The Best Way to Teach Badminton. And the Ramifications for Other Sports.
Roger Wheller
I help you be a better sports coach and player. My ebooks tell you what the latest research says gets the best results
Let’s take the example of teaching a beginner to do a long serve.
Traditionally, the coach tells the beginner about the biomechanics of the stroke. They tell them to focus on the relevant body and arm movements – where to face, how to turn, how to coordinate their shoulder, arm, wrist and racquet.
The aim of this detailed instruction is to ensure the player develops good technique - the foundation on which progress is built. ?
But even though this is the standard way of doing things, just how effective is it? ?Lucky for us, some researchers decided to find out.
The Research in a Nutshell
The researchers recruited a group of beginner badminton players[1],[2] and had them hit 10 long serves while focusing on each of the following:?
(1)??the movement of their arm and hand.
(2)??the racquet head.
(3)??the point where they intended the shuttle to land.
They also hit 10 serves for which they weren’t given any instructions about focusing. The accuracy of the players’ serves was measured.?
An Unexpected Result ?
Now when a coach gets a beginner to focus of what they’re doing as in focusing on the movement of their arm, hand or racquet head you would expect their technique to be good.
Consequently, you would expect their accuracy to be good, certainly better than if they didn’t focus on anything at all. ??
But this is not what happened. What happened was the further away from their body the players focused, the more accurate they were.
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When they focused on the shuttle’s landing point they were more accurate than when they focused on their racquet which in turn was more accurate than when they focused on their arm and hand.
Interestingly when players focused on the landing point they were no better than when they were given no instructions about where to focus.
Two Things to Take Away
First, focusing on either your racquet or your arm is the worse thing you can do. The minute you focus on biomechanical technique, as many coaches may instruct you, your accuracy takes a nose dive.
Second, it appears the best thing to do is to focus away from what you’re doing – either focus on the shuttle’s intended landing spot or not focus on anything at all. Of course this is the very antithesis of traditional coaching
But What About a Technically Correct Technique?
Coaches need to get their young charges up and running with a technically correct technique. But how do you do this without words and without referring to the bodily twists and turns of your eager young beginner?
Luckily there are ways around this. However, this is a story for another day
Now you may be wondering whether this principle applies to other sports. Short answer – yes, it’s a universal principle. And yes, this is another story for another day.
Until next time, Roger Wheller “I read the research so you don’t have to"
[1] Amadi M. Kasher S.M. & Taghavi M. & Borhani H. The effects of attentional focus and skill level in performance of badminton long service. World Journal of Sport Sciences, 7:2, 84-89, 2012.
[2] The players were university undergraduate students who had completed a technical badminton course as part of their physical education studies but did not play regularly.
Lead Coach at Sunrise Badminton Network
3 年Well, I think the name of the article is misleading because it is not true universally to other shots. Underarm shots, especually serves are much easier to perform then an overhead shots. You basically cannot teach a child how to hit a shuttle overhead by telling them where to hit it. They need a basic concept how to move their arm at least. Otherwise they will lose their faith in their own skills and leave the courts forever. That is why most people are talking about badminton like a childhood game. Because they have tried it at childhood and failed. Now the fear of shame keep them back to give another chance to it. So no, it is not a universal rule for all shots in badminton. Might be the gifted ones can do without technical instructions but based on my experience, their numbers are infinitesimal. By the way, it is also different for adults. So it might be true for 1 shot but not for the many.
NPQSL | Experiential Learning Coordinator | Carmel School, HK | BEd | MEd (Cantab)
3 年I love this! Mostly because when I’m teaching badminton (and some other things too), I just set them problems and get them to solve them. Or give them some games to play and take the focus away from ‘correct’ form. Who is to say they won’t create a new way of doing things far better than what we already have? ??♂???
Sports Scientist - Holistic Trainer I Movement & Biomechanics Specialist I S&C I Relaxation expert I Yoga Therapist I Manual Therapist I Brain Science I Nutrition Coach I Practicing Scholar I Speaker
3 年Great post....and yes, it applies to all sports and very close related to training. I have said it a few times in my posts/articles/comments - do not try to replicate or repeat the sporting movements in training to improve your results. You may never end up improving. Prepare the musculoskeletal system (diff training mechanisms) in such a way that it facilitates your sporting movements efficiently. Biomechanics has a huge role to play in sports. But, when you teach it, how you teach it, and how much you change an athlete are important factors that determines what changes you bring in an athlete.
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3 年Thanks for posting Roger. And thank you for hunting down the research. I know it's time-consuming.
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3 年This is also very true. If you get the desired result, then the method of achieving it doesn't also need to come into it. There are many ways to skin a cat yeh ??