Here are some helpful badminton tips that I would like to share with you. They are based on my personal experience and advice from professionals. These little tips and tricks make a BIG difference in a game!
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| 6 important Badminton Tips and Advice |
Alright, let’s begin!
1. Maintain Good Body Balance
In badminton, extraordinary speed and power are the winning factors. The key to play with good speed and power is to have extremely good body balance.
- Speed: You'll need good balance to move around the badminton court quickly. You'll move slower if you’re too conscious of maintaining your balance to avoid falling down.
- Power: You’ll also need good body balance to hit a powerful badminton smash. Otherwise, you’ll concentrate on balancing yourself rather than exerting power in your smash.
2. Swing + Wrist = Power
You might hear people say “badminton is all about wrist action“. Beginners should NOT have the mindset of solely depending on wrist power. TRUE power in badminton comes from both the
- swing of your racket
- wrist action
The more you focus on using your wrist to produce power, the more you’ll forego the power from your swing.
This means when beginners concentrate on using their wrist to generate power, they focus less on performing a complete swing. Hence, they forgo the power of the swing.
Learn the correct techniques for badminton strokes first.
You’ll naturally learn to make use of your wrist after you learn to perform the CORRECT technique for badminton strokes.
Beginners should first learn how to generate power from a basic badminton stroke with a complete swing. It’s important to perform a full arm swing for your strokes.
Remember, beginners should not concentrate too much on wrist power. The strength of your wrist will develop over time.
After learning the correct strokes, there are a few things that you should do to ensure your wrist action develops over time.
Maximise your wrist action. Over there, you’ll learn the DO’s and DON’Ts when developing the strength of your wrist.
3. Relax Your Muscles
It’s very important that you avoid tensing your muscles during a game.
If your muscles are tensed up, your movements will be restricted.
- You won’t be able to perform a full swing if your muscles are too tensed
- You can’t perform a good flick with your wrist. A quick “snapping” motion because your muscles are tensed up
Tensing your muscles reduces your mobility and slows you down. The KEY to play good badminton is to RELAX.
You might think that hitting an attacking shot such as the badminton jump smash requires a lot of strength.
A COMMON MISTAKE among beginners is that they subconsciously tense their muscles by gripping their racket too tightly, with the intention of producing more power.
By doing this your smash will not only be weak, you’ll also get your technique WRONG when your muscles are not relaxed.
Relax. Producing power in your shots is not about how big your muscles are… technique is more important! It comes from the swinging motion of your arm.
Relaxing your muscles maximises your swinging motion. It also increases the mobility of your wrist.
4. Badminton Tips for Shot Accuracy
Accuracy in shot placement plays an important role in helping you win your badminton games.
Sometimes it’s not about the power, it’s about accuracy. Good placement of your shots helps you win rallies.
The best location to place your shot is to make the shuttle land as close as possible to the boundary lines of the badminton court.
When you watch international tournaments, you’ll realise that players try very hard to make the shuttle land on (or near) the sidelines or baseline.
They’re able to do that through high levels of training and practice. However, there are a few things that you can do to make the shuttle land near the lines.
5. Badminton Tips to Improve your Jump Smash Power
The most powerful badminton shot is the Jump Smash.
Most social badminton players want to learn the jump smash. Unfortunately the proper badminton jump smash is MORE COMPLICATED than merely jumping and playing the smash.
Good jump smash technique involves having extremely good body balance, flexibility, and knowing how to use all parts of your body to generate power.
6. Hit to Your Opponent’s Backhand Area
Generally, the backhand shot is a common weakness among the majority of badminton players (only a handful can hit good backhand shots).
Many people (including some world class players) cannot perform strong badminton backhands
Therefore, if you have the opportunity, try to hit the shuttle to your opponent’s backhand area and force him to use his backhand.
If your opponent:
- Uses his backhand, there’s a high chance that he’ll return a weak backhand shot. You’ll have the chance to strike with a powerful offensive shot.
- Avoids using his backhand; he’ll have to move further away from his base to perform a forehand stroke, hence weakening his footwork.
You’ll then have the chance to dominate the rally once you interrupt his footwork.
No matter what your opponent’s response is, you’ll gain some degree of advantage if you manage to hit the shuttle to his backhand area.