Return Area Drill
Return Area Drill

Badminton: Return Area Drill

Pat Aitken

How much of the opponent's court are your players actually using when they play? The Return Area Drill will provide a vivid demonstration.

Execution
You'll need a badminton court, two players and four shuttles.

The server makes four high serves to the receiver, who attempts to return them to the four corners of the server's court. After each shot, the server places the shuttle feathers-down on the spot where the return landed.

After the four serves, the returner inspects the location of the shuttles. Instruct the returner to note how far from the out-of-bounds lines the shuttles landed. Indicate that these returns were made under almost ideal conditions— they were balanced and only guarding half the court—so their accuracy will be even worse during a rally.

Make your point even more vivid by measuring the distance between shuttles (i.e. step it off), getting a square foot figure (i.e. 360 square feet), and dividing it by the area of the court. The amount of space still available to the returner (that wasn't used) will be surprisingly high.

Repeat the Drill
Then repeat the drill, leaving the shuttles on the floor: your receiver must attempt to place the returns closer to the out-of-bounds line than before, using the previous shuttles as markers.

References:
1. OBA Singles Strategy 1, Men's and Women's: Drill on Return of Serve, U. Of Waterloo Badminton Club Website (Tips), January, 2000.
2. Bernd-Volker Brahms, Badminton Handbook: Training - Tactics - Competition, Meyer & Meyer Fachverlag und Buchhandel GmbH, 2010.


To download the pdf version of this
article, click here: Download Now



© 2011, Physical Education Update.com, www.peUpdate.com

Bookmark and Share

Printer-Friendly Format