Looking into new training methods for footwork

T

trainedtotrain

Regular Member
Dear Advisors,Trainers,Coaches and athletes,

It seems to me that the past and current training methods on badminton footwork is never an interesting exercise/drill to many players. Be it beginners, intermediate, social, advance or professionals.

Does anyone have any ideas to recommend so that the new proposed training method is loved by or enjoyed by many.
 
Once basic footwork patterns have been learned, what remains involves refining the finer details, such as timing, posture, foot contacts etc. The problem is that the same methods used to learn the footwork aren't necessarily the same as the methods used to refine.

Why is this? For one, movement occurs quickly, perhaps too quickly for you to feed new motor patterns into in real-time. If you slow down the movement, then you might not be training the technique you think you're training.

Supplemental exercises can be useful in these cases. For example, suppose a player is poor at lunging deeply. A training progression might be to perform isometric lunges to develop strength endurance and flexibility in the extreme position, all while maintaining perfect posture. Then, some weight might be added to develop strength, followed by dynamic training where the athlete catches him/herself perfectly in a lunge from increasing initial velocities.
 
Swimmington!!!

Very alternative, but I have thought about whether it could be an idea to train badminton footwork in the water, if you have a not to deep swimming pool nereby... Actually you can then do a jump in slow motion and freeze in the middle of the movement.
 
I can't really think of anything. You could always have competitions between students , marking them down for mistake , and seeing who is the quickest. But im not really sure, i don't think there any different ways of learning footwork really.
 
not a coach but a player
we play as a group so i usually let my opposing friend practice footwork in-game, i would not play winners so he can concentrate on getting the footwork right
 
I think the key is variation. There are plenty of footwork drills, different drills when players do shadow badminton, pick up shuttles in different corners of the court, do a mirror movement of the other player on a half court, do attacking moves on one side and defensive moves on the other side of the court and so on. If you prepare the "footwork part of the training session" every time at least a little bit different, they won't get bored (well, most of them ;-)).

And what can also help, point out the moments, when players use their improvement in footwork drills in the actual game. Don't be aware to stop the play and tell them: "Do you realise that we've been practising this particular movement?" The feeling that it is in fact useful will make your player much more keen to cope up with footwork drills.
 
Motivation/Explosion/Variation

The key to training footwork is motivation, explosion, and variation.
There’s a lot of ways to train your moving on court. There’s a lot of exercises you can do training balance, cores stability, speed and explosion.
Want to learn the all, be ready for august when BOC is online!!!
When training footwork, it's of great importance that your players are moving with speed variation. Remembering to explode pushing off on front feet. Always have a large distance between feet, and pushing off on feet before changing direction.
Look at this defensive exercise, and notice the low gravity and speed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2yHdZD5Vkk&feature=channel_page


Best regards
CoachEngholm
 
If your talking about going through the motions from scratch about footwork then yes it is boring. Unfortunately you cant spice it up or change it. They need to go through the grueling basics in order to learn. Once theyve learnt by all means there are plenty of things to do.

#1 Pair them up. 1 stands with their back up against the net in centre court. The other readys like he is about to play a rally. The person at the net points wherever he/she wants to in the court at a reasonable pace and the other student needs to play out an imaginary rally.
Works well with intermediate - advanced players because the maturity and experience levels are higher and can achieve a more creative and realistic rally.

#2 4 point and 6 point footwork drills. Simply run through the 4 or 6 points with correct footwork for a certain amount of sets.

Another way i find works really effectively is concentration matches. Singles for example. get 2 of your students to play a singles game. Everytime you see a mistake in footwork or shots or anything, once the point is over stop the ralley and correct the mistake. This way the students remain quite relaxed as they get regular resting periods. Aswell as getting lots of beneficial information and slowly but steadily correcting themselves with your guidance.

But for the beginning stages, its boring and thats where it ends. Teach the beginners all the racket skills before footwork. By the stage they are ready for footwork they will be past the super boredom stage and should be able to commit and think about it.
 
I think that if you express that footwork training is boring, you'll pass those feelings on to those you are coaching and the training will be less effective. I remember once coaching with another coach who actually said to the kids that "footwork training is boring but necessary" and I disagreed with what he had to say. As the coach you should help them feel learn the differences between different types of steps and pushoffs, and help relate the footwork drill to playing the game. If you make it interesting, your students will be much more inclined to practice footwork.
 
Most footwork training techniques are just the same things put in different orders, ways and with a different routine.
 
and yes i forgot to mention lol as someone said dont actually tell them its realy boring to learn

as coach you have to pass on positive energy in order to gain a positive outcome.
Starting with a negative will only screw with you and your students results.
 
Thats weird lol, i think footwork training is fun. especially the 3 on 1 drill. except if your the 3 instead of the 1 haha.:)
 
Footwork is to create good positioning on court. Good footwork conserves energy because of greater positioning to retrieve and place better shots against your opponent. You have bigger room to improve by possessing good footwork. Many players including professionals do not have this fundamental skill and when they play, they compensate the lack of it with greater running, stamina, and lunges. Henceforth their game stagnates with age and diminishes by 29 years old. Poor positioning means one cannot place a good shot. We see Japanese and Korean players contending better nowadays with speedy positioning owing to Li Mao, Park Joo Bong and Tan Kim Her.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top