Do you ever feel like you don't know whether to intercept a shot or leave it for your partner, or
that you can never play a good shot from your interceptions? Well in this video we're going
to share seven rules for intercepting at the net so you can go from feeling like that to feeling like this
Being able to intercept at the right time will not only help your partner out but
it will give your opponents less time to react and put them under more pressure helping you to
win more points as a result! So let's get started with rule number number one, where to stand.
A lot of people actually get their positioning wrong so we're going to break down the fundamentals
including two common mistakes and one surprising tip so which side should you stand on? Well there's
no definitive right answer here but let's show you two scenarios which will hopefully give you
a better understanding scenario one is when your opponents have lifted and you know your
partner is in a good threatening position at the back here you should stand slightly further over
to the side that your partner is on and we'll go through why you should do this in the next rule
but scenario 2 is when your opponents have lifted and this time your partner is off balance and in
trouble at the back you would now stand slightly to the other side because your partner is likely
to play a worse shot and your opponents will want to hit into the big gap on the other side
of the court and standing slightly to this side means you're more likely to be able to
intercept this shot bearing those two scenarios in mind you should almost never be stood in the
middle of the court and this is the first common mistake people make if you only ever stand in the
middle it makes it really difficult to intercept unless your opponents hit it straight to you and
it also makes it difficult for your partner to know which side to cover which results in them
having to cover both sides so to be able to help your partner out and intercept these shots you
also need to know how far back you should stand and our second common mistake is that people
often stand too close to the net yeah being too close close makes it more difficult to react in
time leading to you either mistiming it or missing it completely as we've shown in a previous video
being stood too close like this means I could only get around 50% of Gregs shots back but being
stood around here which is roughly where we'd recommend standing to intercept shots means I
could then intercept almost every shot now for our potentially surprising Point can you notice
a difference between these two clips most of you will typically have your feet side by side like this
which makes you faster when moving side to side but because we want to move slightly
backwards for some interceptions having your feet like this at a slight diagonal in line with the
corner that you think the shuttle is going to go will help you be much faster and therefore more
likely to intercept the shuttle it's kind of a similar concept to returning the flick serve you
wouldn't be stood with your feet side by side but this tip and actually this whole rule will
depend on our second rule and this is to be aware of where your partner is hitting their shot too
yeah and this is a really important rule because being aware of your partner's likely shots should
actually change where you stand so we're going to give you three tips to help you master this
as well as one common mistake that people make so firstly if your partner is playing lots of
soft Drop shots and your opponents are taking it late then it's almost impossible for them
to play a flat lift and the most lightly reply is either a net shot or a high lift this means it's
almost pointless for you to be stood all the way back here and instead you should be much
closer to the net the second tip is to add some set plays to create an interception opportunity
like we mentioned earlier if your partner is in a good position and you move slightly to the
same side your partner can hit a straight Smash down the tramline because the most likely reply
is a straight shot which you can then intercept but there's one common mistake that's preventing
you from doing these set plays and that's a lack of communication with your partner you can't get
angry at your partner for smashing down the middle and not setting up your amazing interception
because you didn't tell them to smash straight and these same principles apply if your partner has
played a midcourt shot and you're at the net or if you've hit the previous shot! The third tip is to
listen to the sound of your partner's strings as they're hitting as this is the best way to figure
out what shot they're playing to keep it simple a louder sound is typically a smash which means
the shuttle is more likely to come back harder so you can intercept it and a softer sound would
typically be a drop shot where you then might move your position forward slightly what a lot
of people do to see what shot their partner is hitting is turn around but we wouldn't recommend
this firstly because it's dangerous and secondly you can't keep an eye on what your opponents
are doing which is actually our third rule yeah watching what your opponents are doing will help
you decide how far back to stand and also where to stand for example if you see your opponent coming
in with a straight arm and one slow motion like this they're more likely to block the shuttle so
you'd want to be stood closer to the net whereas if they look like they're preparing with a big
back swing this means they're more likely to hit the shuttle hard and you can then be
ready to intercept it seeing these cues from your opponent's body and Racket positioning will hugely
improve your ability to intercept shots and this is why players like Hendra Setiawan the oldest player
on the World Tour can still win so many games he has an unbelievable ability to read his opponents
and intercept their shots yeah so try to learn to read your opponents and this will also help
you in uncertain scenarios because there's not always a right or wrong way to move or shot to
go for in badminton being aware of where your partner is going to hit it and also being able
to read your opponents will help with our fourth rule having the correct racket positioning firstly
we'd recommend being in a relaxed forehand grip for almost all interceptions no matter
which side the shuttle is on this is because you should actually rarely change to a backhand grip
to intercept the shot because it takes too long and this means you won't be taking the shuttle
as early and therefore won't be able to play an aggressive shot so where exactly should you have
your racket well this is up for debate and we've made an entire video on this topic but in general we
recommend having your elbow up as your opponent is about to hit it this means that you'll be faster
to the shuttle and it will help you play a better shot but you will see a lot of players especially
Pro players with their rackets seemingly by their ankles and they still seem to intercept just fine
well this is because they have lightning fast reactions and Racket speed so they're able to
bring their arm up as their opponent hits it if you can also be successful doing this then
that's fine but for most players us included it's usually better to have your racket ready
earlier AKA just as your opponent is about to hit their shot remembering rule two and three
you should have your racket positioning higher if your partner hits a steeper shot as the shuttle is
likely to come back higher in contrast you should have your racket a bit lower if your partner plays
a flatter smash or drive okay moving on our fifth rule to improve your net interceptions
is to improve your reactions the previous four rules have largely been about your predictive
mechanisms and anticipation to help you intercept better but improving your pure reaction speed will
also help we've actually done an entire video on four fun ways to improve your reactions so we'll
include that in the description below if you want to check it out after this yeah and before we get
on to the last and possibly most important rule our penultimate rule rule six is that you need
to practice you wouldn't expect to pass your driving test without ever having driven a car
so how can you expect to intercept well without practicing beforehand yeah so we're now going to
give you two different ways you you can practice the first focuses on your technique and this
is where someone hits in one shuttle at a time hard but in an upwards Direction we'd recommend
starting by doing this on one side only and then moving to the other side to practice the random
element of interceptions once you've mastered the technique you can try our second practice
for this you need three people where a feeder lifts your partner is behind you and smashes
at the feeder and then the feeder hits a drive for you to try and intercept this is where you
can practice improving your predictive mechanisms by Looking For The Straight interception if your
partner smashes straight or maybe the crosscourt interception if your partner smashes down the
middle and the final rule is that to become a master of net interceptions you need to take
risks both in training and in matches yeah you won't always make the right decision but you'll
learn over time what are the right and wrong shots to go for although as we've mentioned there's not
always a right or wrong way to move or shot to go for in badminton and even the pros don't get it
right 100% of the time but what's 10 times worse than taking a risk and occasionally getting it
wrong it's just being stood in the middle and not doing anything! By the way at the time of filming
this video we're so close to reaching 400,000 subscribers and by the time we release it we're
hoping to have hit it so firstly a huge thank you to you all for the support and for watching our
videos to celebrate reaching this huge milestone we want to do a special Q&A and giveaway video so
if you have any questions for us then please ask them in the comments down below and stay
tuned for that and in the meantime if you've enjoyed this video please drop it a like, SMASH
the Subscribe button if you haven't already and we'll see you on another video very soon bye bye :-)