I've mostly played doubles, and started finding that I was getting lazy by jumping from a central position to try and smash/drive down anything, even if I was full stretch/leaning backwards mid-leap. To fix this, I started practising standard 6-point footwork. It has worked fantastically for singles - my rhythm is great, I split step correctly and I'm very mobile around the court giving me plenty of options to play. I wasn't previously very good at singles so that's a bit of an achievement! Unfortunately, after playing doubles again, the game is just too fast. I play a shot and move back to base and the shot is coming back before I even split step, leading to a rushed response - I will generally still reach the shuttle, but I have to play it low and/or at a very stretched position limiting my shot selection. I'm finding it difficult to adjust to the fast change in rhythm, and don't have enough time to properly execute a shot. I'm not sure if this is also coupled with the additional consideration of deciding if the shot is mine or my partner's. Another thing that makes it tricky is the size of the court - the extra width just exaggerates how slow I feel. Can anyone suggest a way of training to increase my rhythm whilst still keeping my footwork?
Well done for working on your footwork! Its nice to see You need to continue practising as you are now - the 6 points are very very important. But now you need to start varying the pace of the footwork you practice. Doubles footwork is all about smaller movements where the feet stay wide apart. For example in this video there is a drill called 1 step shadow movements: The drill starts at 0:50. This is the kind of footwork you need to practice for doubles. Its fast, involves short movements, and you need to keep a wide distance between your feet. In doubles, you do NOT spend time walking back to the middle. You hit a shot, land, and then split step immediately ready for the next shot (when played at a high pace). Really, its no different to what you already know except you are trying to walk back to the middle of the court but forgetting the golden rule: you have to split step when they hit the shuttle! It doesn't matter if you are back at your ideal base, you need to be performing a split step. This is true for singles or doubles or mixed! Good luck. Please ask if you have questions!
Thank you - this looks perfect. Exactly what I was looking for and explains why I feel so slow. Combining both types of footwork is going to be a challenge - to make the decision to walk to base when I have the time or to split step sooner when I don't. However, just having the correct footwork in both scenarios is going to be invaluable.
Here is an easier way to think about it (maybe)... the speed with which you split step is REALLY determined by the shot YOU hit. So in doubles, if I play a slow dropshot, I do not have to split step immediately. If I hit a clear, I will have to split step sooner, because I have to defend a smash. If I smash, I need to split step immediately after hitting the shot! But, all of that is true for singles as well! If I smash, I don't have time to go anywhere, I have to land and split step. If I clear, then I may have to split step sooner or later depending on how high I hit the shot. So really you are in control - its the same in singles or in doubles. When I do my footwork practice, I perform both types of footwork. When I am fresh, I do lots of fast footwork, for both singles and doubles. When I am tired, I do mainly slow footwork for singles (for 5 or 10 minutes), but push myself to do bursts of fast doubles footwork (for maybe 30 seconds to 1 minute) as well. Each footwork session includes both. At the end of the day - its all just badminton footwork but at different speeds... so you have to practice the different speeds. The Rasmussen footwork drill is the best for rhythm of footwork by the way - you can practice it slow and fast, with different patterns, to simulate different scenarios. I can give more video links to drills if required.
The Rasmussen drill is exactly how I got out of the habit of just launching from base and getting used to returning to base too - great not only for 6 point footwork but the transitions between the points. Perhaps I may have practised at the same rhythm too much, so I'll have a go at trying some variations. As with all footwork training, it always feels a bit artificial to decide which way to go, but as long as I cover all the possible transitions, directions and lengths (I practise both 1 step and 2 step footworks), I'm normally happy. Now I have to add in the extra dimension of rhythm. I'll start on speeding up the 1-step transitions, as the 2-step ones may end up with me being knackered in a minute, if that.
Good luck. To begin with, try just picking one corner and repeating it many many times to speed it up. That really helped increase my speed to certain corners.
