Badminton is an exciting sport that necessitates precise footwork. Through fast reactions and sufficient court coverage, players need the ability to quickly respond to opponents’ shots and maintain good court coverage.
Footwork performance involves protecting various regions on both courts with various stepping strategies and lunging movements, using cone drills that simulate movement on the court. If you want to sharpen up your badminton footwork performance, check out these cone drills that simulate movement on the court.
Split Step
Split step is an integral movement to reaching difficult shots on the court, often performing one before every backhand or volley shot. Unfortunately, many players misunderstand its purpose, taking too large of jab steps or leaning in one direction with their split step movements.
For optimal split step technique, jump slightly up and spread your feet apart – this allows you to build momentum and jolt them out of their flat position so they are ready for pushing off in any direction. Timing is also critical; for maximum effect the split step must start before your opponent hits their shuttlecock and reach its peak by the time their ball leaves their string.
Gravity Step, commonly known by its shorthand name of Flow Step. Touring pros often employ this footwork move when approaching the net as it allows them to quickly approach balls by taking small jab steps with quick footwork. This gives more control and access to balls other players cannot reach; perfect timing requires consistent practice to form muscle memory – practicing this move until it becomes natural can drastically enhance your reach ability and help reach difficult shots more often.
Running Step
Traversing small steps while moving into position with precision is a crucial badminton footwork skill. In order to effectively prepare themselves for such movements, players need to be able to reach both sidelines quickly before switching into their forward stance quickly – hence why running steps (also referred to as prep steps) are such an integral component of training sessions.
To properly perform a prep step, players must establish a wide leg base while staying predominantly on their forefoot and with knees slightly bent and good athletic posture. Once this has been accomplished, they can then take a controlled forward hop with feet close together; on hard courts this may result in making some noise (squeaks are acceptable – any movement forward is better than no forward progress!). Even on harder courts though this might result in making noise at some point; just move forward!
Simple yet effective lateral movement is one of the key components of a dynamic approach to tennis and can greatly increase overall balance, agility and coordination. Once you master a basic one-foot-in-each-box ladder drill, try experimenting with other patterns such as forward/backward shuffles, in-and-outs and icky shuffles until you find something that feels comfortable for you on court.
Carioca drill is another effective and simple way to increase lateral movement, beginning from an athletic stance with feet hip-width apart and crossing over one leg while sliding the other back. Repeat this quick alternating pattern for 10 repetitions until your skill improves laterally. This exercise can particularly assist club players who often make three common errors when moving laterally:
Chasse Step
Running steps are the foundational form of badminton footwork and should be learned before progressing to more complex or polished methods. A running step involves placing one foot in front of another while extending one racket arm to return the shuttle, typically when travelling long distances – for instance if trapped in the rear corner and needing to reach the front backhand corner to retrieve your shuttle this type of movement may be ideal.
When looking to improve their badminton court movements, a chasse step may be the ideal solution. Inspired by ballet-inspired movements, the chasse step helps players move more efficiently between points A and B without tripping over themselves – also covering more area quickly!
To execute a chasse step, players should assume the ready position – this stance involves spreading their feet shoulder width apart with their dominant foot slightly ahead of their non-dominant foot and with knees slightly bent and body lowered so as to reduce center of gravity for greater stability.
Once in this stance, a player should slowly bring their dominant foot back towards the corner they wish to travel towards and then bring in their non-dominant foot behind it to create a ‘closed’ position that allows further travel with each step. They should also pay attention to recovery strategies so as to anticipate an opponent’s next movement early.
Suicides
Badminton is a fast-paced game, so the faster your feet move, the higher your chance is of reaching the shuttlecock. Improving your footwork may require hard work but will reap dividends for your game; regardless of whether you’re an amateur or advanced badminton player there are off-court drills designed to improve court movement so you can reach it quicker.
Many players make the mistake of running around aimlessly to try and reach the shuttlecock. But this can be dangerous, particularly if you try and play too early – which could result in mishits, leading your opponent to score a point and prevent proper balance and control being maintained on court.
Instead, try running and lunging drills to enhance your court movement. Doing this will enable you to react faster when an opponent hits shots at you and cover more court efficiently. A great drill to use here would be running back-and-forth between two lines until each time, starting from touching one, running onto another one and touching that line and so forth until about five lines have been touched in total.
Practice suicides for an effective badminton drill! Suicides are a quick, intense exercise designed to increase speed and agility while some coaches use them as punishment after losing competitive drills.
Finally, try some basic shuffling exercises as a beginner drill to develop your split step and initial speed. Simply shuffle side to side quickly for about three minutes until your split step and initial speed have improved significantly.
Shuffling
Badminton is a sport where footwork takes center stage. Quick side-to-side movements are essential in dodging an opponent while still moving around the court and hitting that winning shot. Shuffling can help practice these movements and become faster at them over time.
Shuffle steps are a form of skidding movement designed to quickly change directions and increase agility and lateral movement on the court. Shuffle steps can also help chase balls from backcourt corners quickly while moving towards or away from the net to hit long distance shots.
Shuffle steps typically follow an “in-and-out” pattern wherein feet alternate between an instep and toe touch, however you can vary these patterns to challenge yourself further and better simulate various kinds of footwork needed on court – including diagonal shuffles, lateral shuffles and in-and-outs to name just a few variations.
When shuffling, it’s essential that your feet remain low and push hard outside your center of gravity. This will improve balance while also making changing directions faster; speedier feet allow for quick responses as your opponent sends the ball flying!
Setup cones on the court and have players run between them zigzaggingly as an excellent shuffle drill. This exercise can improve agility while getting players prepared for fast-paced volleys and chase downs. Add resistance bands for an additional challenge by increasing weight to increase power exerted during runs.