Badminton is one of the most famous indoor sports. You must have watched badminton in the Olympics, and yes, the game is equally fast. One thing is sure about this sport is that players need a terrible amount of fitness and stamina. However, that doesn’t mean a rookie can not play this sport for fun. Then experience will teach them the rest.
But what are the basic skills in badminton? In this article, we will be discussing the necessary skills that a beginner badminton player needs.
The 7 Basic Skills In Badminton You Must Know About:
Some people will say these skills are needed, and others say those skills are required. Here we will talk about a couple of things that are needed most, from your stance to position everything.
1. Grip
Sometimes you may wonder how a player plays a backhand shot so easily and effortlessly. Holding a bat is easy, but there is a proper way to hold a bat. Otherwise, you can not control shots, give your opponent a proper smash back, or avoid any wrist injury. If your grip is proper and right, you can easily play both forehand and backhand strokes.
Hold your bat as you are handshaking with it. Place your thumb in a comfortable position. Also, do not tighten your grip. Instead, handshake as comfortably as you can. A friendly grip will allow you to lead your wrist to do anything. And most importantly, it will give you flexibility, and you can avoid an injury.
- When you will play a forehand stroke, push your index finger a little forward.
- When you will play a backhand stroke, push your thumb a little forward.
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2. Stance
The game’s strategies are completely different in singles and doubles. But the most important thing as a badminton player is to take the right stance. You may have seen that players don’t run in a badminton match. Rather they take one or two steps, and after every stroke, they come back to their original stance.
A correct and stable stance will give you easy movements. So your opponent will not have a clear place to drop the shuttle. Also, your stance depends on whether you are a right-handed or a left-handed player, your opponent’s strategy and type of play, and how you are going to pursue your game like an offense or defense.
- Attacking Stance
When your opponent forces you to play an overhead forehand stroke in the third court, then you must face the sidelines, legs and shoulders width apart, and keep your racket leg behind. Now, you need to raise both of your arms to attack. This stance will allow you to generate power and attack the shuttle downward.
- Defensive Stance
Suppose you have given your opponent a free shot and the chance to play the shuttle freely. To be in a defensive stance or defend the smash, you need to face the body towards the net and put your racket at the waist height. And then relax your non racket arm in a comfortable position.
- Net Stance
This stance is required when your opponent can play a net shot. You need to place your racket leg forward and the other leg backward. And then keep your racket slightly above the waist and raise your other arm.
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3. Footwork
Grip and stance are the basic skills in badminton. But what are the skills involved in playing the game? The footwork will give you an upper hand in a badminton game when your opponent is equally fit and plays well. A badminton game consists of organized and effective movement on the court. Most coaches and players give priority to footwork more than any other thing.
You may need to play a shot in the net, the next shot in the third court, and then the third shot again in the net. There is no proper explanation of how you can be good at footwork. But I can give you some tips. But before that, you need to be fit, fast, and agile to be a good badminton player. Here are some tips.
- After every shot, go to your basic stance and get ready for any stroke.
- Move only 2 or a maximum of three steps frontward or backyard.
- Move only 1 step sideward.
4. Serve
Suppose you are good at footwork, playing any kind of shot, or you know how to use every stance, but your service is not good enough. Then you are on the losing side in the first place. So, you have to practice how to do a good service.
Let me give you an example. You are servicing, and that is a bad one. Then your opponent has the advantage in the first shot. And you need to survive for a couple of shots before you fail to stroke the shuttle to your opponent’s court.
There are two types of service. A high serve is a service where the player places the shuttle in the far back end of the opponent’s court. The advantage of this serve is that the opponent can not smash back, and you will get time.
The other service is called a low serve. Here the player aims to put the shuttle just above the net and in the front corner. If the execution is poor, then there is a high chance that you will get a smash. It is also a drop shot badminton.
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5. Smash
If you want to be a good badminton player, then you must know how to smash. If your opponent is a good agile player, then you have to face a lot of difficulties while playing. Smashing is a shot where a player tries to play the shuttle powerfully to the opponent’s court. Players try to stroke the shuttle to the opponent’s body or too far from the opponent.
You can see the maximum time players get the point with a smash. There are mainly three types of smashing in a badminton game.
- Forehand Smash
- Backhand Smash
- Jumping Smash
6. Drop Shot:
Amongst the basic skills in Badminton, you need to know about; perhaps the most technical skill is knowing the drop shot. These are delicate shots that can actually help you to win several points – simply put, they will help you to aim at scoring under the garb of deception.
Played with both forehand and backhand, drop shots are used for moving your opponent simply to the frontcourt. In turn, you will have space on both the backcourt and midcourt to exploit. Moreover, there are both fast and slow drop shots – you can play them depending on the situation.
Knowing how to play drop shots is one of the primary badminton skills – if you can develop this skill properly, you can easily become an expert in the game.
7. Clear Or Lob:
The lob or clear shot in Badminton can be best described as one of those shots that comes with a simple inverted ‘U’ trajectory. Primarily played boldly from the frontcourt, the shot aims to ‘lob’ or ‘lift’ the shuttle right over your opponent.
The idea here is to land the shuttle close to the court’s baseline at such an angle that it will be difficult to clear the shot. This shot is very similar to a drop shot in terms of challenging your opponent with an absolutely sudden motion, only in this case, the motion has to be backward.
Plus, the shot can be played by both forehand and backhand. Generally, this shot helps to create space both in the middle and frontcourt, thereby opening several opportunities. This is perhaps one of those basic skills in Badminton that you can learn with a little bit of practice.
Final Words
If you ask me to define the basic skills in badminton, then here are all the things that you should know. It is impossible for someone to master every skill in one day. But with time and experience, you will get to learn and execute every possible skill in a match.
If you find this article interesting, then feel free to ask in the comment section below.
Thank You.
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