BONNIE SPORT

There are basically 3 main factors to successfully playing Badminton.

First, you have to move to get to the shuttle, so your Badminton footwork has to be good. Secondly, you have to be able to hit the shuttle, and thirdly, it has to be hit to where you want it to go.

Basically if you can’t get to where the shuttle is/will be, then all the training and drills on shot selection practice and tactics are utterly useless!

Fast Badminton footwork is crucial and so is the right starting position. To be able to move from a static position, your knees must be slightly bent and your weight on the balls of your feet so that your heels are barely in contact with the ground. For a right handed player, your feet should be in a ’10 to 4′ clock position, ’20 to 2′ for you lefties.

Your feet should be placed apart so they are ‘outside’ your shoulders. To check this, assume your normal stance and have a quick look down. Check this, I’ll bet your stance is not quite wide enough.

With only a small upper body movement you should be able to ‘fall’ in any direction. Any movement around the court is dictated by your ability to move your feet, so both readiness and balance are crucial.

In game play a different more pronounced stance may need to be used depending on the state of play. For example if you expect to receive a smash you’ll need a wide (and squat) stance in order to reach or ‘dig out’ the smash return.

In short and long play your Badminton footwork will change and you’ll need a narrower and longer front to back starting stance because the necessary movement will generally be in those directions.

The next time you take to the court… look down, have a look at your feet and give some thought to what is or is not going on with them, you’ll find that improving your Badminton footwork really does make a difference to your game if you give some thought and attention

The tennis serve is the most frustrating stroke in tennis to learn and it can be very embarrassing when you lose vital points due to a sloppy serve in ANY of your games. Why do you need to learn how to serve in tennis properly? Well as I mentioned you will end up losing points in your games and these points could be vital (some may even be match deciders!). What you are looking to do is create a serve that is so consistent, powerful and accurate that it will have your opponent under vast amounts of press and frustration from running around the court trying to return the ball. Serves like this will put opponents into defense and have them afraid of your serve! If you ever wonder “how do I fix my serve?” then just read the following 3 tips that will have you a threat from the service line!

When Serving Toss the Ball out More

What does this mean? When you serve you want to imagine a small box that is slightly in front of you. This is where you should aim the ball to drop if you miss your serve. The reason for this is that you will add more power by making your body lean into your stroke.

Use the Continental Grip

The Continental (otherwise known as the chopper grip for its axe like resemblance) is a grip that is used mainly for serves and volleys and is more efficient than the eastern forehand which many beginners use as it is more natural to use.

Have Fun When Practicing

Many people just practice the serve over and over again which can get boring (and cause repetitive strain injuries) and also frustrating if you make no progress. What I found works is using tennis drills that let you have fun and also teach you the method and how it would be under pressure to stop you asking “How to fix my serve”.

A Badminton Drill is quite simply a practice.

No, not practicing by playing or knocking a few shuttles across the net to your partner. A Badminton Drill is a practice. It’s a practice of a specific skill or element required to play badminton. The Badminton drill can take many forms but will usually focus on taking a small and specific area on which to work.

Let me give an example from my own style of play, I invariably have my racquet ‘down’ either to the side or in front, even when at the front of the court. But a far better position for the racquet and me as I’m well over six foot, is to have my knees slightly bend and the racquet head raised to shoulder or head height. I need to Drill this habit into my head. So my partner and I play the ‘patty cake’ game, both stand just back of the front service line and try hitting the shuttle as horizontal and as close to the net tape as possible.

It becomes a ‘game’ when there are no rules, i.e. freedom to hit shuttle on either forehand or backhand. It becomes a Drill when you continually just do forehand. It can be further broken down into say, near forehand and far forehand.

Badminton drills are better than practice as they are more specific to particular areas and should be done over a considerable amount of time. An hour spent on a particular Badminton drill is nothing, and what’s more it should be regularly repeated throughout the training regime.

Another Badminton drill might be ‘mid court backhand cross net return’, bit of a mouthful that, but if your partner can deliver the shuttle to the right area this is easily practicable, but the main purpose of the drill could be to get you to change from a forehand grip to a backhand grip!!..

A Badminton drill is a very useful training technique and is simply a repetition of a small but necessary skill.