Hi, im currently studying at university and am on the fringe of my university team. I currently train once a week with the team(this is more tactics than training itself) and play club nights once a week both at the university. Now that our season is pretty much over the club are stopping the coach until next season. This is ok for most players on the team as they are members of national/county squads and recieve extra training. I on the other hand can't afford to splash out for private coaching:crying: Just wondering if anyone could give me some ideas on how to improve by training on my own. I havn't trained properly in years but would like to get back to a competitive standard Any help is appreciated!! Thanks
Stand about 20cm from a wall and do drives on it. When you can last for 30min at full power, then u can start working on routines against a wall. After a few weeks of intensive wall training, i believe u can reduce the margin between u and the other quite fast
20cm is not very far from the wall... you can't even move your racket. i would about a metre or two would be good enough to practice on the wall. it helps your reflexes.
basically you will find a flat wall (this is important, you dont want bumbs on it) you want it to be decently high and usually so theres no ledge above for a shuttle to get stuck on. so now that you have the wall you want to stand a bit back maby about a meter to a meter and a half back, around that. basically from this point onwards your going to start to play drives against the wall now obviously if you play them too soft there not going to come back to you and will fall shorter and shorter closer to the wall so you have to put some power into them and after you hit them with power there going to come right back at you which will work on your reflexes as well as speed and obviously your drives. dont forget to move your feet and all like you were actually doing a drive rally on court this is important you dont want to just stand there feet planted. you want your knees bent, on the balls of your feet, as well as keeping your racquet up ready for the next drive. hope that helps a bit if it doesnt let me know whats confusing and i will see if i can make it more clear.
Thanks, I'll try it out. One question: Will there be a major difference between practicing with a feather shuttlecock versus a plastic one? I'm thinking in terms or repulsion? Is one more suited for such an exercise?
Training Solo.... Better to train Singles than doubles as in singles you will be only 50% away from your target but in doubles you will be 75% away. Sorry.. I could not resist. Will be back with something constructive perhaps.
from what i have noticed doing it you can really start to build some speed with a nylon shuttle and crank them but you can also do the same with a feather i dont notice to much of a difference with it other than the nylon can go faster at times. Its all up to you which to use and what you have aviable its not worth using a brand new feather shuttle on this its more use used feather shuttles if you have them. but you can try it out with both and see how it goes, personally i use feather shuttles for it but have also used nylon as well.
The problem with the wall drives exercise is that it doesn't really work the fine points of the drive: positioning your racquet to minimize the options available to your opponent, hitting a drive that comes back harder than you hit it (this is a form of plyometric training), and making a quick decision about where to place your shot based on the game situation. Not only can these things not help you out, but they can potentially make you worse if it upsets a finely tuned driving game.
Full power standing 20cm from the wall + 30 minute max drives? um... if you must wall train, I suggest you mark a point on the wall that's approximately net height and go crazy making sure you hit above it each time at max power approximately service line distance from the wall. If you can do this intensely for even 30 seconds, try 45 seconds after the blood leaves your forearm~!
wow some kinda mission impossible or rambo or rocky training. Just go and join those better players. It should help you to improve a little.
also for training alone do some footwork and shadow drills as well im sure that was stated before but you will notice such a huge difference in your game and just get some of the national players you know to check out your form and see if your preforming strokes and movements right.
I do lots of training on my own, but it's mostly for cardio and footwork. I've got decent sized basement, so when the kids toys aren't in the way, I can do front to back drills then switch to side to side. I'm also trying to do jumping lunges and scissor kicks to try and increase the leg control.
No one has so far mentioned the obvious one - serve training. For example, if you can't get your low serves to tickle the net and drop on or very close to the tee five times out of six, you can practice to improve that important skill. Then try flick serves but using exactly the same stance and prep as for the low serve, to leave the opponent guessing till the very last second. And the shuttle has to land within a few inches of the back service line. Getting that right takes a LOT of solo practice. Also, the action and power required for the occasional low serve to the sideline is tricky because they often go too high or too short and the serve action is awkward - not that you want to serve cross-court often, but just very occasionally it helps when your opponent is crowding you at the centre. But it has to be very very good, so it has to be practiced.