Im 6'1" and i dramatically grew in grade 10 and 11 and i was 5'5" before then when i player 3 years, i find that even now im not using my hight to my advantage, i've been told sooo many times to "use your hight on the court" but its really new to me.
All this year ive been really improving my fitness doing cardio curcuits and i skip everyday and that has really increase my speed on court but im still playing the style a 5'5" player would. How can i fix a problem like this?

Work on your reflexes and learn to put away points at the net. At 6'1", you should force your opponents to hit perfect lobs over you at the net.

In singles, knock the shuttle to the baseline backhand of your opponent and take advantage if the ball doesn't return strongly.

In doubles, find a partner with a strong smash and cut down any weak replies at the net.

Height is a killer advantage at every level of the game, except the highest. I'm assuming you're not a pro so you should indeed be able to take advantage of this.

if you're 6'1", you should also have a huge reach... so approaching the net and covering the sides (in singles) should be easy.... and your long legs should make going to back not too difficult either....

be careful to guard your chest though.... probably harder for big guys to cover that area against drives... or so i hear.... can't really relate seeing as how i'm practically a midget...

Yes a taller person is going to have better reach. Do not use your legs as much to get to the shuttle, as a shorter person would. Instead, extend your arms to cut our any shots you can. Extend your reach to hit the shuttle at the highest point, and focus on getting a better steeper angle for your smashes, the power will come naturally. Be more eager to anticipate net level shots. Stand closer to the T junction when recieving serve, and invite them to clear high, because you'll be able to reach it easily. Train your wrist for faster reactions to put away quick kills. Your extra reach, and hence time to play the shot will give you a wider shot selection and better disguise if mastered.

The way you play depends on your opponents also, are they of the same height or much lower?

Watch World Champions Lars Passke and Jonas Rasmussen :), as an example of how tall people should play doubles. I highlight this pair, because their style is not of typical tall european players playing a bang bang power game, instead they play a very sharp and intelligent game, using all the angles and varying the pace.

Gowmiester,

You got a gift... your lanky body bestow you great potential for the sport. Just keep training and soon it'll be hard for others to keep up with you:). Keep your racquet up in front of you and learn to 'take up space':D. Extra focus on footwork since efficient footwork will save you effort and time to cover the same distance others have to work twice as hard to cover.

Checkout Zhao Jian Hua... he's quite the legend... a tall one at that too:p.

being tall has advantages and disadvantages.

many advantages has been mentioned. but here are some disadvantages:

moving from standstill

the disadvantages are less obvious. tall ppl have higher center of gravity, it is harder to a tall person to initiate a footwork movement. as a result, you need to crouch down more than you think is natural. i find myself move much much faster that way.

net height drives

taller person stands higher at the net, most drives at net height falls in the awkward boundary between lowerhand drives or upperhand drives. you need to constantly thikn about whether you should bend down a bit to do a overhead or standup a bit to do a lowerhand. for shorter ppl, most drives can be overhead. overhead drives are more versatile and more powerful.

the solution again, is to crouch down more and bring your height down so you can prepare more for the overhead drive.

skinny or buff?

if you are tall and skinny, since your limbs are longer, you will be less powerful than the equal weight and shorter ppl. if you try to buff up, you will be heavier and move slower and general more stress on your joints.

Do people think being taller is better for badminton? Please comment.

I always find I aim for their torso with fast drives/flat smashes and it seems to work especially with fast drive serves because there just seems an area to hit.

Bigger targets for better coverage... that's a good tradeoff. Drive serves can be easily defended with a change in the grip and a tall person can reach further towards the net and cut the angles. Also, there's the initial psychological bonus against the person facing the taller opponent. One has to be really seasoned to negate its effect:p.

Originally posted by Dill
Do people think being taller is better for badminton? Please comment.

I always find I aim for their torso with fast drives/flat smashes and it seems to work especially with fast drive serves because there just seems an area to hit.

Originally posted by Dill
Do people think being taller is better for badminton? Please comment.

I always find I aim for their torso with fast drives/flat smashes and it seems to work especially with fast drive serves because there just seems an area to hit.

i think up to a point, taller may be overall better. despite all the negatives i have pointed out, the positive effects seems to outweigh them.

but at some point, there will be dimishing return.

Originally posted by kwun
i think up to a point, taller may be overall better. despite all the negatives i have pointed out, the positive effects seems to outweigh them.

but at some point, there will be dimishing return.

Exactly, I think if you are as tall as Yao Ming, you will be a huge target for smashes.

However, when you are tall, and you are good at jump smashes. Man, it will be very very hard to return your smashes since the whole court will be in your bomb zone.

Usually tall people also have longer legs, so you do have a better reach when you are in either far front/back. However, footwork exercise is still required.

One other thing in doubles is that, if you are tall, you will have a better sight/view (I had this problem if my parnter is standing in front of me, I couldn't see anything at all because I am short) to the court.

I think tall people have a better serve in doubles too since they are higher on the net and can make the serve more flatter into a almost drive serve, or they can do low or flick serve with ease too.

yeah....being high is handy....wish i was too:(

serving should be a doddle....you can actually do proper backhand drive serves, and also your short serves should start dipping down earlier since they start off from a higher position.

also work on steeper smashes/drops/general downward shots:) can use that reach....we were playing against two tall players, and they kept getting the shuttle just off the floor at the last moment cos they had such huge reaches......kept suprising us:)