The biomechanics of badminton smash shot

• Biomechanics is one of the more significant disciplines in the field of exercise science and human movement.
• The purpose of biomechanics is to evaluate a living organism’s motion as well as its applications of force.
• Biomechanics applies the laws of mechanics and physics to study the bodily movements and the causes of movements, both internally and externally.
• Biomechanics analyses and improves an athlete's performance

• Badminton Smash shot is the most powerful of all badminton shots. There is almost no defence against a well executed smash shot. Hit with power and speed downward to your opponent's court. The angle and the steepness of the shuttle's trajectory will make it much more difficult for your opponent to return.
• Contact the shuttle further in front of your body, then hit the optimum zone on your racket which is located just above the central area of your racket.

• Newton's First Law of Motion:

An object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by external force.

• In badminton smash shot. It means that the shuttlecock won't move until you make contact with the racket or if it's already moving it won't change direction until you hit it again.

Newton's third Law of Motion:

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction".

In badminton smash shot when you hit and your badminton racket makes contact with the shuttlecock, the energy that the racket pushes into the shuttlecock, there is an equal amount of energy that goes back into the racket.

Newton's Second Law of Motion

Follow through

Stability and balance

Follow through comes after you hit the shuttlecock with the racket by allowing your racket arm and trunk to follow through cross to the your left (if you are right handed), because of the rotation during the jump as you land your racket leg will be in front and non-racket leg will be behind pointing your ankle toward the net. Your non-racket leg should land first then your racket leg, also there should be a little more of extension in your legs than your shoulder width to maintain balance. As you land start by pushing your non-racket leg and shift your weight from the back leg to your front leg and move forward toward the net.

The Biomechanics:

• Stability and balance is essential in most sports.

• In badminton smash shot, stability and balance including the center of gravity, Line of Gravity and Base of Support which are important because, by lowering the center of gravity in relation to the base of support, you can increase your balance when about to jump for a smash shot.

• By bringing the line of gravity near the base of support, the greater the probability of maintaining balance you will have.

Projectile

The biomechanics of Badminton

Newton's Third Law of Motion

• An object that is released into the air becomes projectile, in this case a shuttlecock. A shuttlecock can be effected by factors that determine how high and how far they will go. Therefore, speed of release, height of release, and the angle of release.

• Different angles effect the speed and release and the height

• Example. Increase speed of release, therefore the higher or further a shuttlecock in the air will travel.

Execution

By Jean Ndunguka

When executing, you start by push in your quads, extending in your hips using your gluteus (?) and finally pushing with your calves, this will generate most of the force that is transferred to your hips then to your abs, chest, shoulder, arm and finally into your racket, as you jump you start pulling your self up using your arms which will bring your arms into an open position where your non-racket arm will be pointing the shuttlecock and your racket is slightly behind your neck and the angle of your elbow is to about 90 degrees, your wrest is cut back. your racket leg should kick back, start rotating, pulling with your hips, abs and chest then throw your racket arm forward by stretching your elbow and finally contracting in your forearm and fingers.

Force summation

The biomechanics of my own badminton smash shot.

• Force summation is the element required to produce the power for the badminton smash shot. The force summation is required when generating the power for the smash shot, starting from the core of your body and eventually finishing with the flick of the wrist. This includes:

• Sequence of Body Segments.

It involves using the larger muscle groups first to generate large forces and then passing the momentum onto smaller and smaller muscle groups as they get closer to the end of the lever.

• Timing of Body Segments.

The correct muscle or muscle group needs to be innervated at the correct time in the sequence in order to maximise the momentum that can be generated.

• Use correct sequence/timing
• Fully stretch muscles to generate force
• full ROM by fully extending joints, limps, and body parts.

Badminton Smash Shot (BSS)

My recommendation feedback:

The preparation

1. "Bend your knees and balance on the balls of your feet to prepare your jump.

2.Spring into the air while staying balanced and keeping your upper body relaxed.

3. Begin to rotate your upper body as you prepare to hit the shuttlecock.

4.At your highest jump, you should be able to hit the shuttle.

5. Contract your body and release your energy with the snap of your wrist.

6. This should result an efficiently, powerful smash".

1. Your body should be relaxed – tense muscles move more slowly than loose ones. Use the forehand grip.

2. Stand ways, so that your non-racket foot and shoulder are almost facing the net. You should be standing so that the shuttlecock would drop down behind your back, if you were to let it fall. Your non-racket arm should point towards the shuttlecock, while your racket arm should also be raised, with your elbow bent and your wrist uncocked so that your racket is pointing upwards. as shown on the picture of a professional player below . Also your weight should be on your back foot.

Lin Dan

Newton's Second Law of Motion:

• Calculates how fast the shuttlecock will go when you hit the shuttlecock with racket.

• In badminton smash shot the force is supplied when you hit the shuttlecock with the racket.

• Force and acceleration are vectors which have a directional component so this will probably give you the direction where the shuttlecock will go.

Biomechanical correct technique:

• Force summation
• Stability and balance
• Centre of Gravity
• Base of Support
• Line of Gravity
• Projectiles
• Newton's law

Newton's First Law of Motion

Pro smash shot, after watching Dan Lin jump smash shot.

Badminton smashes

• Well prepared for a smash shot and leaning on the back foot to generate force.
• Elbows stabilised on the same line and shoulders on the same line facing the shuttlecock in the air.
• Non-racket arm lifted for balance
• Land with back foot first (non-racket foot) and follow through with the racket arm, foot and trunk, therefore ready for any return

My own smash shot

Newton's Second Law of Motion

The biomechanical problems with my smash shot

• Newton's Second Law of Motion:

When a force is applied to a mass, the result is acceleration of that mass in the direction the force is applied.

• In badminton smash shot. Which means how fast the shuttlecock will go when you hit it with the racket. The force is supplied when you hit the shuttlecock with the racket. Force and acceleration are vectors which have a directional component so this will give you the direction where the shuttlecock will go.

• poor preparation for jump
• did not jump as high as I should
• incorrect racket head angle for an impact
• arm not fully extended for a smash shot, so this reduced the arm moment
• poor force summation, therefore poor force production, timing and sequencing
• there is no follow through, therefore I would not estimate where the shuttlecock will land
• You can also see that my stability and balance is not as great because both of my legs did not create a needed wide BOS and that's why I could not have a great jump. Also because I did not lowered my COG in relation to my BOS, I could not increase my balance for jumping for a smash shot. Unfortunately as you can in my shot I did not bring my LOG near my BOS for me to have a greater probability of maintaining my balance.