Every situation in badminton is different, so it is hard to choose a good tactical solution. Even though there are no shots that are always the right choice, there are several rules of thumb, that can help you to be more succesful in badminton. Here are my 7 advice for tactics in singles.
1) Follow up your smash
Especially when you hit with power be ready to follow up on your smash. Almost every time, the shot by your opponent will come back to the same side where you smashed to, and most likely it will be a short defence. Don’t waste any time or try to get to the center of the court, and in those situations you also don’t need to do another split step when your opponents hits his next shot. The follow up can also easily practiced with exercises like this one here:
2) Lift to the forehand side of you opponent
When you hit beside your body on the forehand side you should use a China Jump (Here I tell you why and how to do it) When you hit during a China Jump you can use almost no power from your lower body, so most players cannot hit that hard, compared to shots during a Scissor Jump with body rotation (more about that in this video)
3) No slow shots to the net under pressure
If you are under pressure, especally in the rearcourt it may sound like a good idea to slow the ralley down, but in almost every case that is the wrong decision. Usually it will just give your opponent an even better chance to put pressure on you again or finish of the ralley. That’s why you should try to put some tempo in your shots to have a chance to get back into the ralley. In this video I explain, how you can do that technically:
4) Cross back under pressue
When your opponent has the upper hand during a ralley and he plays cross, he will most likely follow up on his shot and move quickly to the other side of the court. By playing back a cross short you have good chances to break his footwork rhythm and get back into the ralley!
5) Turn your opponent
Especially tall players can get into trouble when they have to turn their body. You can force that turning of the hip very well by playing to the both rearcourt corners in alternating fashion while taking the shuttle early and keep the pace in the ralley.
6) Learn to make the court big
Especially when you are fit and love long ralleys with a lot of running you should practice to play with a „big court“. Thats means to play shots that force your opponents to go all the way to the corners like close net shots or high lifts to the backline.
7) Learn to make the court small
Exactly the opposite to advice 6: Especially if you are a good doubles players that is good with the racket or if you are really explosive on the first step making the court small is a good idea. When you play with more tempo further into the court you will realize that your opponent will also have a hard time to play into the corners so the court you have to cover will get a lot smaller.
The following video will sum up all seven points i just mentioned:
