In this video, we're going to be talking about 4 simple mistakes
that beginners make when hitting lifts.
Lifts are an extremely important shot.
They can help you recover from dangerous situations in a rally,
or you can even control your opponent with your lifts if you catch it early.
It's extremely important to practice lifts as this shot is often overlooked.
Let's jump right in and take a look at 4 ways that we can clean up our simple lift mistakes.
#1 is catching it late.
This is a mistake I see too many players making.
Yes, sometimes you're forced to catch it low because your opponent is attacking you
and your only chance to recover it is to hit it low.
However, more times than not,
we actually have the opportunity to catch you early, but we don't.
Many players think it's okay to hit the shot low because we're hitting a lift anyways,
and we want to hit the bird up.
However, this is not necessarily the case.
When you're hitting it late,
you're giving your opponent more time to recover and react to your next shot.
Also, because you're catching it low, the bird has to travel much further
and take a much more time to get to the back of the court,
making this shot much slower than it would be if you caught it early.
If we catch you early, the opposite applies.
Your opponent has less time to react and recover to the shot
and there's also less time that the bird has to travel in the air,
meaning this can actually be an offensive shot.
So, if you have the opportunity, make sure you catch your lift early.
Don't always wait for the bird to come down,
just because we're trying to hit a high shot.
#2, using big motions.
This is a mistake I often make when hitting my lifts.
I always think that I need to be using a really, really big motion
to be able to hit the bird all the way to the back.
However, this is also not always the case.
If we were to apply the first rule of catching it early,
we can also use this rule to hit with a smaller motion.
When we catch you early, we can simply use a small flick of the wrist
to get the bird to the back of the court
instead of using your whole arm to lift the bird from the bottom of the court,
all the way back to your opponent's side.
At the same time, if using a much bigger motion,
your opponents already know what's coming.
They know it's a lift and they can back up easily and get ready to attack your shot.
Using smaller motions somewhat helps you to deceive your opponents,
because they can't predict what's going to come.
Try to eliminate as many of the big motions as you can,
and only save those for times that you actually are forced to lift.
#3 is overusing lifts.
Even if you are so confident in your defense,
this doesn't mean that you should lift every shot.
Just like you shouldn't hit a net drop every shot, a smash every shot.
This just becomes too predictable.
You always have to keep mixing up your shots,
otherwise your opponent can easily predict what you're doing.
At the same time, lifts are one of the easier shots to get to,
because they go high up in the air,
and your opponent has much more time to react and recover to the shot.
When you keep lifting,
your opponents just has more and more chances to attack
and try to find a winning shot, even if our defense is amazing.
Not all of us can keep this up forever.
So, make sure you mix in more net drops, pushes and kills with your lifts
to make your lifts more effective and harder for your opponents to retrieve.
#4 is placement of your lifts.
Most players think that lifts are actually just a very high shot
intended to play as a recovery shot and prepared for their opponent's offense.
This is not necessarily the case.
There are also many low lifts that you can play
to try and spook your opponent and get them out of position.
If your opponent is not prepared for these low lifts,
or to cut it off with one jump on each side,
then they'll have a hard and awkward time returning the shot,
because they have to twist their body, or hit a much lower shot back to you.
By hitting lower lifts,
you can also reduce the angle of your opponent's smashes, making them more flat,
because they don't have the chance to jump up and hit the shot downwards.
They can only jump to the side, or just drive the shot back.
Mixing up the height and placement of your lifts
will make it harder for your opponent to keep attacking you.
If you only hit extremely high lifts,
your opponent knows that every time they see you about to lift,
they can go back slowly and jump into the shot to smash it.
However, if you were to mix in some lower and faster lifts,
now they can't just wait and go slowly to the back.
They have to stand their toes and react the shot as it comes,
meaning sometimes they might have to jump out or move faster to get your lifts,
versus sometimes they're using this extra energy to get ready for your lifts
but then you would hit a high one where they normally go slower.
Make sure you mix up the placement of your lifts.
Don't always hit only high ones and don't always hit only low ones.
Keep your opponent guessing and make them earn the point from you.
And those are the 4 simple net lift mistakes that beginners often make.
Clean up these mistakes and you'll have a much easier time
defending your opponents offense and controlling the rally.
Thank you so much for watchingand that's all I have for you this time.
Until next time, keep on practicing your lifts.