Thought it over: might be very limited to what i can do without a net but any practices for badminton help. i can just practice over the weekend with a net. Apologies on the grammar, sleepy. Hey guys. I'm a high school student interested in badminton and this year I was supposed to try out and missed my chance. The school was supposed to be my place to practice but unfortunately I missed the tryouts so now i'm at home with my racket collecting dust. It's my sisters racket and the strings are so loose, on top of that it's awful and heavy. There is a place for me to practice in the next city over but I have to shell out 5 bucks a visit and I don't have many friends to practice with. Setting up my own net is hard and probably unattainable (backyard is cluttered with plants and is very narrow). So what I was thinking is what exercises should I practice to keep my skill level up even though i'm not at school everyday? I can pay the 5 every weekend but it's not the best idea for 5 bucks a day. I read this over after writing it and it may sound stupid now that I think of it. Nets are pretty key to badminton. Pretty much all I want to do is get some exercise in and work on reaction. Also, my friend told me to work on wrist strength so anybody have any idea how to do that without wrist strength? Last but not least, i'm going to try to kill two birds with one stone and ask what badminton racket should I get for a beginner. Not entirely a beginner, I can smash/clear/most of the stuff I don't remember but I tend to be inconsistent. So what racket should I get? I have about 40-50 bucks that I can spend on the racket and i'll take any suggestions. I prefer light because according to a friend, i'm weak on the wrists so light helps but heavy is cool. Thanks for all responses.
im in a similar boat as you: high school student with few opportunities to practice (my school doesnt even offer badminton) first of all, if your racket is sitting collecting dust, theres an issue. do you get to play on weekends? if you do you can always get your practice in there. practicing without a net...if you have ample space you could do footwork practice, which should improve your game much more than just hitting practice. reaction time...practice your backhand drive against a wall to simultaneously improve reaction and defense. also improves your arm strength. you could always practice your forehand and backhand technique provided you dont destroy half your room. just dont use the racket when practicing. lookup badminton armchair exercises if you want wrist strength...somehow without any wrist training i somehow manage to get good shots lol. your inconsistency with your shots shouldnt be the racket's fault, but a fault in your technique. still, if getting a new racket makes you happy...
Ah a good response. Thanks I have been practicing against the wall. I'll take that backhand drive idea. I need to improve my reaction. My situation is basically: -Practice against wall on weekdays -Play on nets on Saturday And about the inconsistency part. I don't blame the racket it was just an editing typo if you could say. I didn't like how one part sounded so I took it out and edited it. So the "So what racket should I get? I have about 40-50 bucks" was unrelated to my inconsistency.
The best way to improve your game if you don't have a net or opponent to practice with is to work on your footwork, strength (legs and core) and fitness. Skipping is great for badminton fitness. Core strength will improve your balance and agility--it helps your movement around the court, and makes more difference than most people think. For leg strength you can do squats and lunges; if your legs and core are already strong then google for "plyometrics" (mostly different types of jumping exercises) to take it to the next level.
Jumpropping can help quite a bit in explosive leg footwork in the future if you do it daily. also, you can consider wrist curls with a dumbell to increase forearm muscles
Try controlling shuttlecock in an empty room, just bouncing it around and frequently 'netting' it. Slicing it sideways as it impacts yr racket's strings. This is great practice for perfect netting. Try it!
Would be great only if the pokemon bonsly had hands Thanks for the responses guys. I've been working in my backyard against the wall, my reaction is getting better and so is my wrist!
try changing your grips with a racket while watching tv. also you can maek a net cord inside the house (cord attach to both sides) and create the T-target. you can also try the smash swing in front of a mirror or perhaps in front of a video cam. or do badminton specific exercise inside your house.
Some suggestions: +1 on the skipping. I usually try and do 3 sets of 150 consecutive single skips and then move on to double skips. I'm not good enough to triple skip yet but if you can try that out too. also do various exercises for strength: example: back straight against the wall in a sitting position (knees bent 90 degrees), lift your heels. Stay there for 90 sec if you can. 3 sets a day. There are tons of exercises like these you can find. Do various exercises for foot speed: example: stand in one spot and lunge down, from there try and switch front and back legs as quickly as you can 25 or so times for 3 sets. Again, tons of different exercises here Study the proper foot work and walk out a court length in that narrow backyard of yours. Practice moving up make a net shot and moving back do a smash shot back and fourth like 10 to 15 times at max speed if you can to train explosiveness and endurance. Use that heavy racket. In fact, use a squash racket if you have one and practice consecutive, fast and hard net taps and line drives while standing in one spot. Usually you want to do them as quickly as possible (correct form of course) and many times. I can only do about 30 or so in a set but you're prolly better than that. Good luck to you!
Training without a field: What I do in my room: I use the measurements of the badminton field and calc the important distances for the low serve short and wide (you can calc it by using pythagoras), place to sheet of papers or some kind of indicator where the corner of the court would be on the room floor, 4 metres distance for short low serve, 5 metres for wide low serve ... etc., then I use some kind of string and put it in the middle of the distance at 1.52-5 metres ... maybe some ladders can assist for the net height and then practice the shots with 12 to 20 shuttlecocks. I assume you're a male teenager: 87-90g racket, head-heavy, 295mm balance point, flexible.
I'd like to point out a few things: Someone suggested skipping... Let's assume we are not using ropes to train for cardiovascular endurance. Skipping on one foot at such a high volume then becomes very inefficient. Taking the assumption, skipping is then treated as a plyometric exercise (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plyometrics). Doing high volumes/to exhaustion actually does more harm (you will not get any quicker/more explosive) than good. Skipping 20-30 reps and resting until you complete about 60-90 reps is probably enough for most beginners. On the other hand, if you are skipping to build cardiovascular endurance (what boxers do when they skip for 15-30 minutes at a time) high repetition is okay. If you have a 2x2 m space this is what I would suggest you do: [video=youtube;up5M-mirAcI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up5M-mirAcI[/video] If you can practice this at least three times a week for about 3-4 weeks, you will become more consistent with your shots. Someone else mentioned practice your grip/switching grips. This is another extremely fundamental aspect of badminton that people then to overlook. Lastly, one of my favourite off-court training is watching badminton videos. Of course this isn't just purely for your entertainment. Take extra care to make mental notes of what replies are being used for certain shots. I would suggest to learn the low serve reply first (it's the easiest to spot and most common shot). Once you learn the theory (ie. find out which reply is for which type of shot), research how to make the same shot (reply) and practice, practice and practice some more. Good luck. PS. 300th post... W00T
if you don't have net then footwork is the most doable one you can check it here: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/109203-BADMINTON-FOOTWORK-with-JIMMY-LIN-(16-New-Videos!) these videos will help you to learn how to do proper footwork footwork does not come naturally, so yeah, try to do this footwork will help you to move around the court another suggestion, learn how to do proper grip and shots (try and check youtube or http://www.badmintonbible.com/ for it) lastly, to train your wrist, ever consider NSD power ball? you can get it for around $30 use it everyday and it would strengthen your wrist if not, put cover around your racket (if you have it, it only covers frame or 3/4 area so the handle is exposed) and try to swing it around it would be much harder to swing and you can use it to train your wrist
To train yr wrist u can do it for almost free by keep on squeezing a ball of crumpled paper. Any paper will do, just do it anywhere anytime. Squeeze it into as small as possible n when it is too small add some more. This exercise not only strengthen yr wrist but also the 'stamina' of yr wrist.
set up a string at 5 feet and practice playing different types of net shots with your self. Practice hit from high, middle, and low positions to get over the net. I like trying to roll over the string. It's a good way to experiment different face angle, spin, fake shots etc.