I can only give some general advice since I don't know your skill or anything, but a couple of things are to just consider why you're tensing up. These are thing's I've told my friends before who are new and tensing...Might not apply to you I dunno. If it's just an uncontrolled reaction to the sound of a smash and a bird flying at you really fast you'll just need to have someone smash at you until you get that out of your system. If it's because you feel like you don't have time to react maybe you're standing too close? The bird slows down exponentially as it travels. Standing tooooo far back obv makes it hard to get steep smashes or drops though. (The other point here is maybe you're not lifting far enough so they're smashing from mid court, thus giving you no time to react) If it's because you're worried about losing the point, I'd say just focus on how fun it will be to return the shot and don't think about what happens if you miss. If you're in a tournament or something more serious you'll have to come up with something on your own to reset your emotions though. In all cases make sure you're doing that split step as they smash, always. That should be your mental and physical cue to relax. Also if you can make sure you're facing the smasher as you split, and try to be on the balls of your feet, leaning forward a little bit to open up space in front of your legs to be able to swing your racket. All of this should give you a cue to relax and you space to stay calm as you defend.
@@myclamish thanks for the explanation, very detailed and actionable. I'm guilty of many of those points. Got something to work with for my next session, thanks again!
Music too loud, coach. Nice video regardless
oh thank you for letting me know about the music.
No, I don’t think it was too loud. It was perfectly fine imo
hardest part is stayling calm/relaxed and not pre-tensing as you say. Do you have any tips to get that mental clarity in game?
just lots of practice to be confidence. no way around it.
I can only give some general advice since I don't know your skill or anything, but a couple of things are to just consider why you're tensing up. These are thing's I've told my friends before who are new and tensing...Might not apply to you I dunno.
If it's just an uncontrolled reaction to the sound of a smash and a bird flying at you really fast you'll just need to have someone smash at you until you get that out of your system.
If it's because you feel like you don't have time to react maybe you're standing too close? The bird slows down exponentially as it travels. Standing tooooo far back obv makes it hard to get steep smashes or drops though. (The other point here is maybe you're not lifting far enough so they're smashing from mid court, thus giving you no time to react)
If it's because you're worried about losing the point, I'd say just focus on how fun it will be to return the shot and don't think about what happens if you miss. If you're in a tournament or something more serious you'll have to come up with something on your own to reset your emotions though.
In all cases make sure you're doing that split step as they smash, always. That should be your mental and physical cue to relax. Also if you can make sure you're facing the smasher as you split, and try to be on the balls of your feet, leaning forward a little bit to open up space in front of your legs to be able to swing your racket. All of this should give you a cue to relax and you space to stay calm as you defend.
thank you for taking the time to explain this. hehe gives me idea to cover for the next video :) thank you once again.
@@myclamish thanks for the explanation, very detailed and actionable. I'm guilty of many of those points. Got something to work with for my next session, thanks again!
@@myclamish Get a friend to smash, alot, so you will get use to it alot more