Deceptive cross-court net shots

Deception is effective here because your opponent must move across to cover the straight net shot (which takes the shortest time to arrive). Because this pulls him away from the centre, the cross-court angle becomes more damaging.

In other words, your opponent will find it more difficult to cover the whole net when you are hitting the shuttle from one corner. Deception always becomes more effective when your opponent has greater difficulty covering the different options.

Faking straight, then playing across

Prepare as though you are going to play a straight net shot. Everything has to look the same, especially your racket angle.

The fake action must be obvious: your opponent must have time to see it. Try to hold this position for a moment, if you have time. Holding the shot will make it more deceptive.

Delay changing the angle as long as you can. You want to use a short, quick action so that your opponent has little time to correct his position.

Just before you play the shot, move the racket head slightly sideways, outside the line of the shuttle — that is, away from the centre of the court. This creates the space needed to change the angle.

How to change the angle of the racket

Avoid making a big, sweeping action of the arm. This takes too long, so it’s not deceptive; you also lose accuracy.

Instead, try to turn the racket face sideways, but without changing the position of the racket head. To achieve this, you will need to make several coordinated movements of the wrist and arm:

• Lower your wrist and elbow
• Turn your forearm inwards
• Adjust the angle of your wrist

Combining all these movements into one fluid motion takes practice!

The wrist movement

On the forehand side, the wrist movement is small. You only need to change from a slightly bent (extended) wrist to a neutral wrist position.

On the backhand side, however, the wrist movement needs to be larger: it changes from a bent forwards position (flexed) to a bent backwards position (extended). This backwards-bending wrist movement may feel unnatural, but it’s essential for achieving a tight cross-court angle.

Because of this larger wrist movement, you will likely find that deceptive cross-court net shots are more difficult on the backhand side.

Using the fingers to help change the angle

You can use your fingers to help control the change of angle. Tightening your grip correctly will help you make the movement faster and sharper; this is especially important on the backhand side, where the change of angle is more difficult.

The following suggestions are only for backhands. For forehands, the angle change is better controlled without using the fingers to turn the racket: the change of angle comes mainly from the forearm. Nevertheless, grip tightening will help on forehands too.

Make sure that you have plenty of space in your grip: there should be a gap between your palm and the racket handle.

Tightening the grip with your last two fingers (ring finger and little finger) will cause the racket to rotate inwards. This will close the gap that you had in your palm (that’s why you need the gap to start with).

You can also twist the racket between your thumb and index finger during this grip tightening. This can contribute additional turning of the racket face.

Try to coordinate this grip tightening with your wrist and arm movements. If you time it right, the grip tightening can help make your wrist movement faster and more precise.

A trick to make it easier

If you are able to take the shuttle very early, near the top of the net tape, then you can approach straight net shots with a flat racket. You then use forwards motion alone to push the shuttle over the net, instead of needing to angle the racket face forwards. This typically produces high, tight net shots; consequently, this method is almost never used in doubles, where such net shots are extremely vulnerable to a net kill.

This posture will make it easier to change the angle from straight to cross-court, especially on your backhand, because the wrist is already in a neutral position: the wrist doesn’t need to move as much. However, it also makes playing a lift more difficult.

This is not effective when you are positioned farther back from the net. Here, in order to show a convincing straight net shot, you really need the racket facing forwards somewhat.

The hitting action

You have two options for the hitting action:

• A sharp action with a sudden stop (and a rebound)
• A smoother pulling or hooking action

I’ve seen the sharper action taught by Peter Rasmussen, and the smoother action taught by Badminton England. Both are valid; certainly I’ve seen world-class players use both actions.

In my opinion, the sharper action is more deceptive. However, it doesn’t work well when you are reaching farther out to the side and therefore need more wrist movement; in this situation, especially on the backhand, I recommend using a smooth pulling action to help control your shot.

Adding an extra fake

Now let’s look at a more sophisticated version of the basic cross-court deception.

Warning!

Sophisticated does not mean better! The basic deception should be the mainstay of your cross-court net shots.

Treat the following deception as an additional weapon, not as a replacement.

This deception involves two fake shots:

• You fake a straight net shot
• For your second fake, lower the racket, as though playing a deceptive lift
• Finally, play a cross-court net shot instead

Both fake shots must be obvious enough so that your opponent can detect them. The real action, however, should be quick. The technique for changing the angle is just the same as in the basic deception.

This deception is really only useful in singles. Before learning this deception, you must learn how to play a deceptive lift from the net. When your opponent starts adjusting to your deceptive lifts, you can confound him again by faking these lifts and playing a cross-court net shot instead.

And what if he adjusts to this new deception? Why, revert to the old one, of course! You now have plenty of weapons to play with.

The disadvantage of this deception is that you are deliberately letting the shuttle drop slightly before you play the shot. In theory, this gives your opponent more time; however, if the deception is effective, the disruption of his movement will more than compensate for this.