Forehand overheads
- Forehand clear, using the basic grip
Use the basic grip for forehand clears, drop shots, and smashes.
You may need to adjust your badminton grip if the shuttlecock has travelled behind you.
When you are smashing in the ideal position (with the shuttlecock in front of you), a small adjustment towards panhandle can be helpful.
Normally you should not change your badminton grip in order to play crosscourt: vary your arm swing instead. A normal forehand arm swing has plenty of flexibility for changing the angle of overheads. The exception is when you are taking the shuttlecock from behind your body, but normally you would not attempt a crosscourt clear or smash from this position anyway.
Backhand overheads
- Backhand clear, using the bevel grip
Use the bevel grip for backhand clears, drop shots, and smashes.
You may need to adjust your badminton grip towards panhandle if the shuttlecock has travelled behind you.
If you play a backhand overhead with the shuttlecock in front of you, you need to adjust towards a thumb grip.
To play a crosscourt backhand clear or smash, it may help to adjust your grip farther towards panhandle. The backhand swing is more restricted at the shoulder joint than the forehand, so it’s harder to use your arm swing to control the angle of your backhand overheads.
Forehand slices
For slice or reverse slice smashes, you do not need to adjust your badminton grip (slicing your clears, by the way, is pointless). You can simply change the timing of your stroke so that the badminton racket is angled when it strikes the shuttlecock.
For slice or reverse slice drop shots, however, it can be helpful to adjust your badminton grip. The idea is to hold the badminton racket more sensitively in the fingers, allowing you to create more spin.
Slice drop shots
For slice drop shots, I recommend using the bevel grip instead, with the badminton racket held more in the fingertips than normal. This allows you to roll the badminton racket in your fingers more effectively. The idea is that, instead of simply slapping the shuttlecock with an angled hit, you can turn the racket inwards as you hit the shuttlecock, brushing around the shuttlecock to create more spin.
- Key tip
The more spin you create, the better your drop shot. Brush around the shuttlecock for maximum spin.
The fingertip control of the bevel grip allows you to do this more sensitively, turning the badminton racket between your thumb and first finger with precise control.
Reverse slice drop shots
You can either use a standard basic/bevel grip, or you can adjust the grip towards panhandle.
A slight panhandle allows you to make more of a sideways brushing action, from right to left: the badminton racket will be facing more parallel to the net.
When you use this slight panhandle, your drop shots will tend have less speed. This should not be surprising, because your hitting action is more sideways, rather than forwards. Consequently, you may find it difficult to play a fast cross-court reverse slice.
- Key tip
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Cross-court drop shots need more speed, because they have a longer distance to travel.
In my experience, the shift towards panhandle is effective only for straight reverse slice drops: it helps me to slow down the shuttlecock, while still making a fast arm movement. Since the arm makes a pronounced sideways movement, it also gives the appearance of hitting cross-court.
For cross-court reverse slice drops, however, I find that the slight panhandle slows down the shuttlecock speed too much: my attempted fast
drops tend to be slow, or even fall short of the net! This does not happen when I use a standard basic grip.
This is a subtle issue, and the best advice I can offer is to experiment with both methods.