Teaching girlfriend beginner | Beginners General Q&A | Discussion Forum

Hi al, I had a good read at the other post on teaching beginners.

My girlfriend has played badminton few years now but in my eyes shes a beginner. I haven't seen her play for about 6 months but she says shes improved a lot and she wants coaching. I even think she wants to come with me to pauls Coaching weekend in September but I know I have to coach her to get her there.

Last time I seen her play, her main prob is grip and clearing. She can not clear (good old panhadle grip). Goes half court if that. I know I can fix it if she will listen to me lol, she can be stubborn at times but shes says she will listen to me this time.

Am planning on getting her grip for the overheads sorted and working on proper technique for a clear as this is her worst shot. She can hit the shuttle 9/10 and he can smash and move the shuttle about.

Her serve is bad, no backhand, clear is weak, movement is very stiff and slow.

Any other advice on what to teach her and how to teach her. 1st thing il def fix is the clear.

Phil,

I sympathise! I have been coaching my girlfriend for about a year now. On the positive side: she has almost perfect form on most of her shots (no backhand overheads as yet, but getting there) and fantastic movement. The movement is the one that I think is most important: if you can move, you can play, and if you can play then you can practise. On the negative: we don't practice enough and she doesn't play when not playing with me – we are both very busy!

However, I have found that the best improvements came from teaching drives, especially whilst playing singles. Drives (and pushes) are fantastic! They will give the player (your girlfriend) the confidence to defend properly (not be intimidated by smashes etc), the tecnique required to play soft and hard pushes from around the net, as well as intercepts (perfect for playing the net/mixed doubles) AND they are really useful for attacking in general! Thus, to quickly become used to playing actual games, I think focussing on the flat game is really important, because most of the time you can turn a game into the flatter game quite easily (and won't be uncomfortable when people do it back). On the other hand, the correct overhead technique is of course imperative. For overhead shots, I focus almost solely on quick drops, making them quicker and quicker.

So, in summary: I tihnk the overhead grips and general technique is the right way to go about it, but I think teaching the drives and pushes with correct grips (especially backhand) is also something that should be considered sooner rather than later!

Good luck

Matt

p.s. I hope this doesn't affect your relationship – I have heard and seen many horror stories of boyfriends teaching their girlfriends…