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Badminton is a high-paced, intense racket sport played all over the world. While many American students play badminton for fun as kids and in school, serious badminton competition isn't as prevalent in America as in other countries. As a result, many Americans may have difficulty learning the basics of badminton. Like any sport, badminton training requires a combination of strength building and techniques practice. The more you do it, the better results you will see.

Conditioning and Endurance Training

• Successful badminton players must have speed and fast acceleration to move around the badminton court. Since badminton matches last for 45 minutes or more, players must also have good endurance. Leg exercises that build the calf and thigh muscles will help badminton players increase their sprinting speeds. For endurance, players should go on short distance runs a few times a week.

  Since badminton requires players to stop and turn quickly, players must perform agility exercises that control balance and direction. The Sports Fitness Adviser suggests an agility exercise that use cones arranged in the shape of a three-digit number. Players weave their bodies around the cones to develop fast and accurate footwork. Any drill that requires you to run and change directions quickly will help build the skill set you need to maintain controlled swiftness throughout the match.

Serve Training

• Unlike tennis, badminton serves usually do not result in aces due to the size of the court and movement of the shuttlecock. Nonetheless, a poor serve will cost you matches by giving your opponent free points. Furthermore, according to the Badminton Bible, in doubles badminton a good serve sets up the rally that you will need to win the first attack.

  To maintain proper serving form, watch the best professionals' techniques and practice them at home against a wall. Start with the shuttlecock below the waste and throw it in the air. The racket must also begin below the waste and never rise above the wrist. To master the four types (flick, drive, high and low) focus on one serve at a time. With each serve, aim for specific spots along a wall. Pretend the wall is the net and stand in a position that replicates the actual serving experience. If you have training partners, take turns serving back and forth and focus on specific spots for precision.

Return Training

• While doubles badminton relies more on power "smash" shots than singles badminton, an accurate return game is essential in both singles and doubles badminton. A successful singles strategy requires precise placement that will keep your opponent running all around the court until your opponent tires, wears down and falls out of position. Before you focus on honing specific shots, spend some time in the weight room and build up your muscles. Focus on power training techniques such as heavy lifting and explosive lifting to give yourself the ability to tap into your strength faster during matches.

  Once you have an adequate weight lifting routine, perfect your arsenal of shots. Practicing form will help but in order to get a full handle on your shots you need to approximate game speed. To master various shots, find a training partner and simulate various game situations. Spend time in the central base position and the net position. Have your partner send shots all over the court and try to track them down and regain your control over shot placement. Test your shot selection ability by having your partner start the rally at various places around the court. Respond with an appropriate shot to get your partner out of position.

  Whenever possible, play with people who are better than you. Great opponents will expose your own weaknesses and also give you examples of methods to follow.

Article was quoted from eHow.com

Center position-After service, you would usually take up position in the center, where you think the most suitable to take all return shots. Move or shuffle your body a little while waiting for your opponent to return the shot. We called this “dancing.” While dancing, you are actually preparing to push your body easier to hit any shot that comes to you.  If you are good in taking a baseline shot and weak in taking drop shot, then you can shuffle your body slightly towards the front.

  – If you are slightly away from the net and have to take 2 steps to reach the shuttle, gallop and bend down your knee a little, give it a push with your left leg then covered the distance with your right. If you are fast then you have time to either do straight netting, cross netting or sent the shuttle away to any empty space into your opponent side. To take up position for the next shot, moved back with your right leg with a push.

  – Lower down your body a little, gallop and move your body towards the forehand side of the net, remember to give it a push with your left leg tiptoed, then covered the distance with your right. Always try to reach the shuttle, hitting the shot with your racket close to the top of the net. This way it’s easier to control and provides more choices on your next shot. Shuffle your body and dance away for the second shot with a push.

Returning a backhand smash – Bend down your knee a little to get the power, dance and shuffle your body, turn your body towards the backhand side where the smash landed, with your back facing the net. You can do this by forcing your right leg across to take a big step. You can either lift the shuttle high for a clearance or flick the shuttle to the short line of your opponent. Always shuffle your body and be ready for the next shot.

Returning a forehand smash – Bend down your knee a little to get the power, dance and shuffle your body, move your body towards the forehand side where the smash landed. You can do this by getting your left leg close to your right then forcing your right leg to take a big step. Again, you can either lift the shuttle high for a clearance or flick the shuttle to the short line of your opponent. Always shuffle your body and be ready for the next shot.

In badminton nothing comes easy! In order to do well in receiving drop shot and smashes from your opponent, you need to practice the footwork at your own pace. The more your practice, the better you are. You can practice the below footwork according to your current physical condition and gradually increase its repetition as you improved.

Article was written by Cheong Weng Kwai of prospeed.com.my

I’ve often talked about the short serve in badminton being the most neglected part of the game. It’s an area professional badminton players take very seriously and spend hours working on every week.

So why is it that club and league standard players spend no time at all on this critical part of the game? Why do players in clubs fail to understand the tactical importance of the short serve in badminton?

It baffled me for a while and then I truly understood the answer! You see, the short serve in badminton isn’t exciting like a smash, it’s not a full-on action shot where glory is showered on the player who serves brilliantly in a game.

Or have we all got it so wrong and missed the point?

How often have you walked off court, losing a match and then complained that your partner’s serve was rubbish “they just couldn’t get the shuttle over the net or in the court.” Or worse, every time they serve, your opponent buried it! You’ll then admit that you can’t win, if you can’t serve.

And you’d be absolutely right.

We’ve all said this quote at some time or other, whether we’re blaming our partner or ourselves. So now we’ve agreed how critically important it is to serve well, shouldn’t we at least acknowledge a player who consistently served tight in a game?

In my opinion, this player should be seen in the same light as the player with the big smash. After all, they are consistently delivering a tight serve in the most tense period of the game, when literally the match could depend on their skill to keep the shuttle low and in the court. At 20-20, you have to agree that the serve is the biggest pressure shot in the game, especially when serving to a player who is ready to pounce on anything remotely loose.

In this scenario, the serve has got to be the most exciting, the most nerve-wracking shot to deliver because it can be a game winner, a match winner, or even a tournament winner! In my book, that beats the big smash and demonstrates a high degree of skill.

So why do we still choose to dismiss its importance?

I think the key here is finding ways to practice the serve that give it an edge, a higher level of importance and severe consequences if you fail to get it right.

Here’s a couple of technical practice ideas and one tactical practice idea for you…

1)      Target serving – get your team take part and split them into 2 teams playing against each other. Each player has to serve to a designated target (e.g. a tube or shuttles or empty box) placed near the T. Each player has 6 shuttles and count how many they get in the box. The loosing team buys the drinks or some other forfeit you decide on.

2)      In your teams again – one is the attacking team, and the other the serving team. Choose one player from each team to go on court. You have 6 shuttles. Server serves from right court and must serve low serves. They can serve to anywhere along the service line but they are not allowed to flick serve. The attacking player can toe the service line. The attacking player wins a point if they can pounce on the serve and put it on the floor or the serve is out. The server wins a point when the player fails to return the serve over the net, misses it completely and it lands in and if they fail to bury the shuttle for a winner. Returns to the net or a push score points to the server. Again, have a forfeit for the losing team. Reverse the roles so each team has a go at serving and receiving.

3)      To improve your tactical awareness, work together to watch for weaknesses in a player. Work in pairs. Your teammate is the guinea pig here. They need to create 6 different scenarios which could lead to potential weakness e.g. receive on non-racket leg, racket too low (don’t make it too obvious), racket slightly wide to the right, forehand grip to name a few. Ask the server serve tactically this time. Once the serve has been struck, ask what they noticed and what they changed. If your teammate didn’t know the answer, try again. If they still don’t know, show them.

You’ve now been given three practices, two to help you improve your serve from a technical viewpoint and the final exercise from a tactical view.

If you work on these exercises on a frequent basis, then you will soon notice a huge difference in the results you are getting. Your serves will be significantly better which will lead to an improvement in confidence. Because you are now serving tactically, you’ll also recognise that you have changed and are serving to win a point and not to begin a rally.

Article was written by Paul Stewart, Badminton Coach, UK.

Summary
In the first part of this series of badminton skills articles, you discovered the different style of player. In part 2 I shared my thoughts on identifying your opponents strengths and weaknesses via a skills audit, albeit most of the time, an on-court, in the game, test your opponent type of audit.

In this third and final part of the series, it’s time to bring the pieces together and help you understand yourself as a player, your partner, how to be a winning team and how to design badminton tactics to beat your opponent(s).

Let’s Begin With Style…

Yes, we’ve covered this in part 1 but not like this.

In singles, whatever happens on the badminton court, it’s down to you, your skills, your strengths and weaknesses and whether on that day, you have all the pieces to defeat your opponent.

The first element of changing the game will depend on whether your style is getting the result against your opponent. Either they play the same style as you and therefore are better or worse at it than you.

Secondly, within the realms of style are skills. Is your opponent better equipped skill-wise than you are?
Having answered these questions, if you are in a commanding position, then there’s no need to change. However, if you are losing, then your ability to change your style and introduce new elements into the game and win will depend on two things…

1) Your ability
2) Your opponent’s ability to adapt to these changes.

It gets far more complex when you’re playing doubles. In this discipline, consideration must be made to both yours and your partner’s styles. Are they compatible or is this a recipe for disaster? E.g. if you’re an aggressive attacker and your partner is a defender thinker, then you’ve got such a mismatch it’s going to be difficult to gel as a pair.

There would need to be a good deal of compromise in order to find a tactical place to win points from.
So ideally, you need to choose your partner based on similar or complimentary styles.

Take a good look around your club members for a level and mixed doubles partner that would potentially fit this ideal. Do you know who they are? Have you partnered them in the past and played well together?

And What About Skills?

Just as important. Again, look for similar and/or complimentary skills. Why?

Whenever you partner a player, it’s important that you play the best combined game you can. To accomplish this, you need to maximise your strengths and minimise your weaknesses, however, you should always look to play to your strengths first and impose this game on your opposition.

In top class badminton I raised the point that the Defender Thinker style is obsolete. I’ll take this point further and suggest that the Aggressive Defender style is also obsolete because in the modern day game, matches are won based on the quality and consistency of the attack. Yes, player’s defences are becoming stronger, however, partnerships cannot afford to sit back and defend anymore.

A classic complimentary partnership at the moment is current All England Champions Jonas Rasmussen and Lars Paaske. Rasmussen is the big hitter in this pair and prefers to play at the rear court. Both are excellent defenders. However, the partnership works because Paaske is by far the better server, is almost unstoppable from half court forward and sets up so many opportunities for Rasmussen. He also has a masterful tactical brain.

Rasmussen is the more nervous of the two players and tends to suffer serving jitters during big points. He’s also prone to the most unusual, kamikaze attacks at times which are extremely high risk and subject to a high percentage of errors. But, it keeps their opponents wondering what’s going to happen next.

In this case, one is a more aggressive attacker but is complimented by an Attacking Thinker.

What About Lower League Badminton?

In league badminton where most of us play, all styles are still prevalent and effective, depending on standard of the players.

There are styles which do not work well together or are not particularly complimentary, however this doesn’t mean they won’t win a few games. Do you know which ones fit well together and which ones are a complete mis-match? Let’s take a closer look…

Aggressive Attacker + Aggressive Attacker = match (very hard to beat)
Aggressive Attacker + Attacking Thinker = match (superb combination)
Aggressive Attacker + Aggressive Defender = mismatch (but has possibilities.)
Aggressive Attacker + Defender Thinker = mismatch. (too many differences)
Attacking Thinker + Aggressive Defender =- match (but need to define their tactics)
Attacking Thinker + Defender Thinker = match (a good understanding is needed here)
Aggressive Defender + Defender Thinker = mismatch (but can win against a poor/disjointed defence)

Each of these combinations has potential to win but this will depend on the style and skills of their opponents.
I see a lot of aggressive defenders and defender thinkers in club level, more than I do aggressive attackers. I don’t know why this is, but it would seem there are many players who like to counter hit rather than attack with intent.

Adapting Your Badminton Style

Having discussed the relative differences in style in earlier articles, one of the key elements in a good badminton player is the ability to adapt. In my opinion, the attacking thinker player is the most adaptable and that’s why they can fit other styles, albeit with a degree of compromise.

You see, sometimes you’re selected for a team and told who you’re playing with. Whilst you’d like to play your game, more often than not you also have to be aware of your partner’s style and skills and adapt to their game in order to win.

You almost have to compromise your game to fit into a partnership. And that’s why some partnerships don’t work. The players are incapable of adapting and gelling together to make a good pair. At times like these, the only thing to do is look elsewhere.

How Do You Design Badminton Tactics?

The first thing you need to do is work out your strengths and weaknesses as a pair. A high degree of honesty and realism is required here because once you’re on court, all of your skills are on display. Despite having a “bad day” you’d be expected to fulfil your role on court without too many surprises for your partner.

Second, you need to agree what is your strongest formation when you’re attacking. This begins to dictate the shots you will play to retain or gain this winning formation.

No surprises to guess that you ask the same questions of your opponents. What is their favoured formation? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Having assessed this information, you design tactics based on moving them away from their favoured formation, focussing on exploiting their weaker areas. By understanding what these weak areas are, you therefore know where to place the shuttle to obtain the response you are looking for.

This means you play shots with INTENT, to cause a desired response. That’s what playing tactically means. So rather than your normal reactive response to a situation that your opponents have caused, you are now being far more direct in what you are trying to achieve, which is to obtain a weak response or error. From this the point is either lost by your opponent or you win from the intended set up.

Let’s look at an example…

You’re playing a mens doubles and you’ve been partnered with a Defensive Thinker style. You’re an Attacking Thinker style. You’re both strong defensively and your best combination is you at the rear court and your partner at the net.

You’re facing an Aggressive Attacker and Defensive Thinker. Their weakest formation is to move the Defensive Thinker away from the net. You certainly don’t want to lift the shuttle to the Aggressive Attacker because this will play to their partnership strengths.

So with this partnership, you decide to lure the Aggressive Attacker forward by taking the pace off the shuttle which they don’t like. Then you get the shuttle behind them to the rear court so that their weakest combination is on show. Your tactics are working. Now you need to pin the Defender Thinker into the corners, keeping his partner out of the game (this will test their mental strength because they can’t hit the shuttle hard).

From this position, whilst you may be defending, you are ready to pick up any loose shots and also quickly change your defence into attack. You may have worked out that if you drive the shuttle back from a smash, your partner immediately moves his base towards the net to counter a block here, therefore pressurising your opponent to lift and provide you with your favoured formation to attack.

As you can imagine, there are too many scenarios to play out here, but you get the idea don’t you? Your analysis of the opponents playing styles, and strengths and weaknesses, in addition to the analysis of your own game, allows you to design the responses you make in order to gain the advantage and take control of the game by adopting your favoured formation.

What To Do Next

Before you go on court with your partner, why not change your approach to the game. Instead of walking on, knocking up and getting on with it, have a serious chat. Work out how to play your best game together and a brief analysis of your opponents.

Design your badminton tactics around the information you share and then play the game from the first point with intent to win points by the design of your shots.

I expect you’ll make a few mistakes getting used to this kind of game. However, I also believe that if you get it right, you will take the game off your opponents and they’ll leave the court wondering what happened.

This concludes my 3 part article designed to improve your tactical awareness on a badminton court. I really hope you’ve found it useful and you continue to develop in this area and surprise your opponents in the future. It’s been fun writing it, and I hope you’ll send in your comments when you’ve tested it to let me know how it’s working for you.

Article was written by Paul Stewart, Badminton Coach, UK.

If You’re Serious About Improving Your Badminton Footwork, Then Read On…

I recently answered a great post on my forum, which began on the subject of the best way to improve your badminton. The original post suggested that improving footwork was the best way to improve your badminton, which prompted a number of posts on this subject.

We all agree that if we can’t reach the shuttle, then we can’t win a point. Your hitting technique may be perfect, but if you are not in the right position on court to hit the shuttle, then it’s useless.

As with many forums, whenever you mention footwork, inevitably the great Lin Dan appears to remind us all how it should be done. Lin Dan has many strengths. Perhaps his greatest strength is his ability to cover the court so well. I believe this is due to his superior recovery from difficult situations, compared to travel to the shuttle.

How many of you spend time on recovery footwork patterns? And, how much time do you work on it compared to the work you put in improving footwork patterns to the shuttle? I expect your recovery footwork is given only a small percentage of time compared to your other footwork.

This is where your greatest opportunity for improvement may be…

As you would expect, there were a number of videos, forum posts and articles about training exercises to improve footwork – all of which are good. Here’s a few ideas…

1)      Shuttle runs

2)      Shadow badminton (a popular choice)

3)      Pattern drills on court with and without a shuttle

4)      Fast feet exercises

The above exercises are good for developing technique. However, whenever you practice on court, pay more attention to your recovery pattern and speed than you have previously. You’ll be amazed at your progress when you do.

But, this is only one key element in mastering this skill. Whenever you watch the likes of Lin Dan, Lee Chong Wei, Taufik Hidayat, they all use similar patterns, but not exactly the same. So try different patterns and see if one or two suit you better than others.

But, there is one critical part missing here. Do you know what it is?

There is a second element to improving your footwork that I have never written about before and I have never read anything on the subject before.

So what is it? You can spend huge amounts of time improving your footwork using the exercises above, however, if you’re serious about transforming your footwork into the pro league then you need to develop your internal clock.

Now you may be wondering what I’m talking about here so let me explain…

Whenever you play a game, there is a certain pace you are most comfortable playing at. When you’re pushed to play above or below this pace, you’re more likely to make errors. This internal clock, or internal body rhythm can be trained over time to help you play at different speeds.

In our player examples above, I focused on singles players as they have to cover greater distances on court than doubles players. However, this article covers all disciplines.

How Do You Train Your Body Clock?

My main area of focus is on training to increase speed as this is where most players are weaker. Whilst it’s not always easier to play at a slower pace than your norm, the reason for this is usually mental rather than physical.

Generally, playing at a slower pace requires increased levels of concentration because we are not tasking our resources to play on adrenalin-based reflexes. We are, in effect, giving our brains and bodies too much time and therefore allowing too many other influences to get in the way of the decision-making process of which shot to play. Also, the brain has the time to dissect the shot into component parts rather than just play it.

Training for pace requires completely different processes.

1)      Training your eyes – if you don’t see the shuttle quick enough, then you’re already “late” in your movement.

2)      Training your reflexes – this involves the reflex of getting started from wherever you may be on court.

3)      Conditioning your muscles to perform faster.

4)      Testing new tensions in your racket once your skill has improved. Why? You may find that because you’re so much quicker, you require the shuttle to leave your racket face faster. You can only get this from increased string tension.

5)      Consideration to food intake in relation to what you eat and when you eat it. There’s no point in eating a large meal minutes before you are due on court because it will slow you down. I do not have the expertise to go into detail about food groups or eating times. You will need to consult an authority on this subject.

OK, I’ve given you the “what” but you now want to know “how” to train your eyes, reflexes and muscles. Here’s a few ideas for you…

Eye Training

First of all, if you haven’t had your eyes tested, then I suggest you do so. If your eyesight is failing, then these exercises won’t help you until you’ve done something about it.

1)      Cover the net with a non see-through cloth such as a black bin liner or lightweight material. Ask the player to take up a base position on the front service line in one half of the court. The feeder throws shuttles just over the net in the same half of the court for the player to step forward and play a net shot reply (1 set is 1 dozen shuttles). The player is therefore scanning continuously for the shuttle to appear and then has to quickly respond with a net shot.

2)      Increase the speed of your feed so that the player then has little time to recover to base before they are moving again. Vary the feed along the half court net area and make sure the feed is intermittent. We are not developing a new rhythm here, but pushing the eyes to scan. Take a break after 2 sets as this can be hard on the eyes and concentration.

3)      Feeder throws from just below tape height so the shuttle is approximately 3-5cm above the tape. Player steps in to hit shuttle to the floor. Note: feeders must not be facing the player but standing just off court. The shuttle should be aimed straight up near tramlines and the player should be able to kill straight or into court.

4)      As exercise no 3 but multi-feed with speed.

Reflex Training

Player 1 meter from T piece (near mid court) facing rear court.

1)      On a set command player turns to face feeder and adopts ready position. Feeder is stood on opposing T piece. Feeder throws the shuttle over the net once they shout a command such as “turn”. The shuttle can be aimed in specific areas  (begin with 1 area and add more as you go along) such as forehand net, backhand net, mid court, at the player. Player has to immediately go to shuttle and play a shot aimed away from feeder.

This is a huge exercise which should be developed over time. Increase the degree of difficulty by adding another target area for the feeder and/or add a target area the player must play the shuttle to.

Conditioning Your Muscles To Perform Faster

As this article is already getting long, I’ll list a few ideas here and would also advise adding specific exercises in the gym to train explosive power – not muscle mass.

1)      Playing to music

2)      Skipping to music

3)      1 v 2 half court, 1 v 2 full court, 1 v 3 full court, 1 v4 full court

Summary

I really believe that these exercises in total will significantly improve your footwork and overall badminton too. Developing an ability to play a faster-paced game increases your tactical options against any opponent. To do this, you need to improve your speed at which you see the shuttle, reaction time to commence moving to the shuttle, actual movement to the shuttle, and recovery to base.

Article was written by Paul Stewart - Badminton Coach, UK.