Round The Head Jump Out Smash Tutorial (Stop Playing Backhands!)
A lot of people often struggle with always hitting the shuttle late in their backhand corner, not knowing how to take it earlier.
But, what if we said that we have a solution for that – a round-the-head jump out smash!
The round-the-head jump out smash in badminton is played on the backhand side, where instead of playing a late backhand shot, you jump out to intercept the shuttle before it goes past you. This will help you reach the shuttle earlier to play an effective downwards shot.
To hit a good round-the-head jump out smash in badminton, you need to split step, then push off and jump out, keeping your hips square to the net. Bring your elbow back, open up your chest, throw your elbow forwards, then bring your forearm through followed by the wrist to hit the shuttle.
We’ll now go through everything you need to know about the the round-the-head jump out smash:
Table of Contents
Step 1 - When Should You Play The Jump Out Smash?
You should play the jump out smash when your opponent has played a flat lift or clear and you don’t have time to get behind the shuttle.
Instead, you jump OUT to intercept the shuttle before it goes too far past you and you have to take it late. The earlier you can anticipate your opponent’s flat shot into the backhand corner, the better – because this is going to make the next steps more effective!
To get better at anticipating your opponent’s shot:
- Look at your opponents body position and the position they’re in on-court.
- For example, in singles if you hit a flat, deep clear into your opponents forehand corner then a likely shot from them is a flat straight clear so you can jump out and intercept this.
- Another example in doubles is when you drop from your forehand corner where the ‘natural’ shot for your opponent to play is to whip the shuttle flat cross-court (where the gap is), but this is actually the shot you’re waiting for and you jump out to intercept it!
As soon as you anticipate the shot, you should start doing the footwork for the jump out smash!
Step 2 - The Split Step
The split step is done for 2 reasons:
1. To get your feet in line with the direction you’re going to move to.
2. To help you push off.
Unlike the forehand jump out smash where you can do a directional or side-by-side split step, the most common split step for this jump out smash is doing it side-by-side.
A common mistake we see limiting people’s ability to push off from their split step is having their legs too straight or too close together.
Instead, your legs should be bent and feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart.
Step 3 - Moving Into The Right Position
After the split step, you need to look at the shuttle and instantly assess how far away it is. Depending on this answer, there are 2 options:
1) Simply jump straight away. This is used when you can reach the shuttle in one jump.
2) Where you do a chassee then jump. This is used when you’re further away from the shuttle and is much more common in doubles (we’ll explain why in Step 6)!
If you’re new to this, we’d recommend practicing this footwork without a shuttle before moving on to the next steps.
Step 4 - Mid-Jump
This is what you should do from the moment you push off until the moment you begin your swing.
This step is really important because it enables you to have a fast racket head speed which is the ultimate goal when trying to create a powerful smash!
So, as soon as you’re pushing off to jump, you need to do 4 things:
1) Keep your hips square to the net because unlike most shots, you DON’T rotate. This is because you simply don’t have the time.
2) Bring your racket arm up with your elbow back, which helps to open up your shoulders and chest. The further you can get your elbow back whilst keeping your hips square, the more distance you have to create a fast racket swing speed and therefore increase your power.
3) Make sure you’re in a loose forehand grip. Being loose until the last second is important because it means you can create extra speed in the racket.
4) Whilst you’re bringing your racket arm up, bring your non-racket arm up and out to the side of you.
This is important for 2 reasons:
- It helps your balance.
- If your non-racket arm is forwards (like it should be for most overhead shots), then your chest will be too closed which massively reduces your swing speed. Or you’ll have to rotate your hips which will completely ruin your timing!
Step 5 - The Smash
Firstly, you need to remember that your hips stay square to the net throughout this entire movement!
It’s difficult to say exactly when you should initiate the swing because it really depends on how tall you are, your reach, and the height of the lift, but the following sequence should remain consistent:
- You want to throw your elbow forwards and at the same time bring your non-racket arm down to help generate more force and also allow room for your racket to come through.
- After your elbow comes through, this quickly slows down with your forearm coming through.
- And then finally your wrist comes through to hit the shuttle!
It’s important to note here that it’s not just the wrist that creates power, which many people think! It’s all of the small movements quickly combined together.
There are then 2 final points in this sequence:
- As you strike the shuttle, you want to have your arm almost straight but not completely locked out.
- Your legs should be quite close together as you strike the shuttle and almost straight. Not tucking your legs when jumping will improve the speed of your recovery.
Step 6 - The Recovery
The recovery for the round-the-head jump out smash is what a lot of people find most difficult because you actually land on your non-racket leg first.
💡 Players find this shot difficult because in badminton you almost always land and push off with your racket leg which usually means it’s much stronger and more stable!
So, after you’ve hit the shuttle you then need to widen your legs, and land on your non-racket leg with your knee slightly bent to help absorb the landing.
You then land your racket leg, again with your knee slightly bent.
💡 You shouldn't do a big follow-through with your racket because if you do, it will ruin both your timing and recovery!
How fast you’re moving into the jump, along with your leg strength will also determine your recovery:
- If you’re moving at speed and jumping a long distance, you might need 1 or 2 mini steps to recover.
- Whereas if you jump from a more static position or with less distance then it’s likely you can recover without taking any additional steps.
Like we mentioned earlier in Step 3, this is why doubles players can do this chassee movement more often – because they’re able to use the jump out smash and apply maximum pressure and it doesn’t matter as much if they are slow to recover as they have a partner to cover them!
Whereas in singles, if you were to do this chassee movement and fall out of the court then you probably wouldn’t be able to get the next shot if your opponent did get it back!
Instead, in singles it’s often a better choice to take the shuttle slightly later and do a scissor kick to ensure you recover back into court as your bodyweight should be moving forwards after the scissor kick.
💡 Of course we’re not saying you shouldn’t do this jump out smash in singles, but if you can’t do it and land reasonably on-balance then we’d probably recommend not doing it!
How To Practice The Jump Out Smash
If you’re new to this movement, we’d really recommend practicing the movement without a shuttle first to not only get it engrained into your muscle memory but also give you the confidence to know that you can do it well, and also safely, in a match.
When you then add in a shuttle, it will be difficult at first, but keep practicing it, and most importantly practicing with good technique!
Learn More
We hope you’ve now learned how to play less backhands, and instead how to implement the round-the-head jump smash effectively into your badminton game!
Otherwise, you can also check out our full YouTube video below on everything we’ve discussed above, which includes more visual explanations and demonstrations of each step!