comes to body smashes there is a particular spot which you need to AIM at for making it successful.

You should always be aiming for your opponent racket dominant hip, it means to try to hit smash near your opponent hip area( racket dominant ) because in that way he will get confused whether to take the shuttle with his forehand or his backhand which will give you a week reply from him.

Long smashes(more beneficial to backhand side)

This one I learned from my friend because of his bad habit(now proving him helpful), All his shuttle(smash) lands on the back service line (singles).

The advantage of these long smashes is that as the shuttle is traveling at opponents’ hip level it is hard for him to control defense shots, especially from the backhand side.

Where to smash in Women singles

Winning a point with singles is defined more on your accuracy and short quality whereas less on your power so we will discuss some strategy according to this scenario

Strategy number one

In women single, players(international/national) are known for having quality footwork and amazing flexibility so making them off balance will be a little bit difficult but what I have noticed by practicing with them that many females players pay less attention to improving their backhand.

So you can utilize this weakness by obtaining a week return from your opponent on the backhand side and then smashing the return in empty space.

Now, this may vary from person to person whether she has a good or bad backhand, your aim while playing the match should be to try every possible shot that you know and observe where your opponent is lacking behind.

All other strategies will be the same as men’s singles which I have mentioned earlier.

Doubles

Where to smash in Men’s Doubles

Stick smashes

In this type of smash, you are not using your full power but giving a sharp angle to shuttle using your waist and jump height.

The main purpose of the shot is to take the shuttle land in front of your opponent which is a good variation in Doubles because most of the intermediate players do aspect these type of shot from their opponent if you want to know more about sticks message read this article

Close to your opponent hip area

I have also talked about this when we were discussing a single strategy.

And it is also useful herein Doubles because of the same reason that if you smash to your opponent hip area(racket dominant) an average player gets confused whether to take shutter with his backhand or forehand giving front Court player an opportunity to intercept the opponent shot.

Body smash

Again a good tactic, try to hit smash between their hip and chest area and see how that works out, but keep in mind that your Smash should be close to their body because if you hit this type of shot on their forehand side then get ready for hard counter-attack always try to keep this shot close to their body.

Watch this video where he continued in a single match won 3 points by body smash

Where to smash in women doubles

In Women’s double long rallies are common, I have seen a video Where a rally continued for 4 minutes, a person with common sense can conclude from this that smashing in women doubles will not be her best bet, now you might be thinking then how would I supposed win a rally

So here, you need to change your perspective of what a Smash is in women’s double the only goal of attacking player in women’s double should be to create a somewhat weak reply from the opponent so that her partner in the front Court can intercept the shot.

Now you can use the tactics which I have talked about in the men’s double paragraph but what I have found by looking at International or National matches that female player have much more better defense than men’s players.

Instead of focusing on power try to look for gaps during a rally which can be generated by deceptions or a quick diagonal shot

Smashes which I talked about in men’s Doubles paragraph
Long smashes, Body smashes, stick smashes

Mixed Doubles

You might get surprised from my answer on mixed double but if you are playing against a good here then I would suggest you to not hitting smashes on female player because it is so obvious strategy that now coaches pay special attention to female player on training their defense so next time when you play mix double hit more attacking shot to her partner, I am pretty much sure you will get an advantage during a match.

The only way you can win a match against an equal level pair by keeping the male player in frontcourt and female player in the backcourt (opponents)

All other strategies are same as men’s double.

Thank you for reading…….