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Bear in mind that cross-court lifts require more power than straight lifts of the same height, because the cross-court distance is greater. It’s common for players to hit all their cross-court lifts flatter than their straight lifts, without even realising they are doing this.

Adjusting your position is not the answer

Try to avoid running around the shot in an attempt to get a better position for playing cross-court.

In badminton, you rarely have time to reposition your whole body as a method of changing your shot angles. Instead, you need to move directly to the shuttle and still be able to hit different angles.

Bring the racket outside the line of the shuttle

Before you swing forwards into the shot, the racket head should move slightly outside the line of the shuttle. In other words: considered in a sideways direction only, the approaching shuttle should be between you and the racket head.

This helps you to bring the racket inwards in a cross-court direction.

Bringing the racket outside the line of the shuttle is often useful for other shots too, because it gives you options: from this preparation, you can easily play straight lifts, cross-court lifts, cross-court net shots, or out-to-in spinning net shots.

Adjust the timing of your lifts

If you begin the hitting action just fractionally earlier, then the angle of your shot will change from straight towards cross-court.

This works mainly because the forearm is rotating rapidly during the shot. With a straight lift, you time the hitting action so that the forearm has turned back to (roughly) neutral at the moment of impact. For a cross-court lift, beginning the hitting action an instant earlier means that the forearm will have turned farther by the time you contact the shuttle.

Using the wrist

You can also flick the wrist forwards slightly more to adjust the angle of your lifts towards cross-court.

Using the wrist is more effective for backhand lifts than forehand lifts. If you bend the wrist forwards too much with a forehand lift, it will interfere with your ability to generate power from your forearm.

When you’re reaching out to the side

When you’re reaching out to the side, it’s much more difficult to play a cross-court lift.

If you’re reaching sideways at full stretch, then you will probably find it impossible to play any cross-court shot. However, if you are under slightly less pressure, it may still be possible to hit cross-court, provided you adjust your grip.

To do this, move your grip towards a thumb grip for forehands or a panhandle grip for backhands. These grips change the angle of your racket head towards cross-court.

The downside of these grip adjustments is that you will lose power: forearm rotation will be less effective, since you are holding the racket at an awkward angle. It will also be harder to use the fingers effectively.

You should take this loss of power into consideration tactically. Although you can achieve a cross-court lift with these grip adjustments, the lift may travel flatter than you would like. Depending on the situation, it may be wiser to play a straight lift instead; remember also that straight lifts require less power than cross-court lifts, since they travel a shorter distance.