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What you do with all the information
There is so much available
How do you decide what will work for you and your players?
As coaches gain experience, they will acquire lots of information
How it’s filtered is the difference between it being just interesting and highly effective
This post examines where you can find information, the filters you can apply, and crucially how to determine if it will be effective for you and your players.
The focus will be specifically on working with young players who are new to the badminton overhead forehand.
Are you searching for that magic coaching cue or practice that will make the difference between a great overhead throw or a pan-handle push?
Does it exist? If you have some advice, please let me know
I aim to give you ideas to help make learning a little easier and to create more smiles than struggles in your coaching sessions. I’ve also listed some of the useful and strange information that I’ve read over the years.
It’s up to you to decide if you agree or want to start shouting at the ideas suggested 🙂
What’s the best advice that you’ve ever been given to help novice players with overheads?
The conversation that started this mini-series
If you haven’t read the introductory post, click on the image to read more.
It outlines the challenges coaches face and some of the descion they are faced with.
There is also an insight into what happened when I spoke with 2 other coaches about these challenges and how at times, we disagreed!
I’ve outlined some of the thoughts we had during our conversation.
What are the best sources
There is so much available
Everyone I’ve met is able to give you advice or ‘great’ practice to try. Information that they believe is essential for developing an overhead forehand. I collect it all!
Your biggest challenge may not be to find information, but to find information that is useful to you and your players.
Plus, you need a system (a filter) or critical friends against which to test your thoughts.
I’d recommend that you use a variety of resources. Here are some of my favourite sources; if you know of others, then please let me know.
Badminton Youtube channels
My favourite YouTubers include the people at Badminton Insight, TheBadmintonFamily and TobiasWadenka.
They all certainly provide plenty of great advice, so study them hard, and you will find value in their content. You will be happy that you’ve found them; I certainly was 
– Badminton Family : Badminton clear biomechanics (5 easy tips)
BWF Shuttletime
This is one of the best resources for coaches and teachers of beginner players.
Easy to watch, short length videos with plenty of cues to follow.
Your Coaching friends (the critical ones)
Your friends may be a great source of information.
However, it all depends on how committed and how open you are to building your network of coaching contacts.
I know through experience that it’s challenging in all sorts of ways.
When was the last time you spoke with or explored ideas on court with another coach. Both of you swapping ideas or discussing something that intrigued you both?
In order to discover something different and hopefully useful you will have to talk with other others.
Start with these topics
What do you both see when beginners start trying to play overheads?
What elements of technique do you see that you like or don’t like?
Do you both prefer giving young players directions (verbal information) or constraints (tasks that may shape the actions)
Or, you believe that players should not be guided and left to ‘discover’ their own techniques for overhead hitting styles? A more ‘stand-off’ style of coaching?
I recommend that you identify 2-3 critical friends with a wide range of experiences.
Is that possible where you live?
Is having information enough?
I have a bag full of ‘magic bullets’ but only some work some of the time 🙂
This is where I begin to feel uncertain. It’s certainly possible to amass information; the ideas above are just a small amount of what’s available. Plus, everyone has an opinion.
But is information enough?
Maybe deciding what to do with it is even more important
Just repeating what others have done or that you’ve seen is no guarantee of success or effective coaching. Of course, it’s easy to do, I guess we’ve all done it.
Discovering a new video then starting to copy and repeat it in your next coaching session.
However, all the information you see can’t be correct, can it?
Certainly, some will be generic and apply in lots of situations. Other advice will be very specific and only apply to a certain moment in development or at a specific situation on the court.
This is your problem: knowing When & Why to apply to what you’ve just found or been told.
Everything that you see, hear or are told can’t all be that magic bullet of a practice, coaching cue or instruction.
I have a bag full of these supposed ‘magic bullets’ and only some work some of the time
You may even experiment and create ‘new’ ways of coaching the overhead forehand. However, don’t become part of your own problem or that of others.
How do you filter the information you have,
it’s a critical component to increasing your knowledge
Try these filters
Often it’s difficult to decide what information is effective and worth using
Some information you find will be effective,
some occasionally useful
and plenty that comes under the heading of ‘interesting but not effective’.
It’s highly unlikely that there is one magic instruction or practice – but assess each and try them out with a sceptical mindset.
Your task is to find a set of principles that will guide you in the introduction and early development of the badminton overhead.
Ttry things out on court and see what results appear, or don’t.
Use these thoughts to assess what information is best for you
- Identify the core aspects to be established in all overheads for novice players (try to do this right now; write a list!) and then compare them to the information you’ve found. Are there similarities or differences?
- Does the information you've found build on previous practice, or give you hints at what needs to be partly established with the player before introducing the advice?
- How achievable is the practice for your players right now? It needs to be at least 60% achievable – challenging but not impossible.
- Can you see the results of the advice in good players of a similar (playing and training) age that were novice players say only 2 years ago? Certainly not World-class players, just better than the beginner in front of you.
- Are the cues, tips and advice generally focusing on external elements or tasks?
Focus on starting and ending positions, whole body motions
but not on those elements that happen in the middle of the power stroke
Useful and strange information – which do you agree with?
I don’t agree with all of them
Here are some examples of the information I’ve heard over the years that is intended to help beginner (novice) players develop a badminton overhead.
It’s up to you to work out if they fall into the useful (I’ll try that), interesting (I’ll think more about that), or strange (I certainly won’t be doing or saying that!) categories!
Maybe you have found yourself saying or doing some of these.
If you have, has your opinion changed over the years, and would you still recommend them to your ‘critical friends’ ?
Consider these when specifically working with beginners
I don’t agree with all of them
- Start with below shoulder strokes before doing overheads
- Throw the shuttle onto the player’s racket so they experience striking overhead – initially, the technique isn’t that important
- Stand players under a basketball net and ask them to jump and throw to encourage a fast throw and body rotation
- Reduce all big swings and follow through’s as they won’t help
- Develop the deep forehand style action sometimes using self-feeding and hitting against the wall
- Draw on the player’s hand (1) elbow(2) hand (3) so they can slow motion the hitting action whilst calling out the numbers
- Use a shuttle on a long pole and ask players to jump and hit it
- Throw balls or shuttles over the net or at a wall with near-maximum power
Which of these have you tried?
Which do you continue to use with beginners?
I hope to prickle your thoughts and beliefs
My desire is that you will consider the discussion points and information here; I hope you have time to do that.
The ideas and suggestions listed here are my best advice at this time. It’s up to you to decide what to take, use, and maybe reject.
Please do not assume that every statement or bullet point listed is essential or has an equal weighting. Some are ‘could haves’ and others are essential ‘must haves’
You will acquire lots of information about the badminton overhead forehand as there certainly isn’t a shortage of people stating the technical elements they believe need to be included – me included
Do you agree that there isn’t as much information about when or how to practice with players starting out developing an overhead forehand?
Why don’t you become that’s someone who helps other coaches with the information they need?
Write a post, I will publish it for you
Challenge No.4
Send me a question
I’m always grateful if you have read this far.
If there is anything that you have read that has helped or that you disagree with, then please send me an email.
I promise to read all your comments
It would be great to hear from you contact@badmintonandy.com
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