Footwork to the Net - Intermediate

Here are some technical notes for the player who has already learned the basic steps.

Initial position

• depth from the net depends on where the bird is coming from and where you played your last shot. Generally, after a net shot one will stay closer to the net and after a lift one will move back to cover the smash. The approach I suggest here is begin practising the drop shot from fairly close to the net in order to perfect the correct sequence of movements. Once that's learned, you can pair the net shot with another shot elsewhere on the court to force the player to move a larger distance, and eventually integrate it into more open ended exercises.
• body angle depends on which side (laterally) the bird is coming from. If the shuttle is in a particular corner, you'll angle your body so that it is lined up laterally to cover the cross drop and straight clear. This gives you two potential initial positions: straight forward to get to the near side and lateral to get to the cross side. If the bird is coming from the centre, you stay square to the net and your footwork to either corner is a combination of lateral and forward motion.
  

First Step

• start with the split step - look for the body's centre of mass to be low, hips back and stiff ankles. You can train for this by doing ADA drops and RFI hops in the appropriate position
• the first step is taken by the foot closest to the destination, or by the non-racquet foot if you are square. For a right handed player, this means left foot first on the left side, and either left or right foot first on the right side, depending on initial position. Upon landing from the split step, the lead foot should take a small step towards the intended destination. By doing this, more traction is available in the support leg to push off and generate momentum.

Intermediate Steps

• use chassé or crossover steps depending on the speed of movement. Chassé stesps are quicker, but less effective over longer distances or at low speed.
• on the backhand corner, the body pivots around the non-racquet foot
• it may be necessary to take three steps instead of depending on which foot lead the movement

Stroke-Footwork: Lunge

• Make sure to step well in front of the body to maximize the distance between floor contact and centre of mass. This results in a flatter force vector which contributes to a much larger deceleration force. This also involves the hamstrings as key decelerators.
• By pulling the non-racquet arm back, the body's centre of mass is skewed backwards slightly which helps with the above
  
• If the body's momentum can be completely absorbed by the time the front shin is vertical, then it is possible to recover quickly from the lunge. Develop strength in this position with ISO lunges and FDA lunges.
  

Recovery

• Quickness of recovery depends on the stroke played: if a tight net shot is played one needs to stay close to the net; if a lift is played, one needs to move back to cover the back court.
  

Beginner Physical Preparation Routine

I'm thinking about what might be a good physical training program for a player that has never performed proper systematic strength training. Such a program should:

• teach and reinforce the use of good posture, positioning and technique
  
• develop the work capacity and body awareness needed for more advanced strength training
• provide a safe way for the trainee to work intensively without reinforcing poor motor patterns which can lead to injury
• require minimal equipment so it can be done by anyone
  

Isometrics can be of use here, they give you a chance to focus on proper position and muscle recruitment. I think I'll do the following:

1. Start off with bridge exercises to teach lumbar spine stability. The exercises would be front bridge, side bridge, and bird dogs. Work up to 120 seconds held in each position.
2. Perform some mobility work in the hips, ankles and shoulders.
   
3. Isometric lunges - get into a deep lunge position, front shin should be vertical, torso should be upright. Hold this position for a total of 3-5 minutes per leg.
4. RDL - teaches the hip hinge. Stand with the back to a wall and reach back with your butt until it touches the wall. Move forward until you are no longer able to reach the wall. When performing this exercise, hold the bottom position where the hamstrings are in a stretch position.
5. Pushup - pushup with a hold in the bottom position. Focus on keeping elbows in, pulling the arms in to get the maximum stretch at the bottom and fully protracting the shoulder blade at the top.
6. Pullup - a hold can be performed at the top and the bottom. If a pullup cannot be performed, the trainee can start with only iso/ecc versions before progressing to conventional reps with holds.
   

Camps vs Weekly Lessons for Beginners

I coached a badminton camp last week. It was quite interesting to see the amount of progress a total beginner can make in such a short amount of time. Some kids went from being unable to hit the bird to having reasonably good rudiments in just one week.

You see, if you can't hit basic strokes, you're not having much fun but you have nothing else to do but to keep trying. You keep trying and trying, and eventually you start to get it. Then you can build on that before you forget how to hit. By the end of the week, you're pretty happy about your improvement.

With the weekly lessons, you might not get enough volume and frequency to achieve those early breakthroughs. So, you might learn something one week but lose those gains by the next week.

Now that I think of it, I started playing badminton at camp. I also started playing table tennis with weekly lessons. I'm still active in badminton, but not at all in table tennis.

Technical Development Template

Here's a training template I'm thinking of using this summer:

A - multi-shuttle technical exercise: player performs multiple single reps of a particular stroke, such as the spinning net, x-court net, slice drop, smash, whip, backhand, etc.

Before beginning, a quality repetition is defined. This could be a certain trajectory, a degree of spin on the shot, a number of consecutive shots, etc. In each set, a fixed number of attempts are made, and the number of quality repetitions performed is recorded. Sets are performed until a target number of repetitions is met.

Progress from stationary shots -> shot with movement -> realistic sequence of shots

B - continuous drill: any drill with a single live shuttle, intended to build a sense of rhythm and to get a large volume of succesful shots in to develop precision in placement.

Some examples would be basic pattern drills, semi-random pattern drills, master & dog, drives, bingo, etc. The feeder needs to keep the level of difficulty appropriate to the level of the trainee. If footwork skills lag behind stroke skills, it may be necessary to hold back on shot tightness to allow a comfortable rhythm to be established.

Sample Session

A1 - spinning net shot, footwork from T, try to get shot tight to net and still spinning as it drops below the tape, 50 reps

B1 - clear-clear-drop, player makes a sequence of two clears and one drop, then the partner does the same. 3 sets of 50 consecutive reps

A2 - x-court net shot, same corner as A1, try to keep shot tight and have it cross past the midway point of the net, make sure to delay x-court action until the last moment, 50 reps

B2 - bingo drill, focus on body position, finger action, can be used as either an offensive or defensive drill, 2 sets of 5 minutes

A3 - x-court ATH stick smash, fast chasses to corner, shuttle must land before midcourt, 50 reps

B3 - master and dog, choose a corner, feeder adjusts difficulty so the worker can get to the shots with good technique, 4 sets of 50 reps

Learning to play spinning net shots

I originally learned to perform spinning net shots by doing the following exercise:

- feeder throws shuttles over the net with a straight underhand toss
- player lunges in and plays the spinning net shot with either inwards or outwards sweep

I've never felt that this translated well to games, because if the opponent plays a reasonably tight straight net shot, he'll stay up close enough to kill your net shot.

So, how might you use the shot in a real game situation?

One easy answer is off of the slow drop: you have time to get there early, and the stroke is easy to execute because the shuttle is so close to the net. For these reasons, the slow drop is not really a commonly executed shot for more advanced players.

The next situation would be off of the cross drop hit at a normal pace. This shot lands closer to the net than a straight drop and it takes longer to get there because of the extra distance going cross-court. In addition, the shuttle will already have some lateral momentum, which makes it easy to spin if you use the outwards cut. You can practice for this situation by having the feeder toss from the "T" using an overhead throw.

Third situation is when you re-net. If your opponent doesn't hit a particularly tight net shot, he has to stay far enough back to defend against the flick. If your net touch is good, you might be able to slip in an ever tighter net shot. However, because the shuttle is further back from the net, the difficulty of the shot is greater. You can practice this shot by having the player serve, the feeder plays net and the player re-net. Note that since the shot is more difficult when the shuttle is far from the net, a tactic to use against players with good net shots would be to push the shot slightly further from the net to reduce the effectiveness of their spinning net shots. However, this will also open yourself up to fast shots to the backcourt.