Hey people, can you gimme some advice on how to improve footwork.. I mean like some progammes you do, like shadows and all that.. Thanks Jessica
Here's what I do: 1. Improve technique Basically, shadow drills. However, you can't do them mindlessly, make sure you're aware of what shot you're 'hitting', because that determines how you're going to recover. 3x a week I do each corner in 1 minute bursts, four times. Note that each corner is done twice... so I do 4x with 'lifting' and running recovery, and 4x with 'net shots' and shuffle recovery. I may do 30 second bursts if I don't have a lot of time. The focus is on moving silently and efficiency and under control, rather than speed. Then, 2-3x a week I'll do full court shadow with moving around to all corners as well as the sides for smash recovery. For this I do red-lining... two minutes as hard as I possibly can, two minutes slowly, no stopping. I'm usually totally fried and dead after 4-5 sets,so it takes about 15-20 minutes. 1. Improve strength I hit the weight room about 2x a week, more during the offseason. So lots of squats, lunges, and machine strengthening of quads, hamstring, calves. Stabilizing on wobble boards as well for injury prevention. I do upper and core body weights as well with this. I find it has drastically improved my ability to shuffle step effectively as well as have more control and be lighter on my feet. 3. Improve speed Sprints, sprints, and more sprints. I usually only do 1-2x a week out of time constraints, sometimes I'll replace or combine a footwork session with sprints. Usually longer distance... one end of the gym to the other, then back, then to the end again, walk back. Sprint again when I get back. Manmakers work great too. Don't go too crazy on these, though, as the risk for overworking yourself is pretty high. Hope that was helpful!
chinese footwork? what is so different about the chinese style of footwork and why is it more efficient?
Practice makes perfect provided that you practice the right thing. It's best if you learn from a professional and note that different coaches have different footwork. I would suggest you to imagine you are actually playing when you do your footwork. The more you do the better as it becomes so natural just like walking. The biggest challenge is that it is boring, so get a partner and take turns.
squats / running.. set targets like maybe 100 squats per day.. 20 squats per set ( 20 x 5 ) and slowly increase to 25 x 5 and so on
see http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39368 "Coach Cai follows the Chinese footwork methodology which is basically, shuffle when you have time/need to jump, and run when you're behind. So if you've hit a clear from the back, you should run back to the centre, but you should shuffle back from a drop or smash. This allows you to change direction most quickly and get to the next shot. Similarly, you should run back from a lift but shuffle back from a net shot. When shuffling, you don't return exactly to the centre, but close to it."
do squats where you sit against a wall for like 5mins. this helps your legs be able to maintain much more pressure during a game.
Do you mean you go up and down against a wall?? Or do you mean by sitting on the wall for 5 minutes?? Btw I tried for about 3ish minutes sitting against the wall and you can already feel like pain. Oww