To be good at any sport, you must first master the fundamentals. Understanding and mastering the fundamental techniques and skills allow you to play consistently and improve. Badminton is a sport that is easy to learn but difficult to master. Anyone can learn and master the fundamentals of badminton.
So, what are the fundamental skills required to play badminton? Here are the fundamental skills you must master in order to play badminton:
Knowing how to properly warm up
Warming up requires a combination of skill and knowledge. Before stepping onto the court for a match, players of all levels should know how to properly warm up. We wrote an in-depth article on how to properly warm up for badminton. It is critical to warm up thoroughly before playing in order to avoid injuries. It’s also important because you’ll be ready to play from the start of the game. You won’t need four or five rallies into the game to feel like you’ve finally found your groove.
Warm-ups, likewise, do not have to be time-consuming. In less than five minutes, you can complete a thorough warm-up.
The fundamental forehand and backhand grips
It is essential to learn the forehand and backhand grips. It’s critical to get this right because it’s the foundation for learning every shot in badminton. The basic forehand and backhand grip is simple to master; you can practice getting the hold just right while sitting at home. While sitting on the couch at home, practice switching from forehand to backhand.
The forehand grip is similar to shaking someone’s hand. Both in the way you hold the racquet and in the tightness with which you hold it. You should hold the racquet loosely; gripping the racquet too tightly can result in injuries such as tennis elbow. It also makes hitting the shot smoothly difficult because you are tensing your muscles.
For some people, the backhand grip is easier to master. Simply take the forehand grip and roll your thumb over it so that it rests flat on the grip rather than along the edge. When compared to the forehand, using the thumb makes it easier to stabilize the grip.
The fundamental six corners footwork
Badminton relies heavily on footwork. Some coaches in China are known to only teach beginners’ footwork from the start. They do not teach racquet skills until the player has mastered the fundamentals of footwork. They do this because it is impossible to play good shots if the shuttle cannot be reached. In badminton, once the shuttlecock touches the ground, the rally is over, so you must be able to cover the court to play well.
The ready stance/split step
The split step is a technique for preparing for the next shot. It is used not only in badminton but also in other sports such as tennis. It is the foundation for developing good footwork and speed on the court.
Let us summarise why the split step is so critical. A good split step is to a badminton player what a good first step is to a runner. You’ll be playing catch-up to your opponent if you don’t have a good split step.
The fundamental shots
There are numerous shots to choose from in badminton. Slicing the shuttle, tumbling the shuttle, or hitting it at different angles with different swings are all shot variations. They do, however, all have one original basic shot. Here is a list of basic shots for beginners to learn first.
- The serving (forehand or backhand)
- The elevator (sometimes called a lob)
- The goal shot
- The impediment
- The dropping shot
- The avalanche
- The obvious
That’s a total of eight shots. When you’re just starting out, there are a lot of them, and they can all be played backhand and forehand. These seven shots cover the vast majority of match situations. Once you’ve mastered these, you’ll have a solid foundation from which to learn more advanced shots and variations.
Coordination of the hands and eyes
It takes time to develop, but having good hand-eye coordination is essential for badminton. You can’t play badminton if your racquet and shuttle aren’t connected. Playing a lot of badminton is the best way to improve your hand-eye coordination. Who would have guessed?!
In all seriousness, playing and training will significantly improve your hand-eye coordination, but there are exercises you can do at home alone or with another person to improve your hand-eye coordination. Here are a few examples:
Catching a ball
Catching is a simple but effective way to improve your hand-eye coordination. All you need is a ball, but you could also use a shuttlecock. Practice throwing and catching with another person, or bounce the shuttle or ball against a wall at different angles and catch it again.
Taking an object focuses your attention on a single moving object. It necessitates focus and spatial awareness. It’s so basic, but it’s so effective.
Perception and Anticipation
The better you get at badminton, the more important these two skills become. It’s the difference between simply returning an opponent’s shot and intercepting or countering an opponent’s next shot. Perception entails:
“The ability to see, hear, or become aware of something by using one’s senses.”
This has a variety of connotations in the context of badminton. The ability to see where your opponent is in relation to the rest of the court, as well as hear if they are panting and getting tired, are just a few examples. It is about how you perceive the current situation as it unfolds during a game. Being more conscious.
It’s a little different with anticipation. Anticipation denotes:
“The action of expecting or predicting something.”
Anticipation in badminton refers to reading your opponent’s next move before they make it, changing your stance in preparation for the next shot, and advancing your position before the play is made.
Anticipation is a crucial skill in badminton because if you can predict your opponent’s next shot, you can gain an advantage in the rally, game, and match. It is difficult to learn this skill because no two players play the same way. When one player is in trouble, they may play a specific shot, while another may play an entirely different shot.
