is it worth it to hire a badminton coach?

Thank you Cheung! I'm sure there are a lot of other badminton enthusiasts that will benefit from the article that you wrote. Speaking from my experience of having a coach, it is also worthwhile to improve by yourself 1st though it's frustrating/tiring sometimes. Why? Because you get to learn or know some things in advance. The only downside in doing this is there's really no one to tell exactly if you're doing them correctly and you don't get to practice them a lot. However, it still helps especially in accelerating your progress once you get a coach. For example, the split drop, proper grip, proper hitting action; these are just some of the things I've always tried to practice during my leisurely games. Thus, during my training, my coach didn't have to emphasize much on these things and therefore we could focus more on other aspects such as footwork, anticipation of the next shot, etc. I really feel that my game has evolved tremendously, of course in a positive way, even after just 2 coaching sessions of 1 hour each. As I mentioned before, my group definitely noticed the improvements. Of course, it's not all about the coach. You need to be motivated and determined to improve. Push yourself to the limits. As my coach would put it, "no numb no gain". I'm very happy with my coach and with the improvements I've made.