What are according to you the biggest myths and mistakes you see in badminton training? What exercises are the biggest wastes of time?
Thinking it is a 'wristy' sport, people trying to make their wrists stronger, thinking that will translate into more power in their shots. The common mistake I see all the time is poor footwork from novice/beginners/improvers. Even established players can have poor footwork in certain shots. That's why I spend a lot of time to ensure people use the correct footwork. It doesn't matter how well you can hit the shuttlecock, if you cannot get to it in the first place, you will always struggle. Kindest regards, -Ajay- Quote of the Day A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.
A lot of people (including me), uses the panhandle all the time for years and years and never knew any better.
Yes that's another common on, most beginners don't have the throwing action required for badminton and stand square on, using panhandle grip and swatting at the shuttlecock, they then wonder why they cannot get decent power and control. Another common problem is for people to move their racket leg in unison with their racket arm when playing overhead shots or coming forward for lunges. I see many use the wrong leg when lunging, thus causing their upper body to lean forward, resulting in a much slower recover as they need more steps to get back to base. Kindest regards, -Ajay- Quote of the Day I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals. I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.
Badminton is a wristy sport , you do get more powerful shots from training your wrists (also fingers and forearms). Biggest myth and mistake is to think that it's not a wristy sport. Even coaches that has made international level players even top players will tell you that wrist work is so important and the essence of fundamental badminton.
I think that [MENTION=89889]invincible[/MENTION] Ajay means that a lot people overrate the wrist usage and I agree with him. The wrist is important, no doubt, but didn't have such an important role like the pronation and supination when it comes to generating power. It's a small part of it, but not the whole system, like some people promote.
There's probably some who wrongly overdo the power from the shoulder and some the wrist. Best is a whipping action from torso all the way to the fingers. And secondly, some people wrongly think that it's racket power they should generate, when in reality it's racket speed. And not just constant speed, but explosive acceleration into the strike. And thirdly, the only way to generate this explosive acceleration is strangely to be relaxed. The muscles cannot be overly tight untik point of strike. And fourthly, this speed must be focused at the right moment into the sweetspot perfectly for optimum effect.
I think wrist snap does play a great part in certain shots like deceptives (lifts, drives, anything that utilizes the flick to send the shuttle at the very last moment), pushes, net plays such as spins, slice drops, tap smashes. It's okay the use the term wrist snaps, as I know of an old coach in our area whose students made it to best 4 in U-18 national tournament last year uses exactly the term "wrist snap". He's probably passed down the same teaching who uses the same term wrist snap itself.
Two things: posture (balance) and rhythm. If you have the correct posture you will be well balanced (which will include having the heels slightly off the ground most of the time - but the heels come off the ground because of the good balance you have, not by actively lifting the heels off the ground). The rhythm is important for speed and efficiency. Someone with good technique and efficient movement will have a very noticeable rhythm to the way they move around the court. When they move to a corner, you could listen to the way their feet hit the floor and it would be the same almost every time for that corner. Players who do not move well usually start off in an imbalanced position and are hence too slow when pushing off in a given direction (they usually lose control of their upper body), or they lose balance during their movement, making the recovery towards base ineffective. Players with poor footwork technique will often take a large number of unnecessary small steps, which you can hear if you listen.
I agree full with you that the wrist plays a huge role for your mentioned shots. Especially for slices and deceptions and drives. I think that you will agree with me and Ajay that a full smash, clear (BH and FH) don't need any help from the wrist to generate power.
I have always wondered what people mean by "strengthening the wrist". Wrist is a joint, and as such it cannot be made stronger (like how one can have stronger elbow or knee). One can of course strengthen muscles related to wrist extension, flexion and rotation, but they are situated on the forearm.
to a certain extent yes, I use my wrist to clear for better control but less wrist for full smashes, badminton is not just about smashes and wrist work has been passed down for long time that even top level players from fundamental powerhouse countries like China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia you could tell they are wristy and their coaches would still teach wrist work, one just couldn't say that wrist is overrated in badminton as I would never think forearm is overrated as for stroke (putting footwork aside), finger, wrist, forearm all contribute for creating good strokes
Totally agree. I have lost count the number of times I've said the same thing. Oh well, some people just don't get it. Kindest regards, -Ajay- Quote of the Day If you shoot at mimes, should you use a silencer?
The wrist is important for several shots, the wrist can be used for slices or controlling the head to send the shuttle in a direction, but for the whole system of an overhead stroke it's not the main element for power generating IMO. I use the wrist for these topics, so I feel so. Maybe somebody feel different and is sensitive about my posting. I apologize, for using the word "overrated" without to relate it to power in over head shots.
chillax guys I was just saying that one shouldn't feel too 'allergic' with the word wrist for badminton, and ucantseeme you never used the word 'overrated' and no need to apologize for it as I think invicibleajay was saying that wrist is a bit overrated in badminton for the first comment in this thread, while what I found is that the usage of the term wrist (snapping, flicking, rotation, whipping) is very common and widely used by many good coaches in badminton therefore there's no need to be too allergic to the term 'wrist snap'. It all comes down to end result right? If you think those coaches are wrong at the first place for using the word wrist, would you think they would produce these "wristy" national or international level players? just my 2 yen