In this video we're going to teach you the correct movement to all four
corners of the court, no matter if you're playing doubles or singles.
This is going to help you to be faster to the shuttle and enable you to play better shots
and ultimately win more points. Hello and welcome back to Badminton Insight, if you're new here we're
Greg and Jenny - two professional players releasing a new video every Sunday on all things badminton.
Now correct footwork is the one thing we'd recommend everyone to learn first when they start
playing but don't worry if you've been playing for years it's not too late to change yours!
So before we break down the movement to each of the four corners you need to know about
the split step which we actually did a complete tutorial on a few weeks back so if you've not
seen that we'd recommend watching that first, we'll include a link in the description below.
So we're going to start with the movement to the front of the court.
If you're moving into your forehand corner you want to do a directional split step, bring your
non-racket leg towards your racket leg in what we call a chasse and then lunge into the corner.
And this is the same movement no matter if you're coming from the middle,
if you're moving across the net like this, or coming from a doubles defensive position.
To recover you basically just want to reverse the movement you've just done.
So push out of the lunge with your racket leg, bring this racket leg towards your non-racket leg
and then recover back. So it should look like this.
And you can practice this by counting 1,2,3 - 1,2,3 - 1,2,3 and you should practice it so much that you can do
it with your eyes shut so that it becomes ingrained into your muscle memory and you
can in a game focus on the shuttle rather than what your feet are doing so with the eyes shut
not the face mask over the blindfold one two three one two three one two three.
Now if you're moving to your backhand corner you want to split,
pivot on your non-racket leg like this, and then lunge into the corner.
Again this is the same no matter if you're moving diagonally from the middle, sideways from the net
or directly forwards from a defensive position in doubles. To recover out of the lunge you want
to again push off with your racket leg and bring it round like this whilst also doing a small hop
on your non racket leg to provide the distance to get back to the middle so it looks like this.
But there might be times where you don't actually recover all the way back to the middle but that's
probably for a more advanced video. Now there are several important points you need to get right for
both of these forecourt corners. Firstly for the lunge you always need to lunge on your racket leg
so if you're right-handed your right leg and you need to lunge with your heel
to toe like this, not like this and when you lunge with your heel to toe you need to keep your knee
in line, not collapsing inwards or outwards. You also need to keep your torso and head upright,
core strong, and legs bent and all of these points will help you be more in control of
your body when playing your shot enabling you to play a better shot and recover quickly out of the
lunge afterwards. And finally you want to land your foot just before you strike the shuttle like this.
If you land too early that means you can't adjust your positioning
and if you land too late then you're not in control of your
body and your accuracy and timing will decrease.
If you find you're struggling with the strength of your lunges and movement in general we'd recommend
checking out our badminton specific weights programs on our website which will massively
help your strength in your lunge along with other areas of the court. And although this is a four
corner footwork video both of these forecourt movements are very similar to the movements you
use in the mid court either low down or high up so notice how i'm always lunging with my racket leg
and my heel to toe and keeping my legs bent to enable me to push off and recover.
Now moving to the back of the court and the forehand side now there are actually four
different movements you can use to get to this forehand corner however because this is a basic
video we're only going to cover one. We will be covering the other three on future videos so
make sure you smash that subscribe button if you haven't already so you don't miss out on
them when the time comes. Now the movement we're going to use today is called the scissor kick.
So first you do another directional split step towards the corner, and then chasse like this
to get in position with your feet wider than shoulder width apart. You want your racket leg
to be loaded and then push off this racket leg to perform a rotational jump like this.
There are some key points to this footwork and preparation that we see a lot of people get wrong.
Firstly as the shuttle's coming towards you you want to end up facing sideways like this.
If you're trying scissor kick from facing front on like this and not facing sidewards
then you're going to over rotate, losing control of the shot and also losing power
You want to use this movement to help you rotate in your overhead action and also transfer your
body weight so that you're moving forwards after the shot. If you don't use this rotation and
momentum going forwards and you're quite likely to fall out of the back of the court. Finally keeping
your legs wide on your landing and not together will help you remain on balance to recover quickly
and you then almost do a running step back to the middle or wherever you're going next. Now
on to Jenny for the final movement. The fourth and final corner is the round the head corner
and the most common movement is the scissor kick. Now let's break it down for you. You start with
this directional split step, push off your racket leg and pivot on your non-racket leg like this. So
we're now facing sideways and then we kick through in a scissor kick once again. If you find that you
struggle to reach the corner with this movement, try adding in a small chasse step before the pivot
but we'd really encourage you to minimize your steps as this will maximize your speed!
Again you can learn the rhythm of this movement by counting one two three and then adding in a quick
four for when you hit the shot. So like this: 1,2,3,4 - 1,2,3,4 - and as we said
earlier you want to get to a point where you can do this movement with your eyes closed so 1,2,3,4
A common mistake we often see is people spending way too long on their back leg before the
scissor kick, ruining the rhythm and flow of the movement and also the timing of your shot.
The recovery for this footwork is the same as the forehand, doing this running step
and using the power in both of your legs to be ready for the next shot
wherever that might be. Now if you're not early enough to do this scissor kick movement and need
to take a backhand then this is a completely different movement - we've done a full tutorial
about the backhand on our channel which we'll also link below if you want to go and check that out
but generally people take backhands way more than they should so if you're one of these people
then try and get in the habit of taking it round the head. Our final and best tip we have for you
is to really keep your legs bent all the time in your movement and use this non-racket leg as
a common mistake we see is people just using their dominant racket leg to push off and not using this
leg. This is going to slow you down when moving to anywhere on the court and it's still something
we have to remind ourselves every day in training. Learning these movements can honestly change
your game you just got to get it ingrained into your game so you can repeat it again
and again under pressure in a match and for some you might just need more practice to get rid of
any bad habits. And remember if you've not mastered the split step yet then watch this video here
and here's another video that YouTube recommends just for you! And if you have enjoyed today's video
please give it a like, smash the subscribe button if you haven't already, and turn the notification
bell on so you don't miss out on any future videos from us and we'll see you on another video!