By Justin Ma, 7x US Junior National Badminton Champion.
Last updated February 2, 2022
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3 min read
Hard work is a trait that I feel is becoming less and less common. I see more and more players not pushing themselves to their limit or giving themselves excuses more and more often, but still expect to win tournaments or perform well. In this post, we will explore why it’s so important to work your hardest during training and a few tips to keep pushing yourself to your limit!
This one should go without saying. If you give your all during each of your training sessions, there is no doubt that you will improve faster. If you run with all your speed each time, you will find yourself with a stronger endurance and a faster speed the next week you come and do the same thing.
When you work harder on the court and push yourself to get every bird, each week that you come back to training you may find it easier to do the same footwork or shots that you did previously.
Regardless of if you put your 100% into training or not, you will feel tired — of course, that’s why you are at training. If you are already going to leave the gym feeling tired, why not push yourself just a bit more?
The feeling from pushing yourself to your limits and succeeding during a training is something you can’t find anywhere. At the same time, when you go to tournaments or competitions, it will come more natural to push yourself to your limits to play your own game! If you aren’t used to this in training, it’s going to be much harder to push yourself when it really matters.
Even if you aren’t looking to become the best player in the world, it’s still extremely important to work your hardest when you are training (or really, doing anything at all).
When you work hard, you learn more. You start to see how much your body can take in a given day, a given week, or a given month. You begin to learn when your mind starts to tell you to stop versus when your body actually needs to stop. You find ways to motivate yourself to keep on pushing even when everyone else has already given up.
All of these are extremely useful skills that won’t only help you on the court, but off of it as well.
For many of us, a goal that’s reachable will help us keep on going during the hardest of trainings. If there is an upcoming competition, thinking about winning that or pushing yourself to give yourself a chance to win will help a lot. These achievable goals give us a reason to keep on getting up when your body hurts the most.
For all of us, there is going to be a time that we fail. This could be a small failure such as making a mistake that you did not want to make, or a bigger failure like losing to someone you’ve never lost to before.
We can’t accept that this is normal. We need to learn from these times, and use it as fuel to keep on pushing. If we accept failure, it will just be that much easier to begin giving up instead of working hard for the next opportunity.
Finally, just don’t waste your time! Understand that you are putting time (and money!) into your training sessions. You are already making an active choice to go to the gym and work on your badminton skills. If you have chosen this path, make the most of it. Remember what you are already sacrificing by going to the gym and make sure you put your 100% into the training instead.
Hard work does not come easy, but it is extremely important if you want to become a better player. If you work hard, I have no doubt that you will one day achieve your goals. Be patient and keep on pushing!
If you are looking for more advice to improve your badminton game, make sure you stop by our YouTube channel!
