A few days ago, I sent an email to Badminton England (enquiries@badmintonengland.co.uk), asking for their involvement in developing the new grips guide. Here is my message: And here is the response from Mike Woodward, BE Coaching Consultant: Mike's email was also copied to George Wood (BE Coaching Manager) and Mark Patmore (BE Coaching Co-ordinator). I'm quite excited about this -- it seems like an opportunity to discuss grips with the UK's top coaches and coaching managers, so that I will be able to improve my understanding. This opportunity will necessarily slow down the release of the grips guide, which is already farcically overdue. I expect, however, that this delay will be more than compensated for by the rigorous quality assurance that BE involvement represents. This does not mean that I will be "selling out" the grips guide; I still plan to draw ideas from multiple sources, and I will not be "singing from the same hymn sheet" unless I believe in the words! If the ideas that Badminton England suggests are convincing, then I will adopt them; if not, then I will either ignore them or represent them as alternative views. Since I have been given this opportunity to discuss grip techniques at the highest level of England coaching, I should like to make the most of it by involving other BC players and especially coaches. If you have a question about grips that you would like me to put to Badminton England, or a view that you would like to share about grip techniques, please post it in this thread. Obviously I am not talking about very basic questions, like "should I use a backhand grip for forehand smashes?" (answer: no). I am looking for questions like:Badminton England now teaches a forehand grip which is a slight clockwise rotation (right handers) from the ordinary "shake hands" grip we have been teaching for years. Should this new grip be used for overhead forehands too? If so, how do we reconcile that with Lee Jae Bok's teaching, which recommends a similar turn in the opposite direction? That's one that I plan to ask; other questions and ideas for my grips discussion with Badminton England will be appreciated
Thanks for all the effort in making the grip guide without even expecting something in return. Three cheers for Gollum! Hip Hip HOORAY!
This is a great idea, as a humble club/league player, i'm convinced that having good basic grips and learning more advanced grips for different situations is one of the main ingredients for improving your game. I have the Badminton England technique dvd, and have downloaded various videos from ibbs and they are definitely different in the grips that are used. The clear grip demo'ed by Aamir Ghaffar would appear to be a standard "shake hands" forehand grip, but Lee advocates a "slightly" more panhandle grip for overhead strokes, these are the issues that I find interesting and feel that some clarification and standard ideas would help players and coaches alike. I will look forward to the fruits of your labour Gollum, good luck!
