Generally the badminton fraternity is split into two camps when the badminton season ends.

Some continue playing throughout the off-season. This may be through coaching and working on their game or just continuing at club playing socially, but at least keeping their skills in use.

Others prefer to take a break from the game and do something completely different. In UK, many players change their badminton racquets for a tennis racquet. Whatever you choose to do, the break from the game can be a great time for rest and reflection. Bad habits may be forgotten.

The dangers many players face who have taken a break is that they use badminton to get fit rather than get fit for badminton. That’s why most clubs report more injuries at the beginning of the season than at any other time.

You see, it’s so easy to walk onto court with your racquet and forget that your body isn’t in the right condition to play competitively.

What’s worse is that so many players already possess a really bad habit before they even hit a shuttle. They walk on court without any form of warm up and expect to be able to play at the same level they were at the end of the previous season. This is madness. They’re posing a huge risk to themselves and players like you who may be partnering them.

You already know best practice – but do you actually do it?

Let’s face it, we all know how important a good warm up is to prepare ourselves for physical activity. However, how many times do you actually turn up at the sports centre or badminton venue and actually do a proper warm up?

Most players look at you as though you’re strange when you begin a warm up routine. But, they are the ones that are in the wrong and placing themselves at risk. Please, don’t be one of them.

Here’s what most players fail to understand

A good warm up routine certainly gets your body ready for a game. The most important thing is that it reduces the risk of serious injury – the kind of injury that may ensure you never play this wonderful game again. It also gets your mind ready for action too.

It means that when you go onto court, your knock up is so much better, your shots will be more precise and your movement much more fluent.

I assume you want to win more games this season?

A good warm up followed by a good knock up really sets you (and your partner) up for the best opportunity to win a game. It can literally be a game changer in terms of the outcome.

If you’re that much sharper than your opposition, that much faster onto the shuttle and that much more precise with your shuttle placement because you can reach the shuttle in time, these key elements must provide you with the greatest opportunity to win more points.

With the rally-point scoring system now being used by more leagues, it also means that you significantly increase your chances of getting off to a flying start and perhaps generate a commanding lead that your opponents cannot recover from.

Whenever you play against an opponent that has not warmed up, or had a decent knock up, they are still cold, probably not really had the opportunity to play a variety of shots. Their serve is generally rusty, so it’s an ideal opportunity to pounce on the first one if you can in order to score a psychological advantage. This may make their next serve a little bit “nervous” and give you the opportunity to kill that too.

This is also the ideal time to attack or play a fast attacking style which will not give them time to settle or get into their natural rhythm.

Never underestimate the importance of a good knock up

Over the years I’ve witnessed some appalling knock up routines. Most of the time they lack-lustre “quick knocks” that are a complete waste of time.

If you’re playing with a partner for a season, it’s useful to work out a routine to get you both sharp from the get-go. That’s a good habit to employ this season.

Usually in mixed doubles I see too many men use the knock up to “beat” their female partner. Is this to boost their ego before the first point is won? And then they expect their partner to play well and intercept all kinds of ridiculous shots which they have screwed up on, in order to win a point. Do yourself a favour guys and get into the good habit of being a partnership and work together.

A good knock up should really get you ready for the game. You should be mentally alert from the first point, have your shots nicely warmed up and your short game nice and tight. Your serve should be flowing well.

Have you taken the time to study your opponent(s)?

In my three part article on learning how to outplay an opponent, I talked about studying your opponent and learning what their playing style was. I hope you’ve read it and now look for clues when knocking up.

You also need to discuss this with your partner and work out what your own playing styles are. You can then understand the strategy and tactics needed to beat your opponents and continue playing to your strengths. I hope you make this a good habit this season rather than showing up on court and hoping you somehow manage to play well together (does this sound familiar?)

Summary

Make this season a time for change. I’ve purposely aimed this article at bad habits prior to going onto court because they are usually the most serious in terms of the injuries that can occur and they are the simplest to change.

Creating new habits before you begin playing competitively will certainly improve your chances of getting a good result. And, these new habits may keep you playing this great game for many years.

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.

To your success.
Paul

In the first part of this series of articles, you discovered the different styles of badminton player. Some of you emailed me or commented on my blog which style you are and also, which style of player causes you a few problems.

As you can imagine, understanding what style of player your opponent is, and recognising your own style too is only the first stage in discovering the right tactics to beat them.

This second part discusses the key strengths and weaknesses you need to identify to help you plan your opponents defeat.

How Do You Design A Skills Audit?

Whenever you are watching an opponent, you should have a method which means you can quickly find the chinks in their armour and therefore where to get the best results.

But, to do this, you need to make a few notes, whether written or mental. The problem is, where do you begin? Here’s a few ideas for you…

Whether or not you adopt this system is totally up to you. It works, but it’s perfectly fine to use it as a guide and include other aspects I may not touch on here. You have my blessing to play with this… infact, I’ll go one stage further, I challenge you to find a better system and email me explaining the system you’ve created. Hopefully, you won’t mind me sharing this with other readers and of course, you will receive full credit for it.

Paul’s Big 10 Badminton Skills Audit

1)     Basic Skills

Whilst coaches may have different opinions about what we class as basic badminton skills, for me, the key things I look for are grips, basic hitting action and an ability to move. The most important is grip. If I spot my opponent is unable to switch grips quickly and I see backhand shots being hit with a forehand grip, I immediately know how to beat them. If they are poor movers, then this helps me choose the pace of the game and the basic hitting action will tell me whether they have the skills to cause problems.

2)     Rear Court Skills

Again, this is simple. Look for the three main shots, clear, drop and smash. How well are these performed?  Which shot(s) does the player favour, what about hitting from corners? Let’s also remember, that we are covering forehand and backhand here. What happens when the shuttle is behind them and they have little time to play the shot?

3)     Mid-Court Skills

There’s a lot to cover in here. How good are they at basic shots like drives and pushes? What’s their defence like? Where are they particularly strong and weak? Do they prefer to drive, block or lift or are they good enough to use all of these shots? Do they cover body shots well or are they tall and like the shuttle wide so that they can use their tremendous reach? How well do they get down to low shots?

4)     Net Skills

This is a highly skilled area where there is little time to react. Does your opponent prefer to take the shuttle high at the net or low? Are they looking for a kill or nervous and prefer to lift? What happens after the net shot – where does their racquet move to, where do they stand, are they ready to pounce on a loose return? Do they always play straight or cross court? Can they spin the shuttle? Do they stand too close to the net? In mixed where is the player at the front based (do they stand on the T or move to one side)?

5)     Travelling Skills

How fast is my opponent? Are they good at moving backwards, sideways, to deep forehand corner, can they run around their backhand, get down to low shots, cover the net?  Do they tire easily or can they run all day? Again, this information helps to shape tactical decisions as it could be that fitness will play a part in the outcome of the game.

6)     Recovery Skills

It’s fine getting to the shuttle and returning it, but what happens next? Is my opponent a shuttle watcher, admiring their shot or do they recover well to base? In my view, the best exponent of recovery skills is Lin Dan. Need I say any more?

7) Serving Skills

How good is my opponent’s serve? Is it consistent and difficult to return or is it relatively loose? Do they vary the serve in terms of placement and pace? Do they have favourite areas to serve to? Is there one place they never serve to? Do they get a good length on flick serves?
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8)     Receiving Skills

As with serving, there are similar questions. How good are they at returning the serve? Do they aggressively attack, show plenty of variation, back off and place the shuttle, stand close to the service line and open the rear court for a flick? Are they stronger receiving to forehand or backhand side? What do they do with a flick serve?

Last season during a doubles match, I played a tall player who was brilliant at attacking the low serve to his forehand. By experimenting and serving to his backhand side, we got completely different results and a lot of points. So, don’t think that just because they can attack well from one side that they will automatically be good at the other.

9)     Tactical Skills

Some players are very good at playing their game, but find it very difficult to change. They do not read the game very well and therefore are unable to change a response to a given situation. This creates an opportunity for set up and intercept tactics.

Many players are incapable of changing styles to outplay an opponent. They are both tactically and technically weak. Watch out for this as it’s the greatest opportunity for a quick win.

Some players walk on court and you will soon find out that they are playing in a responsive way. This means, they have no tactical plan, but are playing instinctively to given situations. This can present its own problems as there is no pattern to their play. It can also present many opportunities as this allows the tactically minded player to “design” the play, almost to control the responses, therefore opening the weaker areas to exploit.

10) Mental Skills

This is a huge topic but in terms of this particular article here’s what I look for… First of all I’m looking for signs of confidence or nerves, particularly in terms of skills e.g. a nervous server is great to receive against. If I kill the first serve, what happens next time?

How is my opponent responding if I get ahead? Have they the capability to change the game? Do they let their head drop and give up easily or continue to fight for every point? Do they get aggressive on court when they’re losing? Do they lose focus easily and start watching what’s happening on other courts?

What To Do Next

You’re probably thinking right now that you’ll never remember of all of these questions. Relax, they’re a guide. With practice you’ll remember more than you know.

The idea here is to watch and learn. On many occasions, I’ve seen very little of my opponent before I step onto court. I have to watch during the game and it’s amazing how much you do pick up during the rallies, especially how much you remember by either winning or losing the point!

I may get some information in the knock up about rear court skills and an indication that my opponent is a poor mover. After that, I have to wait to see if they serve well and discover during the game how much they vary the serve. Also, how well they receive the serve.

The game helps me build a picture of their skills and their playing style.

So here’s what you can do. Whilst you’re sat down watching a game at your club, why not have a go at watching a player or pair and see how many of these traits you spot. Note some of them down and see if you can design a plan to beat them. Later in the night, see if you can play them and test your theory. Note what went well and what didn’t work.

Give this a go and let me know how you get on. Also, why not do your own skills analysis using yourself as a guinea pig. From this you’ll really begin to understand your strengths and weaknesses.

The big point about analysing yourself is this. You may discover that there is a mis-match between your strengths and your style of play. And, if you prefer the style you play, then this analysis will help you discover what you need to work on in order to improve your style and take it to another level.

In the third and final part of this series, I will be sharing my thoughts on playing as a pair, combining your badminton skills and styles and designing your tactics to outplay your opponent’s styles and skills.

In the meantime, I invite discussion on this article and if you’d like to send me a few scenarios to comment on, I may include them in part 3.

To your success.

Paul

Have you ever played against an opponent you believe you should beat, but never have?

Have you suffered the frustration of knowing you are that close to a momentous win and yet can’t seem to make the breakthrough?

Or, have you walked off court wondering what happened, losing easily to someone you consider you’re as good as, and yet the score suggests a huge gulf in standard of play?

If you’ve answered yes to any of the above questions, then this series of articles may be the answer you’re looking for.

So What’s The Secret Skill?

In all standards of play, whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, club, league or professional badminton player, you need to understand how to read your opponent, identify their weaknesses and be able to use this information to create a tactical game plan.

So how do you do this?

Here’s a few ideas for you…

In this article, you’ll discover how to understand the bigger picture and then, in the next two articles you’ll hear how to analyse the components of skill and design tactics to expose and capitalise on your opponent’s weakness.

1) Style of play

No doubt you’ve played with and against a number of players. Each player has their own style of play, favourite shots, weaknesses, likes and dislikes.

The aim in this section is to simplify style and help you assess which style you and your opponent fits. Once you understand this, it’s a lot easier to begin building a game plan to beat them. Let’s take a look at the various styles and how to identify them.

Aggressive Attacking

This style of player is easy to identify. They try to attack everything. They like a fast-paced game and favour the big smash to finish off the rally at the earliest opportunity. There’s an almost brawn over brains mentality here although it’s being a little cruel to say this.

When serving to this style of player, they are ready to pounce on any loose shot. They have an aggressive attacking stance, toeing the service line and try to psyche you out and force a loose low serve or flick to allow the big smash return. Have you met this style of player yet? They can be very intimidating.

Attacking Thinker

This style of player is tricky and hard to beat. They can attack well and use a range of well-placed shots to achieve a desired result. They like to mix the pace, searching for openings, work well in a pair to create a weak return. There’s more finesse in their game, using a “whole court” approach to find the gaps in your game.

When serving to this kind of player, you need to pay attention to the variety in return they command. There’s less aggression in their game, preferring the well-placed return to the booming smash. Be on your guard, especially around the net and watch out for push returns. They will still latch on to a poor serve and bury it, however, they lack the aggression on court to send you back on your heels.

This type of player likes a more medium-fast paced game, although they are far more adept at changing the pace to create their openings.

Aggressive Defender

Whilst this term may seem odd, there’s a reason I use it. There are players who like to counter-hit. They like to set up certain situations, specifically to play for a certain return where they can inject pace into their defensive shot creating an unstoppable shot or causing a weak return.

Their defensive capabilities are good and they love to move the shuttle around the court quickly to expose weaknesses or open up a weak return, especially in the rear court.

Serving to this type of player will usually result in fast pushes to the rear court or at the server’s partner in doubles. They like to send an opponent the wrong way, so have developed good deception skills in order to use fast pushes to win points.

This style of player prefers a fast-paced game and they really like to drive the shuttle into the corners to create their openings. They love to hit “through” the attacking net player deep into the rear court.

Defending Thinker

This style of player is good at moving the shuttle around the court, but in a more defensive manner. They are happy to lift the shuttle and then manoeuvre the shuttle to expose the gaps in their opponents attack. Again, they like to use deception to fool their opponents and enjoy a slower pace of game, lifting high into the corners, blocking and pushing returns in order to create their openings.

Serving to this player is certainly less pressure. They tend to stand off the service line, preferring to cover their rear court rather than attack a low serve.

The Complete Player

The complete player is one that is a bit of a chameleon. They can play all four styles, although have a preference in terms of their most comfortable style. They will have weaknesses and some of these styles are almost alien to them, because they are so good at their preferred style of play.

With this type of player, it’s important to recognise the style they favour and either better it or learn to play against it.

Rally Points Scoring System Has Changed The Game – Have You Adapted?

The change in the scoring system for most players brought about a change in their style. In essence, they either adapted or were defeated (Darwen’s law about the survival of the fittest – fitness in these terms meaning adaptable to their surroundings).

The rally point system does not suit the slow starter so much, and certainly in professional arenas the defensive thinker is extinct. Players at this level must be able to adopt all styles and adapt them to their game instantly, choosing the style of return to meet the situation they are in, within a fraction of a second.

In league badminton, especially lower leagues, this is not seen as much. Consequently, matches are won and lost based on which style of player outplays their opponent. The rally point system still favours an attacking player, especially the aggressive attacker, although time and again, it’s the softer shot that finds an opening.

What To Do Next

Take a good look at the players in your club and see if you can work out which style of player they usually fit.

When you’ve completed this task, think about your own game and your preferred style of play. Does it remain the same, or does it change depending on your partner and the opposition? Note your findings.

Having identified these different styles, why not email me, or send your comments advising me what you would do to counter a style you have difficulty playing against. Also explain your style of play and why you believe you’re having problems beating this style of player…this could be very interesting, so come on, join in and let’s learn something together!

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 focussed 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 racquet once your skill has improved. Why? You may find that because you’re so much quicker, you require the shuttle to leave your racquet 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 metre 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

OK, I’m skimping on writing more detail on some of the latter exercises because I’d like to see what kind of response I get to this article first. If you like what I’m saying and want more information, then email me or comment below.

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.

Have fun with these exercises and I look forward to reading your comments and emails.

To your success.

Paul