One of the most valuable tools I was taught to use in baseball (and I used as a coach as well) was a batting T to help "groove" a swing. Even the pros still use it today when their swing needs to be tweaked. I was wondering if the same principle would apply to hitting the birdie in badminton. If practice time on a badminton court is scarce, would it be any benefit to string a birdie to the ideal height at home and practice until the proper swing mechanics were commited to "muscle memory". I searched this forum on how to do that, but didn't find anything. If I don't get any responses I'll know it's a silly question
i dont think its a silly question, but i certainly haven't thought about it before. one thing you'll have to work through is finding somewhere to tie the birdie high enough to do certain strokes (ie. smash/clear/drop) and enough room to swing your racket.. other than that.. i'm not sure. have to wait for opinions from others. in badminton, timing your swing is very important, so i'm not sure if this will work out as desired or not
I was pondering on similar thoughts just recently. but if you dont get court time, something very usefull in building the right muscles for badminton and getting the timing right, is to take some old birdies and hit them against the wall. you can draw a line at 5ft and try and hit the birdie over it everytime, wether practicing your drives or clears, not sure this works too well for smash practice.
Swing contraption There is a contraption to practice swings already on the market. A substitute is to tie a shuttle onto the ring of a netball post. Is this what you were referring to? Found at: http://www.directsports-eshop.co.uk/sess/utn;jsessionid=15425d943e86fa9/shopdata/newsdesk.shopscript
Some coaches in Hong Kong use a long bamboo pole and tie a shuttle with a thin string to the top of the pole. This DIY tool is mainly used to teach beginners or very young kids. I believe it has its origin in either Indonesia or China, because the coaches who like to use this tool/device are usually the older Indonesian coaches who left Indonesia in droves, along with China's great master Tong, for China but have now settled down in Hong Kong.
For overhead shots, one defintely needs a high ceiling. I have broken many ceiling lights and lamps and live to tell the tale. The scaryiest was when I hit right through a long glass flourescent tube..lucky I was wearing flip flops plus Cab 20 doesn't conduct electricity very well I did see a big flash of electricity though and temporarily lost sensations in my body. Moral of the story: Don't play badminton at home kids!
I was thinking about going outside and stringing a birdie with some basically unbreakable very thin fishing line tied to the end of a seven foot long fishing rod which would be attached to the railing of my deck. It is quite wind sheltered and the bird could be dangled at any appropriate height up to 11 foot if necessary. Might work ???
I think it's simpler and more effective to shadow swing your overhead (w/o shuttle). The most important aspect of the overhead swing is incorporating all motions into one: grip position, arm pronation, torso rotation and counterbalance (non-racquet arm). Once you have grooved your swing, positioning will come naturally (just remember to take it infront of you).
I use an old retractable antenea (this way it can fit inside your racquet bag), string, and only the cork without the feathers, as a tool to teach beginners to maximize the height of their overhead swing. Cheers!
That'll work. I've seen a couple of coaches do this to kids who needs to figure out their hand-eye coordination and develop the proper stroke motion.