Three-dimensional Kinematic Study Of Forehand Smash In Badminton

Regardless of the players’ proficiency in badminton, forehand smash as an effective wayto attack and score in badminton matches is the most frequently used skill by bothprofessional and amateur players. Forehand smash is a type of whipping motion; it needs awell coordination of player’s limbs and body trunk to produce the best smash shot. Severalformer researches have addressed the importance of improving player’s forehand smashingskills through analysing the stroke in general. However, few researches have studied thewhole body’s smashing motions through three-dimensional motion analysis amonghigh-skilled badminton players such as national second-class badminton players. Aiming atfilling these research gaps, this study used three-dimensional kinematic analysis to investigatethe forehand smash of national second-class badminton athletes with the purpose of providingmore practical suggestions to the badminton players who’re under training in specialist sportscolleges and universities.This research sampled four male badminton players with national second-class athletequalification from Capital Institute of Physical Education, gathered qualitative data fromacademic researches, interviews as well as quantitative figures collected from thethree-dimensional kinematic measuring system. Through a series of reasoning, mathematicaland statistical analysis, the research concluded with the following results:1. Cut smash shotshouldn’t be categorized into steep smash. This is because after a steep smash, the shuttlecockshould fly in straightness, while cut smash would make the shuttlecock fly in a arc-shapedtrack.2. The lower limbs are very important in forehand smash’s force-producing phase. Instanding smash, players kick once to transfer the counterforce from the ground to the bodytrunk, and change the centre gravity from the right side of the body to the left. In jumpingsmash, players kick twice: the first one is against the ground to jump up; the second one is inthe air. The purpose of the second kick is to raise the body’s centre of gravity for a highercontact point, and to stretch the waist and abdomen muscles for a powerful body rotation andhit.3. The body trunk plays key role in connecting the motions. Players push forward theirhipbones to create a power position, in which elastic potential energy are stored in themuscles, and later served as a high torque in the waist rotation motion.4. Before hitting theshuttlecock, the larger the shoulder-hip angle the player poses, the more power and speed canbe transferred to the upper limbs. Some players hit the shuttlecock too soon at the start of thebody rotation. In this case, even though the shoulder-hip angle is large, the smash would notbe ideal cause of the small range of body rotation. During the follow through phase, in whichthe player sweeps down the racket after the hit, the shoulder-hip angle continues to increase.This means that the player’s right shoulder and body continues to rotate in order to apply a break on the moving racket.5. In this research, the points of immobilisation are defined as thejoints’decreasing displacement points along the direction of motion. When the immobilisationhappens from near-end to far-end, the near joint’s momentum and speed decreases, and the farjoints’ momentum and speed increases. Moreover, the longer the distance the racket goes by,the higher shuttlecock speed the hit can make.6. The non-hitting arm also has a veryimportant role in smashing. The non-hitting arm can bring along the motion of theracket-holding arm, stretch the shoulder muscles for a better generation of power. Besides, thecoordination between non-hitting arm and racket-holding arm can keep the player’s bodybalance, thus ensure the smooth and coherence of the power generation.