Multimedia Instructional Materials

A collection of drills, tutorials, and exhibitions that are designed to help teach badminton. These are suitable for all levels of play and for both self-instruction and coaching.  All materials here may be copied and used for badminton instruction but must be credited and cannot be used for any sort of commercial purposes.

NOTE: The stills here are linked to low resolution videos that average around 500kB. Although these show all important details and are quite viewable, in the future as the net evolves, higher-resolution versions will be posted.

CAUTION: Any training session should be well monitored and approached with safety as a paramount concern. Many of the drills could potentially cause injuries of not done carefully. Start all sessions with the appropriate stretches and start all drills with easy motions before moving to more abrupt motions. DO NOT view any of these videos without taking these precautions into account.

YOUR HELP IS REQUESTED: You may notice that the below material is far from complete. As I have a few minutes here and there I am gradually adding comments to go with the various videos- and organizing things. Eventually this should be complete enough for the average player to put together a reasonable training regimen.

I would greatly appreciate any inputs- especially more video information or commentary for the existing pieces.

Send inputs to Stan Bischof ( stan@worldbadminton.com)

• General Conditioning
• Stretching
• Footwork
• Court Coverage
• Racket Skills - basic technique - animation
  • Clears - animation from Leistungkurs Sport web site
  • Smashes - animation from Leistungkurs Sport web site
• Game Skills
• Training Sessions
• Terminology

General Conditioning

Badminton is a strenuous sport which involves many rapid actions and extended aerobic activity. A typical match comprises 30-40 minutes of running, jumping, sprinting, shuffling and striding, often at full extension and generally with very few breaks. The higher the level of your play, the better general conditioning you will need.

• Running - clearly very important. Be sure to include sprints as well as distance runs.
• Weight Lifting - clearly want strength but not muscle mass.All muscle groups should be considered.
• Nutrition
• On the court
  • Arm Strength with beanbag. Vertical catch and throw of a beanbag. Emphasize full-extension on the throw. The beanbag is heavy so this exercise must be carefully controlledby the coach- the trainee should not be throwing the beanbag by himself.

  

  • Upper Body strength with beanbag. For two trainees or one trainee and coach. Good for the upper body and arms. Emphasize full range of movement and full extension on throw, but work carefully since the beanbag is heavy.

   

  • Running with resistance. One trainee will provide resistance to a partner. An alternate hold to what is shown is for the holder to hold both of the runner's hands which are placed behing the runner's back. In any case the object is to provide enough resistance such that the runner is challenged but can still run. Be careful to start out with a small amount of resistance.

  

  • Sidestep with resistance. One trainee will provide resistance to a partner. Normal sidestep drill but theside-stepper is held back by a partner. The object is to provide enough resistance such that the side-stepper is challenged but can still move. Be careful to start out with a small amount of resistance.

 

• Hopping over Cones. Very simple but very useful. Can hop sideways or front-back over one or more cones. Coaches should look for balance and consistency, lightness on landing. This is also good aerobic exercise.

Stretching

Start and end every session- whether for training or competition- with a regimen of stretching exercises. All stretching should be done AFTER some amount of non-stressful warm-up exercises, and should be done slowly and carefully. Streching is also quite useful after your training session.

Footwork

Footwork is probably the single most important part of badminton and lays the foundation for everything that you will do on court. All of these drills can be done without any equipment and , while better on a court, can be done most anywhere.

Court Coverage

The goal of your footwork training is to allow you to get to any spot on the court quickly and easily. These drills are better on a court but can be done most anywhere. While these drills can be done with a racket, it is also very useful to do them with shuttles as shown since this forces full extension and also reinforces the footwork and handwork needed to cover the court. Coaches should watch to make sure that the racket hand is used to pick up shuttles and that the racket foot is always forward for best extension.

• Rotate the Shuttle. A pile of shuttles is placed in one of the principal locations on the court

Racket Skills basic technique

• Drive
• Deep Serve
• Clears - animation from Leistungkurs Sport web site. See link for original work.
• Smashes - animation from Leistungkurs Sport web site.  See link for original work.

Hitting Drills

Game Skills (Tactics and Strategy)

• Singles
• Doubles
• Mixed Doubles

Training Sessions - general hints

• Feeding Shuttles. The most efficient way to feed shuttles is to have one of the trainees handing them one at a time to the feeder (usually the coach). This serves the dual purposes of keeping the feed constant and giving the trainee a rest. Note that the feeder can greatly control the training by varying the rate and placement. The goal is to challenge every trainee (at all levels) but at the same time to keep the pace and shots within the capabilties of the trainee.



• Picking up the shuttles. An excellent way to gather up the shuttles is to use a standard floor mop. Again, have trainees do this between hitting sessions.

Terminology

• Principal Locations These are generally the spots to which players should be hitting. A coach can signal these either by number (See example below) or by hand signals that have been agreed upon with the trainees. This can apply to either court-coverage type drills where the locations are on the trainee's side or to hitting drills, where the locations are on the coach's side.

All materials here may be copied and used for badminton instruction but must be credited and cannot be used for any sort of commercial purposes. Unless otherwise noted, the videos here are donated by Ed Smith who shot them during his son Jason's training sessions. The animated technique Gif's are from Alexander Lange who created them for web usage.

All readers are invited to submit additional items for this page and to add-to or correct anything you find here. The intention is to make this a good reference for players of all levels, but especially for those who are just starting and wondering what they should be working on. As such this is very suitable for high-school and college coaches who may not have much formal badminton experience.

Page maintained and text added by Stan Bischof (stan@worldbadminton.com) . Last updated: 23 August 2004 17:20