Sharing badminton knowledge

Challenges, Coach Education, Coach Questions, Courtside Conversations

This is a thought challenge for coaches

What subjects would you be confident to talk about

What subjects would you like to hear about from others

‘Teaching’ others often gives you a different perspective

(teaching/talking is different from listening)

Send the challenge to your friends

This is a group challenge with the aim of starting conversations with you and your friends.

How far you take the challenge is your choice. It may end with a chat at the side of the court, in a coffee shop, or after a travel journey.

It can also be used within different forms of coach education: more about that later in this post.

The challenge

Imagine that you are to talk about a subject you feel passionate about.

You will select a topic from a prepared list. I created one below that I used with my friends, but I recommend you create your own.

In my challenge, I asked my friends to imagine that they would be talking to a group of 4 – 6 coaches, some of whom they already know, some they don’t.

They would have 15 mins to talk uninterrupted in detail about the topic, using prepared handouts or notes if they wish.

Then there will be a 10 min discussion prompted by questions from the other coaches.

This can be on or off court.

The invitation to speak then moves to the next person, and if there is time, this continues until everyone has spoken and taken questions.

Why take part in the challenge

The aim is for you to reflect on your current passions and knowledge so that others can benefit from your perspective. Maybe they will be stimulated by your thoughts to explore and reflect some more for themselves.

Within your 15 mins, you can ask questions to stimulate the thoughts of those listening.

However, the session isn’t interactive. That happens in the next section of 10 mins Q&A.

If you want, you can prepare notes for the coaches of no more than one side or less of A4 page

The preparation tasks

Task 1

Select 3 subjects from the list.

Rank them in order of preference for your motivation to talk about each.

Depending on what you intend to do next, either send the list to each other or begin to create thoughts for your 15 min teach-back to your friends.

In my challenge, we decided just to create a list of all the subjects that inspired us. Our list is at the end of this post for your interest.

Task 2

As previously, select 3 subjects from the list.

However, this time your motivation is to select subjects that you want to hear others talk about.

When selecting the subjects, hopefully you will be preparing questions based on thoughts and opinions you already have or some questions on aspects you want to learn more about

Now is your opportunity to explore new topics..

Talk with your coaching friend

Explain to them your concerns about what you see and feel.

Keep it as factual as you can.

Maybe ask them to stand next to you whilst you both watch the players on court.

Discuss :

– Is it true that players need to have their racket up?

– Do they feel the same as you?

– Where did you (and maybe them) both receive this advice?

Is it too simplistic to say “Keep your racket Up!”

What do you see World class players doing?

Watch some matches

Early – prepare your racquet from the ready stance.
Early preparation of the racquet means, ideally, getting into the preparatory hitting
position (having pretensed wide in the ready stance!) for the stroke intended at the start
of the movement towards the shuttle. This is vital when ‘under-pressure’, especially
reaching difficult shots low in front, or wide of the body. It is early racquet preparation,
more than anything else, which gives top players the appearance of having so much
time

Doubles

I presume you expect the front (net) player to have their racket up : but is that always as true as you expected?

Then, in the rallies, do the racket positions vary, again does it have any connection to what’s happening in the rally?

Did you agree with the information or stick to your own belifs

It must help to have your racket up ?

Yes, however, consider what you are preparing for and how much time you have

Instead of asking players to “have the racket up”, consider encouraging them to prepare for something that is likely.

Therefore at times, they will prepare with the racket low and down around the waist/knee level, as they expect it will be hit downwards.

At other times, the racket will be around chest level, expecting a flat drive or push.

And, of course, at other times (especially at the net), the racket will be around head level, looking for a flat or upward stroke by the opponent (s).

This recommendation applies equally to both singles and doubles.

Do you agree with this different viewpoint?

It’s the situation and anticipation that dictates where a player prepares their racket: not the coach’s instruction of “Racket UP!”