I find it very difficult to catch dropshots at the net after I hit my serve. And not only after the serve. When I'm doing a drill with my partner (i lift and he does dropshots) I can't catch most of the shots. I don' t do the left-right leg combination and sometimes I just do a lunge in the middle of the court(which is completely useless). My coach keeps telling me I'm slow and don't try hard enough and this really frustrates me. I really want to improve this footwork and not stumble every time my opponent does a dropshot. This is how I lose most of my points- I just can't start for the front. I try to stay low and keep my raquet ready but that isn't enough. I would like to ask some tips, exercises, drills or whatever that could help me to react and start faster for dropshots.
I presume you are doing high serves? You can try reading this: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/14501-The-specifics-of-footwork-directly-after-being-ready-at-centre-base?highlight=drop Also, very important is the position you take up after your serve http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/2363-Regaining-Base-Position And then read this and the subsequent posts in the thread: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/10426-Singles-gameplay-how-to-keep-your-advantage?p=89503&viewfull=1#post89503 A quick video would be helpful but try these extra tips: - serve high and back into the rear tramlines - aim for shuttle landing 1 foot near the back line - position yourself further back in the base position - then concentrate on moving forwards to the front two corners. Don't worry about the rear corner because you are already closer to those areas - the split step - land both feet together on the floor as the shuttle is being hit. - have your centre of balance/gravity forward as you bounce i.e. lean forward. - as you said, you stay low but this does not necessarily mean your centre of gravity is also forward. - skipping is a good exercise Is it possible to have a short clip of you training the receive of dropshot? A 20-30 sec video from behind you at the back of the court would be enough.
Dont' know your style, but it sounds like you are a bit slow to initiate movement from a standstill. Heed Cheung's advice on learning to split-step and on skipping to develop quick reflexive foot and ankle movement. You aren't lazy, as your coach says. We can read the passion in your post. It's merely a technique of movement you have yet to master. Stay confident and keep trying.
Improve your Speed Hi there, I made a dedicated thread for this topic - Better Badminton Footwork - Improve your Speed. http://www.badmintoncentral.com/for...etter-Badminton-Footwork-–-Improve-your-Speed Hopefully the input from this thread can give valuable guidance to you. Keep practicing. SS
train your step and lunges. practice. In your head you already know how to move, but the body is still stiff. Here is a Video I recommend to do front lunges. Sometimes, its just about the body that isn't used to the motion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2n58m2i4jg For the movement before the lunge, practice with your partner throwing shuttles. Do the split step and first step (I assume your a righty so left leg first) right at the time your partner release the shuttle. do them many times, maybe for a week. Train your reflex to move reflectively rather than thinking first about what to do. this is a problem for many people, even me. We already know the correct steps, but each time the birdie is hit, rather than quickly move, we pause a second and think about how the body, the leg, the arm, the racket should move and where to go, ho hard, etc. this makes us slow to react. so you should make your body remember the movement rather than doing them in your head everytime it happens
Careful! That is not a badminton lunge. If you lunge like that in a badminton rally, you could hurt yourself. It's fine as a strength/stability exercise, but do not use this as footwork on court. See my page on lunge technique, and specifically the bit at the end about turning out the back foot.
yes, I just want to point out that lunges should be practiced until your body feels natural to it. not a badminton one and shouldn't be used on court, but good for strength-stability exercise and making your body become used to do the lunge. from my experience, I also felt unnatural to do lunges and rather run or even slide to hit the shuttle from the dropshot. Even I see world class players do it, even the videos tell me, even I know its right in my head, I just feel something blocking me to do it on court. There is always a delay and I'm late to the shuttle. now I can just do the step and do the lunge more naturally. it's not only useful for the drops, but also the blocks and drives where you need to lunge to reach the shuttle quickly.
