New to the forums guys I have been playing badminton for some time. I go about 228 and about 6’1. I tend to be Heavier than most… but I play pretty decent mostly because I am an overall athlete and I used to be a power lifter (which means I am not very flexible) I am also left handed so I have a hard time being taught by many of the local club players. According to one of my friends (from Malaysia) he plays a lot and is actually pretty good. I need to work on my footwork. So what is the best way to do this? What kind of drills should I do to work on this? Also, regarding footwork how many steps should it take to get to one of the four corners? Regarding the back hand should I practice the overhead smash/drop more than the regular back hand? I am assuming once I get the steps down better I will get to use my regular back hand less. Also for any of you lefties out there how do you cover for your weakness ( backhand) with other right handed players? any help would be great!!!
Hello! And welcome to the forum! To improve footwork, do footwork drills. You'll need to look for videos to help you do it right. Or get a coach. As to how many steps, it's relative. Should be less for you than someone half your height. I'd say you should practice both overhead and backhand. But since backhand is used less during games, I practice backhand more.
Footwork is the most important fundamental aspect in badminton that need to be improved regularly. If you want to improve how do you want to play badminton, then improving your footwork will be the foundation that you need to emphasize a lot. This is because for every good strokes that you make, you require a fluent, agile and coordinate footwork to position yourself to a optimal body, arm and view angle position as one synergy unit to do it. By doing this also, ultimately you also are able to closed your weakness angle from the view of your opponent since your footwork is able to retrieve any difficult given strokes delivered by your opponent. Just remember that having a lousy footwork means it will be hardwork in the court, regardless how good and powerful your arm and wrist strength. To train your footwork is to do a footwork drill known as "shadow" drill. The general concept and idea of such shadow drill actually will not be any different either you are a left or right handed, only the style and approach will be different from one coach to another/ one experienced player to another since the pool of knowledge and experience are different, however the objective will still be the same that is to improve your footwork movement inside the court. Do note that the level of shadow drill also will be different according to the level of game play (beginner, intermediate or a state/national player) as to tolerate the absorption of knowledge, the variety of difficulty level in the shadow speed, and court coverage. Different coaches/player will have different approach but then from my opinion, regardless at whatever level of your game play is, just remember that if you have not done any shadow drill before, then once you've started it, it is wise to: - just take it slowly at the beginning, accommodating with your tolerable speed and physical demand - cover segment by segment, topic by topic first in the court...no need to push to the limit by covering the whole court straight away, - Once you are comfortable and satisfied with your footwork speed and court coverage, then upgrade your speed and court coverage as tolerable. Before you learn to walk, you need to learn to crawl first . By knowing this, then the next question will be, how you're going to train your footwork drill. You can't do it by yourself without proper instruction and guide, otherwise you won't improve that much. Even though there are a lot of documented and video about footwork drills instruction available now, to have a strong foot work foundation is to properly combined both the correct knowledge with the correct applied practical method for it to fuse properly and work well. So the best thing to do is to find yourself a coach or any experienced player that you can ask to guide you.
Another doubles footwork question: Let's say you are in offensive formation (i.e. front back), your partner is smashing and you're in the front. When your partner makes an offensive shot, you are supposed to 'move with the bird,' as in move closer to the net to threaten against a defensive net reply. My question is, how fast should you move to the front, how close should you get to the front, and what kind of footwork should you use to get to the front? For myself, I rush to the net pretty quickly just slightly pass service line so my racket can reach the net, but my footwork is kind of weird. Because there is not much distance to cover, I don't really lunge, and my legs end up square (essentially parallel) to the net. But because of the speed, and no toe drag, my knees end up accelerating beyond my feet, and causing some knee pain. Should I just do a lunge instead, but a very short lunge? Please advise!!!
