In this video we're going to tell you how to read the game in badminton
so that you know where the shuttle is going before your opponent has even hit their shot!
It's going to help you to be early to the shuttle and ultimately win more points so let's get to it.
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. So the most
important thing you need to do when reading the game is to look at your opponents and
more specifically look out for a couple of really important things which greg is now going to expand on.
Yeah so firstly you need to look at their position on the court as in are they in a good
position and likely to take the shuttle early or maybe in a not so good position and likely
to take the shuttle late? But then from this you need to look at each individual player's technique
and work out what they are or maybe aren't capable of doing. This comes down to smaller details such
as what grip they're in, where the racket is and maybe where it's facing, and also what phase of
rotation they're in. For example as you can see here, I've fully extended my arm too early and I'm
in my final stage of rotation so it's very obvious that I can't generate any power on the shot,
and therefore it's going to be a drop shot. And this means Jenny can step forward and
anticipate this shot. Another similar example we see a lot is on return of serves or at the net
where people have a completely straight arm and show their net shot too early, making it easy
for their opponent. You'll also find that lots of people like to repeat the same shots from certain
positions time and time again and we see this so much, and this is a big part of reading the
game - constantly learning from what's happening in the match. So you're probably asking "well that's
great but how do I actually learn this and get better at recognising these situations?" Well a
lot of it comes down to experience and seeing these things happen, but you can definitely train
yourself to look for them. Here's three simple stages of progression that you can do: Number 1 -
watch badminton. If you're at your club night and you're not playing, then watch the matches and look
out for these tells. Or you can watch matches on YouTube! But when you're watching, make sure you're
watching with an analytical mindset and not just watching to enjoy watching. Watching badminton at
any level can really help you to understand the game more which will help you in your own game.
Secondly do some routines where you have to recognize certain scenarios and adapt accordingly.
For example you can do a rally where you hit back to the same corner and focus on recognizing how
good your shot is and what position the feed is in and what shot they're likely to play from this
position. You can therefore anticipate what shot they play and hopefully get to the shuttle earlier
You can also do this in a defensive practice, either 1v1, 2v1, 3v1, or 2v2 maybe even 3v2.
So as soon as you've played your defensive shot you need to assess how good this shot is and then
adjust accordingly. So if it's a good shot where your opponents are taking it below the height
of the net, you need to edge forward a little bit and get your racket up as they physically
can't play the shot down. This is something so many people fail to do and one of our Virtual
Coaching customers Raff, has kindly let us use this clip as an example. So here you can see he
plays a good defensive shot and his opponents are taking the shuttle late, but he just stands there!
He does edge forwards a little bit with his body but his racket is down by his ankles
and then when his opponents hit this weak reply he isn't in a position to capitalize
as he spends most of the preparation time lifting his racket up from his ankles. And as you can see
he unfortunately ended up making a mistake from this shot as a result. And of course if you hit
the shot upwards so that your opponent is taking the shuttle above the height of the net then you
need to adjust your racket so it's a bit lower in your defensive position. And now you know what
to look for you, finally need to put these skills to the test in a match! You won't get it right 100%
of the time, so don't be discouraged. The more you practice the better you'll get. In general we see
so many people just wait until their opponent has hit the shuttle to make any sort of move
so train yourself to make instant movements as soon as you've seen your opponent's preparation
and what shot they're likely to play. That really is the key to reading the game. Well hopefully
you've enjoyed this video if you have please give it a like, smash the subscribe button if
you haven't already, and we'll see you on another video - maybe one of the ones we're showing now!