Badminton is a highly complex and physically demanding sport. There are a lot of drills that can be used to improve your game. Drills are relatively a simple practice that anyone can handle but they help you to augment your skills in a significant manner.
Playing games alone is not enough in badminton. You need to spend time and effort in your badminton training to improve your game.
There are two key elements in badminton- Shots, and Movement. Being able to shoot accurate shots from every corner of the court is an important element in badminton.
You can be the fastest player on the court but without good shots, you cannot win a game and vice versa. In this article, I’ll share with you 10 badminton drills that will help you become a better player.
Let’s dive right in.
1. Shadow Badminton Drill
Shadow practice is one of the most important drills in badminton. Well, this drill involves practicing actual movement and technique without physically hitting the shuttle.
Shadow practice is the best training to improve your on-court movement and coordination. There are many variations that you can add to your shadow practice and it can be done without the need for a shuttlecock. Remember, to move as quickly and efficiently as during a real match scenario.
Make sure you cover the backcourt, midcourt, and frontcourt. You basically move from the center of the court to all six corners with proper footwork. A shadow drill improves your reaction time and footwork coordination on the court.
Moreover, there are different shadow movements you can practice. This practice will help you to improve your game and convert your weaknesses into your strengths.
Intensity and focus are critical to making the drill meaningful. At first, you should focus more on proper form than on speed. The more you get used to moving properly, the faster you can then go.
For beginners, focus on the technique first and don’t think about the speed. You need to perfect each movement in each area of the court properly and once your base is formed, then practice developing your speed. The more you can move properly with the correct technique, the faster you can move on the court.
The most important thing in shadow practice is to move to and fro to the center of the court after covering each corner of the court. For beginners, you can start by taking two corners of the court like the backhand and forehand backcourt, and just practice your movement to and from each side.
However, for intermediate and advanced players you can practice shadow badminton by covering the whole court. An easy way of doing this is along with a partner. Your partner will direct you to the areas you need to move around the court with actions and you will move accordingly. This way you do not need to think about where your next movement needs to be.
2. Wall Rally Drill
Commonly known as wall practice, a wall rally drill helps to improve your shots significantly. So, take an old shuttle and practice against the wall hitting it forward, backward, straight, and diagonal.
The idea is to hit the shuttle against the wall and try to keep it in the air for as long as possible, combining different types of shots. This helps to improve your arm and wrist strength and efficiency of shots. The wall rally drill will not only help to improve your shots but also improve your reflexes.
Sometimes, the shuttle can land anywhere and bounce very fast from the wall but you can maintain the same intensity and try to keep up a rally against the wall. This technique is helpful for all levels of play from beginners to professional players.
3. Multiple Shuttles Drill – Overhead Strokes
This drill is specifically for the backcourt shots and movement. It requires an additional person (a feeder) and as many numbers of shuttles as you can get.
The feeder will feed the shuttle anywhere in the backcourt and you will have to use your forehand or backhand to hit the shuttle correctly with maximum intent. You can combine clears, drops, and smashes while hitting the shuttle.
It is recommended to go back to the center of the court after each shot to bring real game situations into play. This drill will enhance your accuracy and speed in executing the different strokes.
4. Multiple Shuttles Drill – Net Play
Unlike the multi shuttle drill for overhead strokes, the feeder will feed the shuttles to your net area. You can choose whether to hit a net shot, a net kill, or a net lift with your forehand or backhand.
This drill is to improve your movement and accuracy of shots near the net. In this, you will require a feeder to place shuttles for you near the net and you will have to receive the shuttle wherever the feeder hits the shuttle. Remember to move towards every shuttle from your base position and come back to the same position after hitting the shuttle.
5. Half-Court Singles
Half-court singles means playing a game of singles on just one side of the court. It is a drill that surely helps to improve footwork and boost your stamina. This will train your movement and help you to play more precise shots using all types of strokes. This drill will help with resistance because the rallies tend to be longer.
You can either play a game of 11,15, or 21 points which can be played for the best of three games. Half-court singles will also help with shot accuracy because you are playing on only half the surface and therefore you need to focus on the landing position of your shots. Moreover, it is fun to play and will help to improve your game.
6. King of The Court
This game is useful when there are a lot of players. It helps to practice real game situations with more than two people.
In this drill, one person starts as the King of the Court while the others start a queue to become challengers. The first challenger steps on the court and starts playing a normal rally with the king of the court.
If the king of the court wins the rally, he adds a point to his/her score and the challenger is replaced by another challenger. However, if the challenger wins the rally, he/she adds a point to the score and becomes the king of the court.
The king of the court joins the challengers while another challenger moves in to challenge the new king of the court.
This can go on for a predefined set of time. In the end, the person with more points in his/her score is the winner. It is more fun if played with the same level of players because that keeps the competition intense.
7. Two Versus One
In this drill, one player plays a match against two opponents while following the rules of singles in a badminton match. However, the two players cannot change sides like in doubles, instead, they have to cover their respective court areas. This drill helps to improve your coverage in court which gives you confidence while playing singles in real-time situations.
Your opponents will play in a front-back situation, which will keep you under pressure due to a fast game. This is a great exercise if you are a better player than the players you are training with. This is a very effective drill to improve your singles game performance on the court.
Try to make use of a variety of shots as you have to play against two players which is more difficult than normal singles. It will raise your game to become a better player and help your fitness, speed around the court, footwork, and shot accuracy.
8. Service Challenge Drill
Service is undoubtedly one of the most important shots in badminton. In this drill, you will layout boxes in different positions of the court and your aim should be to hit the maximum number of shuttles into those boxes. This drill will help you gain perfection in your serves. Moreover, it can help to reduce service faults in real-time situations.
To make this fun, you can compete with players of your age and level of play. Moreover, to make it more interesting you can assign points to each box and play to serve to achieve maximum points. Practice this once a week to perfect your service.
9. Drop and Lift Drill
This drill can be done both half court and full court. However, beginners start with half-court and it can be done as a static or a moving drill. When you move to a fro for a drop and lift helps to improve your straight court footwork, agility, reflexes, and accuracy of shots. These two players will practice alternate drop and lift.
- Player 1 will stand at the backend of the court and player 2 will stand in the middle of the opposite side.
- Player 2 will play a high serve
- Player 1 will hit a drop to that serve
- Player 2 will dribble (remember to not dribble very close to the net to sustain a long rally).
- Player 1 will then play a high lift
- Player 2 will execute a drop and so on.
This can either be done with 2 players or one player can take the drop lift rally of the other with one standing stationary. This is a very effective drill that not only helps to improve your shots but also improves your movement on the court.
10. Drop Static Drill
This drill is basically for beginners to practice and perfect the drop shot. In this, the one who will practice the drop will stand at the backend of the court and one player stands near the net on the other side of the court to practice a lift.
- Player 1 will serve the shuttle to the backend of the court.
- Player 2 will receive the shuttle and execute a drop.
- Player 1 will receive the drop and execute a lift again to Player 1.
- Repeat
You can practice this continuously for 100-200 drops and you will surely see the improvement in your quality of drop.
11. Clear Drill
A clear is one of the most important shots in badminton. This drill helps you improve your clear shots. It is intended for two players and both will practice the drill from the backcourt. It is recommended to stay in the center of the court or of the backcourt to perform this drill.
For beginners, the aim is to shoot a clear to the other person so that neither of you has to move from your position.
For professional players, to improve your movement you can stand at the center and move back to return a clear every time. It can be performed both ways and helps to improve the accuracy of a clear shot.
12. Alternate Forehand/Backhand Clear
Like the previous drill is helpful to improve the quality of your clear, this drill helps to improve your movement while executing or receiving a clear. In this, a second person or your coach will feed you shuttles alternately at each end of the backcourt and you will have to receive it either by hitting a straight court or cross-court clear.
For beginners, keep a shuttle box at the center of the court and move to each side of the court from that point. This will help to enhance your movement.
13. Hitting Shuttle at One Point
This drill is especially for intermediate/advanced players and can be done to practice especially your drops and clears.
In this, your coach or another player will stand at one point of the court let it be near the net or the backcourt. The coach will hit the shuttle anywhere on your court and you have to hit the shuttle only at the point where your coach stands. It helps to improve movement and speed as well as the accuracy of the shot.
14. Full Court vs Half-Court singles
In this game of singles, one player will cover the entire court whereas, the other will cover only one part of the court. The player covering the full court has to hit each and every shot to the half-court of where the opponent is standing. This practice will not only help in improving your movement but also will improve the efficiency of your shots in a particular area.
15. Chinese Doubles
Chinese doubles is a fun game in badminton in which many players can play with each other. Two teams can be formed and they can play a match for 15/21 points. It may seem confusing at first but very interesting to play once you get accustomed. Moreover, it can be played half-court as well as a full-court.
For example, a team consists of 2 players each
Team 1- Player 1,2
Team 2- Player A, B
Player 1 from team 1 will serve and player A from Team 2 will receive the service and move out of the court. Further, player 1 will again receive the shot hit by player A and move out of the court. The shot hit by player 1 will be received by player B from Team 2 which will then be received by player 2 from Team 1. Like this, alternately the players will rotate and play.
Final Thoughts
Players from all around the world put in a lot of effort and time in badminton training using different types of drills. If you are aspiring to be one, keep practicing these drills to improve your game. Enjoy the game while practicing the drills, this will enhance your performance even more.
Even professional players often have a weaker backhand. If you’re struggling with your backhand shots, check out this article which will teach you how to improve your backhand game.
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If you want to become a better badminton player, click here to check the article on 6 Tips To Become A Better Badminton Player.
Thanks for reading. Enjoy badminton!