I have been asked to help coach my daughter's high school badminton team. I usually train players one on one, so I am trying to figure out the best way to help these kids. Since the badminton team is seasonal, they only have tryouts and inter-school matches for a few weeks in a year. And before these matches start, they only have a few weeks to get the teams formed and run the practice sessions. I was mostly an observer last year, and from what I saw, the skill level is all over the place. As much as I would like to run practice sessions like an actual normal training session, I don't think that will work as some of the kids don't even have the proper footwork even learned yet. While there are a few good-to-decent players that I could see benefiting from running drills and multi-shuttle feeding sessions, I don't want to just do that with them and have the other players feel left out. These are kids that have had some training with the local badminton centers. So.......I would appreciate some advice with some who have been in a similar situation. I am looking at staying in this for the long run as it's one way to help give back to my kid's school. Here's what I am planning to share with the teacher/coach: 1. For now, there is no way to set up a practice session that will fit everyone. So I will talk to the kids that do know how to play to become trainers for most of the practice sessions. the total number of junior and senior members will be around 20 to 24, so if I can divide it up to groups of 5 to 6, then it'll be more manageable to run drills and exercises. 2. I'll take the one's that have the least skill level and try to show them proper footwork and strokes. Any thoughts? Sorry for the long post........
I agree with the different level groups, 20-24 people is too many anyway But you can also let them practice at the same time with some help from other people But firstly, how many weeks are 'a few weeks'? How frequent is the training (or available hall for training)? It almost means nothing if it is only 2 weeks with 1 practice session a week Also, how many coaches the team? You meantioned that 'this is what you plan to share with the coaches'.....
I have a similar issue for my university badminton team: skill levels are all over the place and it makes hosting trainings a challenge. However, for us, the weakest players on our team still have some idea of footwork and hitting technique, even if it's not perfect. What I do is give everyone at my practices the same exercises and drills to perform, regardless of skill. It's easier to organize. Players are split roughly by skill level, and does the same multifeed or hitting drill with players of their level. Since I participate in the training myself, I don't give much technical instruction to players. I think it is fine for you to divide players into groups by skill level. It may not be fun for the stronger players to act as a trainer or coach when they want to do training or play. You can tell the stronger players what exercises and drills to do, basically letting them manage themselves. The stronger players will benefit from challenging each other in drills, and hopefully they can feed each other for multishuttle drills. If they're aware enough of proper technique and footwork, you do not need to watch over them too much to train them. They'll be able to practice by themselves, and you can always give them guidance and help them improve. That would then open up some time for you to work more closely with the beginner players. You can teach them technique, demonstrate their drills, and give them multifeeds yourself. After a while, they should get used to the flow of training, and you can have them practice independently (ie, they can do a drill or even multifeed to each other), without you micromanaging their practice. Hopefully then, you'd be able to spend time to develop both your strong players and weak players, observing them all during drills and during multifeed practice. Since it is challenging to hold a stack of shuttles and feed, an easy way to get multifeeds is to have 2 players feeding: one in front, and one in back. This gives more time to the back court feeder to pick up a shuttle and hit it. Or have 1 person hitting a shuttle, and another person handing them a shuttle for the next feed.
From what the head teacher/coach told me, there are quite a few volunteer coaches that help out. These are mostly students that have graduated and come back. The main issue is from watching them last year, is that most of these volunteers......while good intentioned have no real experience in teaching badminton. It's almost like a blind leading the blind type situation. Plus, i see that the kids who do know how to play don't really take those people seriously. I believe badminton season starts Mid-Feb, and goes 2-3 months. Practice times during the week would be mon-wed-fri on days with no inter-school days, and tues-thurs if they have games scheduled.
Thanks for the suggestions. Maybe once the senior and junior groups have been finalized by the end of next week, I'll spend one or 2 sessions just observing everyone and try to get to know them all. I just want to make sure I can help the kids that want to really improve get the help they need, and for the ones that just want to have fun with their friends, at least have some knowledge of proper technique to keep them safe.
The thing with badminton practice is that it consists of a loooot of aspects, e.g. shot-making technique, footwork, core muscle strength, endurance, foot agility/power, tactical You can actually separate the groups with different regimen at the same time with someone else's help For example, if you have 2 hours time per practice (excluding warm up and cooling down/last stretching), you can have 3 groups doing 3 different things with rotating menu for each of 40 minutes. The most important program (technical related matter) will be managed by you, i.e. the shuttle feeding drill, stroke focus thing (especially for high level group). The other 2 groups can do agility practice specifically for badminton and shadow practice. Both of these requires no deep knowledge of badminton. For agility practice, you can pick any exercise suits with the level, set the time duration, the number of repetitions and sets. You can check some excercises in the video below. You barely need someone who understands PE to help you with timing and blowing a whistle (and encouraging the players to keep working before the time finishes). For the shadow, you can make them do it by themselves. Let the kids have make a pair, one person do the shadow and the other gives instruction to where they have to go. No coach needed here. Let them do 16 or 20 repetitions (depending level) per set with total about 10 sets (or less or more). Some guidance will be necessary for the kids which has no good footwork yet, and to do some shuttle drill for footwork pracice maybe more efficient actually You can make them run for about 30 minutes for endurance, again no badminton expert needed for this program. You can also create a session where they actually play a game or match. 40 minutes to play and have some fun (and a bit tactical part if you have time). So you have a lot of option to mix them around, to help them improve, to keep the kids entertained, and to keep the practice efficient and not too extremely tiring while hitting various aspect of badminton. The technical and tactical part have to be under your guidance, while the other program can be done by other coaches. But surely, making the program at the first time requires some trial and error. Some knowledge on fitness thing will be good to determine the reps, and duration for the programs. I assume you have about 4 months of practice with the team. The first month can be an exploring months. The first, week, separate the group already between the different levels. Consolidate with the other teachers first before the whole program start. The next 2-3 weeks are the trial and error period with the scheduling for your practice
