The secret to all professional player's success...

Discussion in 'Techniques / Training' started by Charlie-SWUK, Aug 23, 2017.

  1. Charlie-SWUK

    Charlie-SWUK Regular Member

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    Badminton is a highly skillful game combining coordination, agility, and power together to overcome the opponent. Professionals such as Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan, and Carolina Marin have dedicated their lives to training to play the best badminton in the world.

    If you want to play like the professionals, you must train like the professionals. As players we can emulate, copy, and study their techniques and try to implement them into our game. The reality is, many of us do not have the time or resources to train as much as the professionals do, but we can still train. Given the high skill threshold and athleticism in badminton, practice really does make perfect.

    By studying these professionals we can find the most optimal techniques; their movement, wrist pronation, the way they land, and even the way they tense their hand as they hit to improve power. We can find nuances in their techniques, and experiment with them to refine and create our own style of play. But this must be reiterated: these players are great because they have put in a phenomenal amount of time into learning the game.

    There are no cheat sheets, no magic bullets, no arcane secrets, and no hidden numbers behind badminton.

    There has been an influx of marketing shenanigans from coaches, to online videos, to racket sales suggesting that they have the magic secret to improving your game. Whether it’s marketing extra smash speed, better backhands, or storing special energy in the racket. This is pure marketing. The best way to improve is to practise, practise, and practise. If something is marketed in a way that sounds too good to be true, it likely is too good to be true.

    Some tell tale signs of marketing nonsense:

    · Arbitrary numbers – 80% more! 50% better! 100% nonsense.

    · ‘Hidden techniques’ that supposedly nobody knows about – except people better than you

    · Enormous paywalls for content

    · A lack of clear evidence of their technique

    · A technique that looks nothing like anything you’ve seen top professional players use

    · Nonsense jargon – we do have a lot of jargon in badminton, but if you’re an intermediate or higher you should be able to peel through this quickly

    · A lack of any qualifications or associations can be indicative


    Some good content providers of badminton knowledge:

    Anna Rice - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCprsl6i5xHgeSviUJlxhkaw

    Lee Jae Bok - https://www.youtube.com/user/coachingbadminton

    Zhao Jinhua - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEBDE1E42B3A9BC37

    BadmintonBible - https://www.badmintonbible.com

    Jimmy Lin - https://www.youtube.com/user/thejym

    Paul Stewart - http://badminton-coach.co.uk

    This is not a definitive list, but it does give you some leaping off points. There are some different ideas on which technique is the most effective, but you’ll notice patterns of similarities in what they teach.

    Ultimately a professional coach will yield you the best results, they can feed you shuttles, help you to hit better, and work on the areas you want to work on.

    A coach isn’t always viable or available, so here are some training ideas to make the best use of your time.

    On your own:

    · Hitting a shuttle against a wall

    · Practice footwork

    · Quick feet practice (hopping back and forth over a line repeatedly)

    · Practice serving

    · Shadow hits, take it slow and develop a good feeling for the motion


    With a partner:

    · Multifeed drills (partner hits multiple shuttles around the court for you to hit)

    · 1-and-3 Corners (your partner is always in the same corner, but they can hit to 3 corners to make you run)

    · Net game

    · Standard drills (such as clears, or clear smash drop style drills)

    · Danish singles, where only the service area is in play


    Physical training:

    · Squats

    · Sit-ups/crunches

    · Press ups

    · Stretching (yoga and martial arts stretches work well)

    · Agility training (such as lunging from side to side)


    This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it is a starting point if you’re not sure how to improve your badminton. Putting in the time, effort, and practise will produce results. Trying to find a magical cure will not. I hope this has been of help, and play smart!
     
  2. visor

    visor Regular Member

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    I'll add a few more.

    1. Slow motion videos of professional players. If you're good at analyzing and understanding the why and how of pros movements and techniques, then you already have a good basis to start your practice effectively. If not then,...

    2. A good coach. Who not only understands the intricacies of the biomechanics of badminton strokes and movements, but who can also patiently teach them to a student.

    3. Effective practice. Then the student must effectively practice the proper techniques, not just blindly and simply practice, so that the correct techniques are engrained into muscle memory until they become automatic.
     
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  3. Borkya

    Borkya Regular Member

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    I second a good coach. I have a strong natural love of the game but little else. I can't analyze other peoples game or learn from videos and if I do footwork training without my coach watching me I do totally wrong stuff. I'm also naturally lazy and won't do exercises without my coach telling me to first. So while I agree with all the points for me the key was getting a good coach who can lead me through all that. (Me and my coach are freakishly close hahaha.)
     
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  4. InvincibleAjay

    InvincibleAjay Regular Member

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    It takes 10,000 hours to become a master at any given sport or skill. That's a lot of effort and dedication.

    Also don't forget the mental toughness required to get to the top. Many top players don't achieve to their potential because mentally they are very frail.

    Kindest regards,

    -Ajay-

    Quote of the Day
    Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.
     
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  5. Jooji

    Jooji New Member

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    I interviewed a pro on my blog which can be found here! He gave some valuable tips and it was generally interesting to hear his experience! He has also given some further tips on training to jump high for a smash in the comments section!
     
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  6. Ferrerkiko

    Ferrerkiko Regular Member

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    1 more to add :

    Minimum need to jog at least 5km 3 times a week .

    I heard from somewhere Lin dan run 10km once a week.
     
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  7. dwankwi

    dwankwi Regular Member

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    Just 3 things:

    (1) visualize the shuttle's flight-path/trajectory, and then intercept it at a point of choice; not chase the shuttle around the court;
    (2) use wrist action, not swing the entire arm; and
    (3) exert energy to flick the racquet only at the very start, and let the racquet follow through on its own via momentum; not swing with maximum energy all throughout like how one would swing a club.

    Once we get these 3 things right, everything else will fall into place.

    Achieving point (1) ensures quickness on court and smooth usage of footwork. Achieving point (2) enables us to hit with power. Achieving point (3) helps to conserve energy, maintain arm muscle condition and allows for double-action/deception to be used properly.
     
  8. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    only 10km? i am surprise it is that little. at his age and fitness level probably only take him around 40-45mins.
     
  9. Jinx

    Jinx New Member

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    Probably to reduce chance of injury? May be I'm just weak, whenever I ran more than 30 mins 3x a week, I get shin splints; Although not serious, it is enough to hamper performance due to nagging pain. Moreover, it's the running pace that is more relevant than distance/time.
     
  10. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    if you get shin splint you should look at your gait, make sure you are not landing with your heel. a proper landing should be with the mid/fore foot. landing on heel will stress the weak shin muscles.
     
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  11. Badmintonking

    Badmintonking New Member

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    Great read thanks! i startet 2 years back now and i joined badmintoncentral to get some legit information about the sport to develop my self. But does anyone of you know something about these sensors? https://badmintonshoppen.dk/shop/usense-badminton-sensor-2685p.html
    Have you tried them? and will they help you challenge your self even more when you can see your actual hit and speed?
     
  12. Alfred_YZ

    Alfred_YZ New Member

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    Atually, I've never seen anyone around me use this kind of product at any courts. It's just a measurment of how you play, that's all.It doesn't have anything when it comes to how to improve.
     
  13. Alfred_YZ

    Alfred_YZ New Member

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    More specifically, we normal male players should copy and study from female professionals instead of males as for physical quality.
     
  14. Cheung

    Cheung Moderator

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    1. You must be motivated to attend to the task and exert effort to improve your performance.

    2. The design of the task should take into account your pre-existing knowledge so that the task can be correctly understood after a brief period of instruction.

    3. You should receive immediate informative feedbackand knowledge of results of your performance.

    4. You should repeatedly perform the same or similar tasks.
    It’s important to note that without adequate feedback about your performance during practice, efficient learning is impossible and improvement is minimal.

    http://expertenough.com/1423/deliberate-practice
     
  15. pcll99

    pcll99 Regular Member

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    1. Find good coaches

    2. Spar with good players

    3. Participate in tournaments
     
    #15 pcll99, Feb 14, 2018
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2018
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  16. lotusknight

    lotusknight Regular Member

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    Thanks Cheung for sharing. Love the article, a great read.
     
  17. shooting stroke

    shooting stroke Regular Member

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    Dato Lee Chong Wei onced said, at this present moment and as far as analyzing into the Malaysian badminton single department players list of current achievement, individuals commitment, attitude and depth is concerned, it is most likely they need to again absorb another 10,000 new players into the national camp to produce maybe at least one player of his characteristic quality.

    Representing your country is no small responsibility be it if the player is still govern as a national sponsored player or an independent professional player. You need to install and project the highest level of attitude and reflect all the desired quality of a national or professional players both while training, competing and out court because people will look you as their role model esp in the eyes and heart of your fans.

    Why Dato has able to maintain his highest level of performance now even at his current age where maybe to other players it's retirement already for them because he has the highest level of attitude that is unmatched towards how he conduct his badminton life be it in raining, competing, advising, mentoring etc. This are qualities that any player needs to have if deciding to be a pro one day. .
     
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  18. ainchekar

    ainchekar Regular Member

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    This is a brilliant thread ...hope we keep on adding . Hungry for more.
     
  19. Charlie-SWUK

    Charlie-SWUK Regular Member

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    It was a response to a certain set of videos being charged a lot of money for, and people repeatedly asking if it's worth it. I made the title click-baity because it's the kind of crap you see on these things - promises and secrets that will make you the best player ever. Of course, there really aren't any enormous secrets.
     
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  20. Spingo80

    Spingo80 Regular Member

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    My local stringer, who happens to string for Yonex, was at the all England stringing, said that he gets to watch the pros train and play on the practice courts ( and sometimes have a knock up or game)
    Apparently Chen Long did an hour of footwork without a racquet. 20 mins of knee to chest tuck jumps and then a 6 vs 1 on the court.
    I’d say good footwork is what takes your game to the next level. Before learning that, you can look like a fool rushing around the court wearing yourself out.
    Obviously technical ability is massively important too.
    Any good player, be it at your club or professionally will make everything look fluid and effortless.
    This is all down to good footwork, fitness and technique.
    A good coaching session once or twice a week will propel your game a lot faster than self practice.
    It’s much the same as learning a musical instrument yourself as opposed to being taught.
    You don’t pick up the bad habits and mistakes.
     
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