Besides Zero's "badminton/pingpong ball drill" and what my friend recently suggests "Counter Strike" (yes... he suggests just playing CS will increase reflex speed -.-" )drill???
well, imo, it will increase your awareness in badminton. But reflex, I don't think so... because your reflex has to do with your experience as well. The more experienced you are, the easier it is for your mind to react to a certain situation and that is what's called reflex. Put it this way, you become more aware in badminton cause you play CS, but when that fast drive comes, you realize it quicker, but your mind won't know how to react to it unless you have developed a rule that if the shuttle is coming from you in such a way, you have to react in such a way. Try to play against the wall as fast as possible, that's what I do to improve my reaction speed. If your body isn't fit enough to keep up with the speed of the game for about 30 minutes, then move closer to the wall and hit weaker by a bit. What you'd be doing is trying to hit the shuttle as fast as possible. The more shuttles you can hit per ten seconds, the better your reflex is. You might notice that you'll miss the shuttle in after ten rallies or so. If you can hit the shuttle consequently and perfectly for more than ten rallies. Then you should try a faster pace. Anyway, it can get boring
Its also based on ability as well. The ability to react faster is based an a type of nerve in the body that transmits impulses faster than others. That is why the fastest runners are commonly people of black heritage as their bodies are able to react faster to the gun and accelerate faster, their brain tells their muscles to move and they react jus a bit faster. Also i think training well help alot. Improving Hand eye co-ordination is very vital and key as being able to move without thinking too much will improve your reaction time. This is based on my experiences when i play doubles and im ususally at the front.
yes. it sounds stupid and easy. but hitting against the wall is actually *very* hard. it takes quite a lot of practice to be able to do more than 10-15 shots continuously. and to play against the wall, do flat drives. don't try to lift (that's too easy). if you do flat drives, sometimes the birdie will bounce back at random angles. and to make it harder, try cross drive (back->forehand, fore->backhand). that will make it even harder. just remember, keep the shuttle at waist/chest height, and make an effort to keep it at that height.
Yeah, the wall thing that kwan said. Best drill to sharpen your reflexes on defense. Another one is (using half the court) to have a practice partner at the net punching the shuttle to you at high speeds while you try to drive it back close to the net as possible to simulate in-game smash/drive defense. Both similar idea. However, once you get pretty good at it (able to average about 10 effective defensive shots or so) have the net person throw in random net drops that you would have to redrop. Brutally difficult, but you'll learn not to be caught rooted like a tree on deceptive overhead drops during games.
ok, flat drives improve reflexes, but what about random wall hitting? forehand several times, back hand several times depending on the direction of the shuttle? Will it help in improving my reflexes?
If you have time to think about how to respond, then it is no longer a reflex action . danielle7 ... Glad that you have dug up this old thread. IMHO, a reflex action is an 'involuntary response'. If you have time to think about how to respond, then it is no longer a reflex action. Perhaps, read this long article on perceptual training: click here .
If we call it perceptual training then receiving drives one after the other and trying to return them hard and flat will improve you in this area unless your arm falls off first. When I was in Indo I had Alan Budikasuma hitting drives at me. He never seemed to tire doing this but I became sore after 20 minutes of the same thing. After I felt like taking a break he began with the offensive lifting drill from side to side. I was so tired I felt like throwing up but I improved. The moral of the story; all repetitive drills will make you better but it's hard to teach kids with only drills as they get bored very quickly. Tim H
the distinction needs to be drawn between reflexes and reactions... at least for me. I catch smashes from point blank range that even suprise myself, without having ever "seen" the shuttle; yet after a hitting a defensive clear, many times i don't know where to move until the shuttle has already passed the net(NOT GOOD!) my feet just get rooted in, and i try to over-anticipate. how to correct?
There is a simple test to test, and perhaps help you improve, your reflex or reaction time. Use a thin 12 " ruler and get the tester to hold on to the ruler at the top and the person being tested having the bottom end of the ruler in between his thumb and index finger. The ruler is now held vertically, with the tester holding on to the top and the person being tested waiting to grasp the ruler after it has been dropped by the tester. The tested person must not move his thumb/index finger before the tester drops the ruler; he can only close them after seeing the drop by the tester. Try this 10 times and average your score, which is calculated in inches from the bottom of the ruler. If you average close to 10" or more, you have very poor reflex or reaction time. If you score 3" or less, you are as good as Koo Kean Kiat.
Hahah...i think counterstrike will just make you more lazy, why dont u spend the time u play CS by getting together with a badminton friend and try quick driving drills? or smash+lift drills, im sure they will increase ur response time
On the court shots that have a short travel are the best shots to test and improve your reaction time. Drives are not useful. Try to get a good server to serve short backhand serves to you, and you rush to put down the serve as soon as the server releases the shuttle. If the serve is ideal you cannot put it away because no one has that fast reaction time response. Only use a server who has the best serve.
I used to play table tennis and that is where I pick up my reflexes. On top of this, I would say anticipation as one important factor co-related to reflexes.
dude, just play wall with yourself. Seriously i may not be the best player by far at where i play but even the coach avoids going into drive wars with me. I guess if you enjoy hitting it against a wall and have some spare time u should try it. If it gets too easy switch to using a squash racket, not only will ur reflexes improve but strength too.
Stumbled upon this old thread looking for any tips how to increase reaction time/ reflex. I guess i'm on the right track.. Playing againts a wall was really ideal for improving fast reaction.
Here are some other drill ideas: 1. A partner stands behind you throwing a shuttle above your head. You need to lunge to the shuttle and play it over the net. 2. A partner stands in front of you, you turn your back to him. He gives you a signal, you do a 180 turn jump resulting in a split step (facing your partner now) and you need to get the shuttle he throws at you. 3. Solo: You stand at the service line, play the shuttle up (high enough), run to the backline, touch the backline with your racket, run back to the service line again and try to play the shuttle. If you consider reflexes/reaction time, it is quite long (~200 ms) to take in a visual trigger, decide which action to do, executing your reaction (start moving your finger, arm, legs). If you need to optimize this time, you need a default pre-/reaction, which you start executing automatically either before and just after you are triggered. E.g. a split step is a default pre-action, because it helps you to react faster movement wise and you can start executing it, before the visual trigger occurs (shot direction). There are many default reactions when you observe pros. It is more common to call it anticipation. They often start the default action as soon as they are trigger, which looks like lightning fast reaction times. But you can observe, that they need to correct their action if the opponent plays suddenly an other shot (deception). A default reaction should be the shot, which would need the shortest reaction time (e.g. a net kill). If the opponent choose an other shot, you will have a little bit more time to correct your action, so don't overcommit and go all in before you are triggered at all. To learn these default actions, you need to practise them a lot.