One of the best, and usually most fun ways to enhance your racket skills is to learn a few badminton trick shots. Personally, I detest watching trick shots in the form many are used these days, which is purely for entertainment or to say “look how good I am.”

There are some who demonstrate them to teach, which is different.

So far, I have avoided showing trick shots because I do not wish to be seen as copying others. However, with these videos, I wish to convey to you the importance of developing good racket head control. Playing shots you may rarely use in a game is a great way of developing your racket skills.

The key features in these videos are:

  • Defence stance, low and wide

  • Racket ready to defend the shuttle

  • Have a feeder throw to the same spot ensuring the shuttle is still travelling beyond you rather than decelerating too quickly.

  • Move the racket quickly to play the shot

  • Return to ready position quickly

Video One

On this first video, you’ll discover the first level in this series, to be able to play one shot and recover quickly. When you have mastered this skill, you are ready for the next stage…

Video Two

In this video I am increasing the degree of difficulty by combining two trick shots. It’s important the feeder remains focussed so that they set up a good feed.

The feeder is throwing to alternate between two different trick shots. The first shuttle is thrown in-between your legs and the second towards your low backhand side but relatively close to your body. I’m sure you grasp how this exercise is progressing and can still be made harder.

Once the player is capable of returning the shuttle then why not add a new dimension by changing from alternate feeds to random, still paying the same two shots. You could also add that the shuttle must be hit into two directions, so there’s plenty of scope to increase the degree of difficulty.

Video Three

By adding a racket head cover, this slows down the racket as it is now heavier in the head. You need more precision to be able to bring the racket head through and hit the shuttle square on.

You may find this video a lot tougher. Again, you can ask the feeder to throw alternately to begin and then change to random feeds later. Why not add targets for you to hit so you hit the shuttle to the right of the feeder and then alternate by hitting the next shuttle to their left side. This clearly demonstrates you are developing good racket head control.