Essentails of badminton technique - Badminton life. What were your thoughts?

I had a mixed reaction.

I thought the filming quality was very high, and obviously Peter performs flawless demos. As a doctor, he's keen on the underlying biomechanics, and this shows in his teaching: there's some good advice about gross motor skills.

As with most coaching resources, I don't feel this really gets the coaching part right. Most of the time, he seems to be saying, "This is how the shot should be hit", and not, "Here is how you can learn to do it".

This is a subtle difference, but I believe it's tremendously important. To be fair, this is not really a criticism of Peter specifically. I have the same gripe with the Badminton England coaching manuals: they tell you what the correct technique is, but they don't tell you how to teach it.

I found Peter's presentation style to be clear, but rather robotic. I kept losing my concentration and even dozing off. A large amount of the video time is taken up with repetition: for several videos, you have to sit through exactly the same advice about forehand overheads; and in one footwork video, he makes the exact same point about the achilles tendon four times. Watching that, I was glaring daggers at my monitor.

Sometimes what he says does not match what he does. For example, in the video about (ordinary) forehand slice, he said that you can use it in your backhand corner for a straight drop shot. Freeze-framing the demo, however, shows him using reverse slice -- a completely different technique. If he had done what he actually said, then the shuttle would have gone out the side of the court.

Overall reaction? I hoped for better, but it's still not bad. As always, I'm pleased to have another reference source.

 

I think the quality of the videos was really good, the technique is well explained and they key/important points are well explained aswell.

The demos are obviously great (Since I like filming myself when playing, it will be great for me to compare the videos and see where are the flaws in my technique).

I learned interresting things from the videos, but I would have expected to see more shots in the videos (lifting from a smash, instead of only the block, crosscourt push or lob, receptions of short serves and more tactial advice would have been great). The videos are obviously made for players who want to learn more about singles.

I have to say that I found those videos very helpful and I will surely use it for reference when I train(more then the Ebook Advanced badminton techniques in my opinion).

 

Guys

I hope I'll fare better when my coaching videos are ready! What you will find is that I'll be going through a lot of the how and why. The trade off is that we're struggling to get good courts for filming and I'm not bringing in a pro team to film.

I promise you this...the content designed to take an average player and turn them into a very good player and a good player into a great player.

Included in the program will be a few worlds firsts, a request for feedback which will form the basis of continuing videos to make sure we cover the subject properly.

Can't say too much more yet, although Phil has a little more information than most don't you Phil!

To your success.

Paul
www.badminton-coach.co.uk

 

are they available for free or do we have to pay a subscription fee ?

 

So that's what gingerphil's been up to now that he has more time after being unattached.

 

Staiger

The series I'm currently filming will be the most comprehensive on the market.

I've spent so many hours on top of my 20+ years experience to do this. As you can expect, that kind of knowledge etc has been paid for by me time and again.

The series will only be avilable by subscription and will include minimum 1 video per month plus lots more in the month. My blog will continue to run and I will make sure it's good content too. But, the really good stuff will be on a paid subscription. After all, you pay a coach to learn from.

You'll be able to test drive the first month for just $7 when it's finally available.

To your success.

Paul
www.badminton-coach.co.uk

 

Oh, something I forgot to mention:

I did like how Peter showed the use of gentle grip tightening for certain net shots -- especially the hairpin net shot.

 

We would have liked to have more examples of Peter hitting the shots, but we ended up almost exactly at the 2 hour mark for the DVD version, anymore and it wouldn't all fit. We wanted to be sure we explained the mechanics of the strokes in full. Perhaps something worth adding to the online section of the course would be more samples of Peter just hitting the shots over and over again for a few minutes.

When Peter and I were scripting the DVD we really wanted to keep in mind all of the English second language people that would be watching the videos, therefore we avoided using overly complex terminology, and Peter spoke as clearly as he could to make sure it was really easy to understand.

I think it's fair to say that this level of instruction hasn't been done before, certainly not for an English speaking audience. Right now I'm working on transcripts for people who struggle with English, and then we'll be translating into other languages (subtitles though, dubbing would be too weird).

As for people who are interested in more doubles specific training, we're looking into doing something with a prominent doubles specialist somewhere in the future.

By the way we are always happy to hear people's feedback so we can do better in the future

http://www.badmintonlife.com

 

Personally, I don't think you need to do this. The shot demonstrations were one of the strongest areas of the DVD. People can always hit rewind.

Fair point. And I do think clarity is more important than any other concerns about the presentations.

Sounds good.