Quiet time for badminton

The playing season is over, even the training sessions finished last week. My first Saturday... free from badminton......... really looked forward to it.......... ended up doing a private one to one 2 hour session !!!!!
I enjoyed it but am still looking forward to this Saturday so that I can have a badminton free day.

What shall I do ?? I will probably end up watching some badminton videos to analyse. Or maybe even pop into town to buy some more badminton shirts. But at least I will be on my own without a stopwatch/racket/20 shuttles in my hands.

So yes I am looking forward to my badminton free weekend !!!!!

The flick serve and receiving it.

The flick serve is a must to have in your armoury of shots. It must be deceptive and undistinguishable from your normal low serve (notice that I don't call it the short serve !!)

When I was a player I would always flick at least once in the first few points just so that it would keep the receiver honest and normally keep the pressure off my low serve.

But not only is it important to have a good flick serve but it's also important to be able to play it as a receiver.

Shots and footwork are constantly being added to, if you have watched any international badminton recently, you will see that for the flick serve when receiving the receiver's footwork is simply a couple of steps and a short jump backwards to try and hit the shuttle down or at least flat and hard. Most of the time they were off balance when hitting and their recovery was minimal (poor).

Their priority was just to hit down even if the shuttle was slightly behind them, they had no time to do a few steps then a scissors jump. Watch the chinese especially in the Sudirman cup their only priority was to hit down from the flick, their footwork and recover was in a way secondary but obviously practiced.

This is what I will be coaching this weekend to my players, they will not only be practicing the flick serve but the receiving also, then they will practice going forward for the low serve then reacting for a flick. The main objective to be hitting the shuttle down in the shortest time possible. Looking good and recovery will be secondary but also practiced.

National finals

Congratulations to DJ for winning the England National under 18 singles final, he also won the National doubles final on the same day at England Badminton headquarters in Milton Keynes.

He worked very hard and deserved it. He should be playing for England U 19's.

The "split Drop".

The "split drop" or "bounce step" or the "pretension jump" or you may call it something else. This first step is a must for all badminton players but even more so with singles players.

Some people say that the first step is in the mind, ok you could call that perception/experience or anticipation but the first physical movement is the split drop.

The split drop is simply a way of "loading" your leg muscles to prepare them for fast rapid movement, you need to push down to be able to push off fast, in football goalkeepers do it just before they decide which way to dive to make a save. I've even noticed some cricket fielders doing it before the ball is hit in their direction.

If your opponent is smashing/clearing/dropping from the rear court most players do the split drop as the shuttle is hit, personally I prefer my players to make the step slightly before the hit so that they have already bounced and are on the way up, especially when defending the smash. I feel that by doing it that way that they will be that bit earlier to the shuttle. The debate is should you prepare by doing the split step first or should you "react" to your opponent's shot, the argument is valid both ways. Of course during rallies other than from the rear court then it's best to be "reactive".