What are the trainings to play better badminton?

Question: What are the trainings to play better badminton? Techniques are part of it, but how should I train to improve my footwork and power, as well as control. What are exercises I can do? Especially for doing more powerful backhand strokes and smashes.

Answer:
Hi Jason, thanks for your question.

I agree with you that correct badminton techniques are essential.

If you want to improve your fitness (speed and power) in badminton, there are a couple of exercises that you could perform.

When you mention improving your footwork, I assume that you want to be able to move faster around the badminton court.

Stretching Exercises

Stretching exercises improve your flexibility.

Flexibility is important in badminton footwork because in most instances, you’re required to lunge forward to the front of the court.

You’ll need to be flexible to stretch your legs as you lunge forward.

Not only will you have to stretch out as far as possible, you’ll also need to be able to recover quickly.

This means that you must be able to maintain good balance as you lunge forward and quickly return to your footwork base.

Stretching for flexibility also helps improve the power of badminton smash. When your body is more flexible, the mobility of your wrist, arm, and waist improves.

The bigger your swing, the more powerful your smash.

If you can produce a bigger swing, your smash will be more powerful.

You need a flexible body to rotate your waist and racket arm as far back as possible (before you smash). This increases the swinging range and hence the power of your smash.

To increase and maintain your flexibility, perform stretching exercises (at home or in your gym; anywhere) every day.

10-15 minutes of stretching a day is sufficient to make you flexible.

Shadow Exercises

Shadow exercises need to be done on the badminton court.

Imagine yourself playing with an opponent. Picture your imaginary opponent hitting the shuttle to you to the four corners of the court consecutively.

Move to the four corners of the court as quickly as possible in an organized manner.

Make sure your footwork technique is correct.

Keep ‘shadowing’ around the court for 2-3 minutes and then stop to catch your breath.

Rest for 30 second and then continue shadowing for another 2-3 minutes.

You can shadow for as long as you want. Shadow exercise are effective in improving your badminton footwork.

Physical Stamina

When you’re out of stamina:

• Your speed decreases
• Your reaction is slower
• You generate less power in your shots

If you have poor stamina, there are ways to improve it.

Running or sprinting is a good way to increase your stamina. Besides that, you can also perform Shadow Exercises (mentioned above) for a longer duration to improve your stamina.

You’ll need good stamina to quickly bring you towards the shuttle and then generate the maximum power to hit your badminton shots.

Improving Your Control

In order to have good control, you’ll first need to have control over your racket.

You need to spend time getting used to the racket, even when you’re off the court. This may sound ridiculous but it works very well for me. When you’re watching TV, hold your badminton racket and switch from the forehand grip to the backhand grip.

You can even practice moving your wrist with your racket wherever you are, even if you’re sitting on the couch.

After doing this for awhile, switching from the forehand to the backhand grip should be automatic for you.

After doing this exercise, you won’t even need to consciously think about switching grips on the court, it just comes naturally to you).

When you’re able to switch between forehand and backhand grips easily, you will have good control over your racket.

Improve Fitness

If you are keen on improving your fitness and becoming a high performance badminton player, I highly recommend that you consider getting the .

The DVD teaches you many exercises where you can improve your fitness for the purpose of badminton.