If this been discussed before, I am sorry. Just seems very hard to search for a related topic like this.

Here's my story: Right before my ankel injury, this guy (around 40s?) in my club kindly gave my suggestion on some of my strokes, and willing to spend some time with me on drills. He's teaching me some sort of concepts on grips, footwork, and several different kind of strokes (i.e. backcourt slice, etc). I immediately noticed the forms are kinda different than my usual habbits. I first thought, hmmm... I might got some wrong strokes, since I never got formly trained before. I was very happy to meet such a nice guy that willing to spend time to help me. Now, about fully recovered from injury, and went back to club last sat. This guy was happy, too. So, we started the drills and "teaching + learning" process. However, another decent player (1 of the best in the club) told me privately after watching our drills. He told me, he had known this guy for long, and did agree he's a nice guy. But, he insisted the older guy got a lot of "wrong forms" in his strokes and footwork. He warned me, saying that if I really continue to learn from that guy, I might be leading on the wrong path as well.

I know different ppl might have different preference, etc. However, I do have a concern after hear this comments:

1. Both guys are better than me in skill and experience. I am really glad they spend time to teach / watch, and giving out valueable advice. However, who I should believe?

2. I know if I continue this process for a while, I might be able to answer my question (not necessary right / wrong form, but might be able to tell whether it "suit" for me or not). However, I don't really want to spend too much effort, then, find out everything is just a waste or even worse than that.

3. If I figure out I am not "suitable" for his style (still try to avoid the word "wrong", since still very thankful for him), what should I do then? I assume simply saying "no thanks, don't want to learn any more" and step away seems very rude and more like a "slap right on his face".

Still trying to keep my "nice guy" image in the club, and of course, want to let my hard training effort improve my game but not "back fire". Any suggestions will be very helpful.

hi Lazybuddy i would suggest thet u let both of them teach u the tatics see how different they are and see which is best for u if neither of the drills are any good then seek out a coach. this is just my opinion.:)

but i have coaches like that they all teach me how the serve differently but there is one i've setteled on.

LB: Having someone who is willing to give you free training and benefits of their experience, then questioning it is like "looking a gift horse in the mouth". But at least if the gift horse turned out bad, you can simply shoot it and be rid of it forever. Bad or incorrect form will plaque you for a long time, and will take you forever to eliminate.

Here's the thing: Do you plan to practice to become world class? Or do you plan to improve your game so that you are more competent and play better in general?

In general I have seen most coaches or experienced players can offer you a path to a certain level and competency of play. Regardless of form, you can excel to good level given that you are willing to spend time to learn and practice it. Only at the higher levels would bad form hurt you, which is why you will want to ask the question of what you want to do later in life.

If you have some concerns right now, take a good look at this coach. Find out if he is injured, and try to find out how these injuries may have occured. Shoulder, arm, tennis elbow types of injuries are good indications of poor form, which are magnified with playing over time. Knees, and other leg maladies are some indication of poor footwork. Look closely at his shoes, often bad wear will also show footwork problems.

Then compare his game to the other fellows. Regardless of who is no. 1 in the club, you also have to take age and other factors in mind. Do you feel his style fits yours better? Does the style look smooth in general? A good form will make everything look effortless.

But if you do decide that his training is not for you, you should simply tell him so that he doesn't spend further time on you, but do it nicely so that you aren't simply shrugging him off. Let him know of your concerns and just be up front with him. If he is a decent person, he should understand.

It's difficult to say who is right and who is wrong because everyone has different styles to play badminton. My suggestion would be to go with whatever works best for you.

I know lots of people are just trying to be helpful but they may not be teaching the proper technique. I've seen it many times but I've never wanted to intercede because if they feel like they are learning and it helps them, then it is better than me barging in there and trying to correct anything.

It's true that you're not really training to become a world class player so it shouldn't matter so much. Free training is free training. :)

open your mind to all advice, test and filter out what doesn't make sense,
keep the good. no coach is perfect and always right in all techniques but
all of them have something worth learning.

at our level, access to coaches who are world-class and 90% correct most of
the time are very rare. so we have to make do with what bits and pieces we
can get from various coaches.

LB, I think it depends on what exactly the two disagree on. Some strokes and footwork have different variations to them--both could be correct. However, if it is something fundamentally wrong (i.e. lead with your non-racquet foot), then you could be in trouble.. otherwise, i would practice the different variations with both guys because it'll give you more weapons in your arsenal.

For example, I always turned my body and 'kicked' when I cleared (this isn't wrong, but it just wastes a lot of energy). So after I learned how to clear with only my forearm, I now switch between the two forms while throwing in a drop in there once in a while. It confuses my opponents because they don't know which shot is coming.

I suggest you take advice from the person willing to give you the time. One guy might be able to teach you better, but if he doesnt have time to do it, then you wont improve. There are more than one way to skin a cat (english saying) if you combine the two, this could be counterproductive (one method taking away the benefit of the other). Better stick to one method and one who can help to improve you with lots of time and effort. good luck.

it might sound blunt but nothing in life come free, and no one person knows everything. Since it sound like u r just starting out, it's likely you're not able to tell which form is correct. If u want to learn it right, u have to follow a program, not tibits here and there. If u want to learn it cheap, go watch some videos of pros and buy a cd on badminton technique. I have have seen some players who were able to reach solid B level with good proper forms just from watching tapes (no cd, no coaching). It took them from 1 to 2 years of recreational playing. Like what badrad had said, it depends how far u wanna go with it. If you want to go beyond B level, u need real coaching from a A and up players or coaches who have taught A and up players.(warning: not all A and up players can coach, coaching and playing are 2 different skills) I have not seen any B players going beyond their level without real coaching. I'll stop at this point.

that's a tough one LB.

let call your nice guy friend A, and the other good player person B.

even though person B thinks A doesn't have the proper technique, what do "you" think? you must have seen enough good players around club and other tournament to know what good and proper techniques are, so do you think he has good techniques?

also, other have pointed out something that is important. although i believe there is a certain set of proper and standard technique, the chance that you will find those ppl around town is very slim. and even slimer if you get the chance to learn from them. these coaches are usuallly the one who retired from various national teams who has their form and style set when they were 10 yrs old.

even for those group of ppl, you will find variations, i have seen a few variations of them already, and soem i think is more proper than other. (not that i can do any of them myself so i am not really in the position to be critical)

ok. so you are probably not looking at one of these coaches. most of the other coaches, they have ok techinque, but i would not say standard, but in the US, that's pretty much what we all have to deal with. it will be much harder work (and cost) to get the good coaches.

so as we have now said that we are only dealing with not the best coach with the best style, you now still need to ask yourself, does your friend A has the knowledge and ability to teach you? what's his background? is he a self taught weekend warrior, or did he have training before? if so, where and from whom? much of these info can probably be obtain by chatting with him.

i have seen many horrible coaches in which i would not even consider learning from. many of these so call coaches can hardly swing the badminton racket properly. again, i don't think i can either, but at least i don't pretend to be a coach.... ;)

but yet there are some who can teach the weekend warrior some simple techinques. and not enough to lead one into the wrong path. perhaps the small details like racket gripping, stances are rather basic.

just remember though, monkey-see-monkey-do, the more you train with a person, the more you will play like him...

Imagine the reverse: you are training with the other player and afterawhile, the first trainer comes to tell you that your current trainer's technique is wrong. Who would you believe then?

If I were you, I would continue training but ask the other person how the "wrong" technique should be correctly done and see for myself which style better suits me.

Thanks for the replies.

I agree with most of the suggestions. I don't think I am aiming to become a world class player, and I don't think I will. I just try to improve my game within my physical ability range, and stay competitive.

Personally, I was very happy to get a chance to learn, and very thankful for ppl who will spend their time and energy to help out. I was amazed with the older guy's skill (crafy old guy, hmmm). He's not that powerful or quick, but often be able to move younger opponents to run crazy on the court. My damn popping knees surely has his "share" as well. :D

I think the main "conflict" between these 2 guys are their styles. The 2nd guy (around my age) seems to be quick, powerful, endless attacking style. I think maybe he brought up his word, just because he think I am young enough to do more "power play" rather than "old man's trick".

Personally, I prefer the 1st guy's tactic a little bit more. Yeah, I am young, but physcially, I am not tall or slim, and don't have strong legs to run and jump all the time. With some better strokes, might sig. improve my effectiveness on the court as for now. That's why I was so excited when I 1st started to learn from him.

I agree that I might a little bit "over-thought" about this issue after heard the 2nd advice. He did got his point, if I can greatly improve my physical condition in the future, but I don't really think it will happen any time soon. I am sure I will train hard, but my nature body shape might be a big draw-back, never have to say about my knees.

I guess I will continue to do drills with the 1st guy, and carefully evaluate my performance. If I did get improvement, that surely will be good. If by any chance, I feel like the new tricks and my old strokes just naturally against each other, then, I will worry about later on. Guess I still won't be too much pissed, if I got kicked out in 2nd round, instead of 3rd round. :D

i agree with you. if you have good smooth stroke with good deception, you can bring that along with you while you age. unlikely that you will be able to bring all the power with you.

however, also, when i refered to style, i do not mean attacking/placement/tricky type of style, but instead the execution of the strokes and in general the smoothness.

Originally posted by kwun

however, also, when i refered to style, i do not mean attacking/placement/tricky type of style, but instead the execution of the strokes and in general the smoothness.

Agree.

I will keep this in my mind. I think the smooth strokes by the older guy, does gives me a lot of motivation to "learn".