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Simple overhand angled net shots

When playing a simple underhand angled (or cross-court) net shot, you may have noticed that the racket head is actually above your hand!

There’s very little difference here for an overhand shot. Although the shuttle is above net height, you can use the same technique — just bring your racket up a little higher to meet the shuttle early.

Cross-court deception

Deceptive overhand cross-court net shots are relatively unusual, and often quite tricky. Most of the time you will be better playing simpler shots. Nevertheless, if you take the time to practise these unusual shots, they can really surprise your opponent.

The more common variation is to fake straight, and play your real shot cross-court.

As with an underhand cross-court net shot, you need to move the racket head slightly outside the line of the shuttle, just before you complete the shot. This gives you room to complete the shot with a short, controlled movement to guide the shuttle along the net.

Unlike underhand net shots, you cannot change the angle by dropping your wrist and elbow. With an overhand net shot, your wrist is in the wrong orientation for that technique to work.

The good news is that you can change the angle using your fingers.

Using the fingers to change the angle of your grip

You change the angle of your grip by twisting the racket handle between your thumb and index finger. This causes you to roll the racket in your fingers.

This is different from your normal grip changes, which you use when switching grips before hitting a shot. With those grip changes, you roll the racket in your fingers and then let go for a moment, so that you can reposition your fingers on the handle. For these overhand angled net shots, you roll the racket in your fingers without letting go, and without repositioning the fingers.

On the backhand side, this rolling action will increase the space between your palm and the racket handle, and will leave your fingers in an arched position. On the forehand side, it happens the other way around: you begin with that extra space and arched fingers, and the gap closes when you change the angle.

This technique feels fairly awkward — even uncomfortable! However, it allows you to keep the racket head in the same place while you turn it.

The angle of the racket shaft

This technique will be easier and more deceptive if you can reach the shuttle with the racket shaft mostly vertical.

If the racket shaft is more horizontal (you’re reaching out to the side), then you will need a larger wrist movement to complete the shot, and this will mean you need to get the racket head farther outside the line of the shuttle (creating more room for the larger movement). This movement is necessary to make the racket face more directly sideways, rather than facing upwards too much.

Reversing the deception

As usual, you can also reverse the deception: fake cross-court, and play your real shot straight.

When changing the angle from cross-court to straight, it’s natural to end with your racket head tilted somewhat downwards (as it would be for a net kill). This will probably cause you to hit the shuttle into the net.

To avoid this, you need to bend your wrist backwards before hitting the real shot, causing the racket head to tilt upwards. Unfortunately, this creates a new problem: the racket is now farther away from the shuttle. So at the same time, you need to push the racket forwards to close the gap.

Deception from the middle of the net

We’re now getting into quite fancy shots! These shots are even less common than cross-courts, and can be very tricky to play.

You can of course simply play a variation of the cross-court deception, where you fake straight to the middle before playing to the natural corner (left for forehands, right for backhands). This is relatively simple, and often sufficient. The most difficult and damaging deceptions, however, involve faking to one corner before playing to the other.

For now, I’ll describe two general approaches:

• Twisting the racket in your fingers
• Missing the shuttle and hitting with the opposite side

Twisting the racket in your fingers

This method is similar to the deception for underhand angled net shots, in that you turn your forearm to get the racket head on the other side of the shuttle and create space for playing the new stroke.

The main difference is that you need to get the fingers and wrist more involved in creating the change of angle. On its own, the forearm rotation will not get you the right angle.

As with the underhand version, your real stroke will need to use a very short, controlled hitting action.

This shot is easy to do badly, but extremely difficult to do well. The challenge is to combine effective deception with an accurate net shot.

Missing the shuttle

For this method, you fake a backhand, deliberately miss the shuttle, and then play a forehand instead. Or you do the opposite: fake a forehand, miss the shuttle, and play a backhand. In both cases, your real shot is played with the opposite side of the racket than your fake shot suggested.

Your fake hitting action should be played early, as if the shuttle had already arrived at your racket — when in reality it’s not quite there yet. This might seem like an unconvincing fake, but opponents will often follow the direction that your racket suggests, even when the timing is slightly wrong.

After you complete the fake shot, you pause, wait an instant for the shuttle to arrive, and then play the real shot with the opposite side of the racket face.

Are these just trick shots?

When using the first deception (twisting the racket), it’s difficult to maintain the accuracy of your net shots. It’s more common to see this style of deception used for drives or pushes, where the change of angle is smaller.

The second deception (missing the shuttle) requires a relatively large delay between when you could have hit the shuttle, and when you actually hit the shuttle. It also relies on your opponent over-anticipating your shot; experienced opponents may realise that the timing of your fake shot is wrong, and simply wait for the real shot.

Both of these deceptions can be considered trick shots, and you will rarely (if ever) see them used in professional badminton. Yet they can be fun to play, and there’s nothing wrong with spending a small amount of your practice time on trick shots.

Which method is better?

If you just want a fun trick shot for casual club play, then try the second deception (missing the shuttle). This is much easier to learn, but you will probably find it doesn’t work well against experienced players.

If you want to learn one of the most deceptive shots in the game, then try the first deception (twisting the racket). This method is very difficult, but in my opinion it has the potential to work at a high level of play.

I can’t recall an example where I’ve seen either of these deceptive net shots used in professional matches, however (let me know if you find one).