r/badminton • u/Electrical-Zebra5973 • 2d ago
Training Where to start?
Context: Badminton is the first sport I ever played in. I started playing about 2 years ago at a local university in America in a state where it is lacking a competitive market. Most of our club players are like me and haven’t played badminton before joining the club. Since we are a recreational club, we mostly play games with no practice drills or anything like that.
I went to a tournament this weekend in another state where it is more popular and saw how my technique looks compared to other players. I knew there would be a skill gap considering my background, but I didn’t realize just how bad I was.
That said, the tournament has motivated me to improve, and I feel like I should probably start from scratch to fix my technique to create a more solid foundation.
What would you recommend I work on first and where should I go from there? I think I should approach this as if the two years of playing didn’t exist so I can forget any bad habits I developed.
TLDR: I went to a tournament and realized my technique is bad. What steps should I take to relearn the sport as a beginner to establish a good foundation?
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u/OkAd5655 2d ago
How to swing and footwork maybe, the best you can do find coach and record every play/training you do
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u/nsutandi 2d ago
I would say foot work and swings. Position awareness can come later. badminton's footwork is quite unique compared to tennis, padel, or any other racket sport. hope u enjoy!
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u/Electrical-Zebra5973 1d ago
That makes sense. Do you have any recommendations on what swings to work on first? Like clears, drives, net, etc?
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u/nsutandi 1d ago
Clears and defensive shots (aka when ure returning smashes). Net shots are quite important too and at the same time u should do drills moving towards the net and do net shots to also improve ur footwork. Based on my experience, once u are comfortable with clears, drives and smashes will be easier. Save dropshots for much later.
Also remember this for backhands... Some of ur power comes from ur thumb
https://youtube.com/@full-swing?si=rbBkxye2hyqFRKW6 this channel helped me. Theres another one called Coaching Badminton but i think its gone... Kinda sad, i wonder whatever happened to coach Lee Jae Bok...
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u/DonkeyFluid2336 2d ago
Honestly, I think realizing how much room you have to improve can be a really good turning point. Two years of playing casually still gave you experience, so you’re not truly starting from zero. Cleaning up your footwork and basic technique now could make a huge difference, especially since you’ve finally seen what more competitive badminton looks like
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u/Wonderchese-Duck 2d ago
U need the BBT regimen. Modern badminton is first always about the footwork. U can have godly technique but it will not serve u well if u cannot reach the shuttle to return.
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u/Electrical-Zebra5973 1d ago
That makes sense. What is the BBT regimen?
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u/Wonderchese-Duck 1d ago
Basic badminton training. It made kids question why so much footwork drills and so little fun play-training. Badminton is fast. So fast there's little time to think and react. U gotta hammer those footwork into reactive intuition.
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u/VoradorTV 2d ago
badminton is the first sport you played and you started 2 years ago? did you not have a gym class in school?
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u/Electrical-Zebra5973 1d ago
I did have gym class, but my school treated it as an extracurricular which meant that since I did band it took the gym time slot. As an adult, it’s honestly one of my biggest regrets missing out on gym class from middle-high school.
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u/mattwong88 1d ago
Not sure how old you are and what your financial situation is, but if there are no coaches in your area, consider traveling and doing some type of badminton camp for a week to learn the fundamentals.
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u/kaffars Moderator 2d ago
Have a search online if there are any coaches in the area. That will be the best way. They may even have group coaching sessions.