A cross-court net shot can be a great weapon to use in your game
but it's quite hard to master which is probably why so many of you have requested this tutorial!
Yeah so in this video we're going to teach you how to master it including when to play it and also
the right techniques, because there is more than one! So let's get straight into it okay firstly
it's important to understand why you need to learn this shot and when you should actually play it
Well the crosscourt net shot is used for two reasons; one to make your opponents move around the court
and two to make them change direction at the last second to put them under a lot more pressure
as you can see from Kento Momota's directional split step here he was anticipating a straight
net shot or cross-court lift but Viktor played a cross-court net shot forcing Kento to change
direction and take it much later as a result! Yeah that's a good example of a situation when you
should use this shot but you shouldn't overuse it. Going back to the Viktor and Kento example Viktor
had already hit 16 straight lifts or net shots and eight cross-court lists from this position in the
match but only two cross-court net shots which is why it was much more effective! Even if you think
you've got the world's best cross-court net shot if you use it every time it's not going to be as
effective and it's not going to help you achieve those two reasons Jenny just mentioned!
Now unlike a smash where you shouldn't hit it if you're not in a good position the great thing about this
cross court net shot is that you can actually use it if you're taking the shuttle up here
or down here so let's move on to the technique of how to play this most common cross court net shot
starting with your preparation our first step might be the most important thing we say in
this whole video and this is that your preparation needs to look the same as all of your other shots
whether that's a straight or cross-court lift or straight net shot or push. If you look at these two
photos it's pretty obvious which one's going to be a cross-court net shot right? But they actually
both are however in this example Jenny could have also played a shot to any other area of the court!
Now there are situations where you don't have to make it look the same but in these situations you
would generally use a different type of cross court net shot which we'll cover later in the video!
So let's break down the forehand preparation first as you approach the shuttle you should be
in a loose forehand grip and we're emphasising the word loose because if you're gripping the
racket really tightly then you won't be able to get the control you need and your shot will end
up being either way too hard or too high over the net and as you should with your other shots
from this position you should have your racket arm extended with a slight bend at your elbow and your
non-racket arm behind you for balance. Okay let's move on to the backhand preparation and we have
one big difference in the way you prepare here - for backhand lifts or net shots you should be
in a backhand grip but for the cross-court net you need to start in this backhand grip and then
actually slightly change to a bevel grip as you turn the racket and because of this it's even more
important to have a loose grip and we'll discuss this more in the hitting technique section
now similar to the forehand you also want to have your racket arm extended with a slight bend
and your non-racket arm behind you. Okay so you're in the right position on the forehand and backhand
side but how do you actually play the cross court net shot? Well this is the hardest part to master
so let's break it down step by step! We're now back on the forehand side where you should be in
roughly this position firstly you need to pull your elbow back and down towards your body now
I'm left-handed but we'll put a right-handed example on the screen now for you as well
now you need to do this because it improves the control of your shot and it also adds a little
bit of deception if you don't pull your elbow back then you could still hit it cross but not with the
same precision and control. Secondly as you're finishing this pullback you rotate your forearm
and turn the palm of your hand so that it's now facing cross-court then you push the shuttle over
It's simple when you break it down right? Yes but there's two common mistakes people often make
and the first is doing the wrong type of forearm rotation! There are two ways of rotating your
forearm; like this where you're also doing some internal shoulder rotation and like this where
you're not and we want to use this second rotation as this allows us to use the wrist and fingers in
the shot again creating the control. And the second mistake is trying to use your wrist too much
trying to use your wrist to turn the shuttle cross-court means you lose a lot of control
over your shot and if you make a lot of mistakes on your cross net this might be why! Your wrist
should always be parallel with the palm of your hand. A final point in this section is that the
technique is pretty much identical no matter if you're playing a cross net from out wide like this
to quite close into your body like this or from an early position to slightly later position like this!
Now the backhand cross court net is a little bit more complicated than the forehand again you
should be in this starting position and from here there are four quick steps. Similar to the forehand
you should pull your elbow back and down and as you pull your elbow back you actually need to
slightly move your thumb onto this ridge so into a bevel grip and this begins to rotate your racket
head if you don't change to a bevel grip then this is what would happen. Next, just before you strike
the shuttle you should bend your wrist slightly like this this is important as it enables you
to get the shuttle travelling tightly across the net then finally you push the shuttle over. Before
we move on we have two key points for both the backhand and the forehand shots firstly if you're
closer to the net you'll have to angle your racket face towards you more as the angle is more acute
whereas if you're further back like the service line then you might not need to turn your racket
face quite as much - this is where you'll need to experiment in practice so that when it does
come to a match you can quickly judge what angle your racket face should be! And secondly you need
to keep your body controlled as you hit these net shots the ability to turn the shuttle cross-court
comes from your arm and your racket face you don't need to turn your whole body cross-court!
Okay so in addition to the cross net we've just taught you there are actually two more different
types which we'll quickly talk about :-) Firstly, if you're really late and we mean really late then
you obviously don't have the time to pull your elbow back, as you're often under a lot of pressure
and reaching for the shuttle you strike this with a straight arm and you almost entirely use your
wrist to turn the shuttle across. This shot is very advanced as it requires a lot of skill but it can
be a great shot to pull off if your opponent thinks you can only lift it from this position!
And the second type is the fast cross net and this is often used when you're moving at full speed
and it's like you've either thought about killing it but you're not in quite a good enough position
so you still take it early but quickly turn your forearm and wrist to hit the shuttle cross
or you've seen a big gap so you don't need your preparation to look identical
and this is more common in doubles. For both of these shots it often doesn't even
need to be a tight cross net because you've either moved forwards with aggressive speed
and intention or because there's just a big gap on the cross court! Yeah so many people make mistakes
trying to play their cross-court net shots too tight so remind yourself that they don't always
need to be like you imagine them in your dreams and actually 9 out of 10 with good quality is
better than 5 out of 10 with amazing quality but the other five going in the net or out!!
So as we've said previously in our shot tutorials there's not much point learning the technique
if you're never going to practice it or try it in a match so we have two different levels of
practices for you - level one is to do static shot practice and this is a great choice if you're
completely new to the cross-court net shots. For this you should get someone to throw shuttles over
the net and putting everything together that we've taught you you hopefully hit some great cross nets
and don't forget to play the occasional straight net shot or lift to continually remind yourself of
the same preparation! A progression in this level is for the feeder to throw underarm, overarm and
at varying paces and positions and this is so that you can practice a variety of situations
and experiment with where your racket should be! Level two is to practice in a patterned routine
and we're going to give you both a singles and doubles example so for singles the feeder lifts to
you you play a drop shot then they play a push or net shot and you come in and turn this cross court
and a doubles example could be where you serve they play a straight net shot and you play your
cross net. Now if it turns out your opponent has watched this video and plays a good cross net that
you need to dive to to get back then we're doing a video on this next week so make sure you SMASH the
subscribe button and turn the notification bell on so you don't miss that, or if you're watching
this more than a week after we've released this video then it'll be here for you! And that's it
for this video, we hope it was insightful and we'll see you on another one very soon! Bye :-)