This article has resulted from a recent enquiry for my residential coaching weekend. Here’s the story…

A previous attendee from my first residential coaching weekend recently emailed me expressing interest in the Advanced Course in September. He explained that his enquiry was based on the concern whether our training weekends can specifically cater for a pair (usually we mix the group during the weekend to allow attendees to train with each other. This works well and helps the players to get to know one another.)

As usual, I speak with every attendee before I accept them onto the course. Our discussions revolved around him and his partner, their perceived strengths and weaknesses and specific areas they wished to develop.

Of course, the training I offer covered all of these points and much more which also became areas of interest for this player. And the good news for him was that I am more than happy to keep pairs, teams, or any type of group together if it’s best for them. The key point is that the pair learn together, and close gaps together in addition to achieving their performance improvement goals for the season.

Why is this badminton training good for pairs, teams or clubs? 

The idea behind any badminton training is to improve your performance. Whilst this is relatively easy for an individual like you, the difficulty may arise when you return to your club and your partner(s) have no understanding what is happening on court because you have changed your game, playing shots you’ve never played before. This is alien to them.

If you were both attending the same course, then you would be training and playing together, which would significantly improve your performance both individually and as a pair. The games you would play, watched by a coach would highlight where the misunderstandings were occurring, where the tactics were failing and the key areas where you failed to gain advantage to win the point. You’d also discover what you both were doing very well and why it was effective.

Imagine what you could achieve as a pair, team or club if you and your partners/club mates were all exposed to the same training? How much better would you be? How much easier would it be to play with another partner if your regular partner was unable to attend a match?

It’s easy to see that if you play better as a pair, the chances of winning more games increases. If all of the pairs in your team were achieving the same level of success then your team increases their chances of winning more matches. This in turn leads to winning divisions or perhaps just staying up in a higher division when historically your team were consistently promoted one season and relegated the next.

For pairs that play tournaments together, imagine how just 5% improvement in key areas of your game can make a difference in the outcome of a match and likewise the overall tournament results. How much more enjoyment and success can you achieve through such a small increase?

Successful clubs tend to attract more members. It’s a happier club, there’s usually greater respect for each others skills and you can also contribute more to juniors or new members which helps them integrate into the club.

If you’re looking to get the best out of the season, then it may be in yours, your partners and your clubs best interests to contact me and see how we can train together for your badminton success.