By Justin Ma, 7x US Junior National Badminton Champion.
Last updated May 4, 2022
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4 min read
No matter where you’re at in your badminton journey, you might’ve caught on to just how vital footwork is for success. Some pros might even say that it’s the single most important skill you can learn to boost your game.
Sometimes, good badminton footwork can even be the difference between winning and losing a rally.
Below, you’ll find a complete guide on how to improve badminton footwork, including basic concepts to understand and the best drills to help you boost your abilities.
When it comes to improving your badminton footwork, a strong foundation is what sets you up for success.
Here are the foundational concepts to understand for skillful footwork:
There are dozens of step variations in badminton, and they often use combinations of jumps, shuffles, and lunges. Learning all of them can take some time, so it’s helpful to get the basics down first.
Here are four basic footwork steps to get familiar with:
The base position is the point from which you can most easily reach your opponents’ shots — no matter which direction they send them flying.
For singles, the base position will be the center of the court. For doubles, it will be the centermost point of the side that you’re covering.
The ready stance is the position that allows you to jump into action quickly and accurately. If you aren’t confident in your ready stance or haven’t had a lot of time to practice, be sure to check out this guide.
Forward and backward movement will involve combinations of split steps, shuffling, lunging, and recovering to and from either side of your front and backcourt.
Side-to-side movement is how you’ll defend the regions of the court directly to your left and right.
The footwork technique you’ll use in side-to-side movement is similar to what you’d use while moving in other directions. But the difference is that you’ll need to take fewer steps when defending your sides.
Check out this video for an excellent demonstration of side-to-side footwork.
Mastering your front-to-back and back-to-front footwork means you’ll be able to reach almost any surprise shot that your opponent throws at you.
For example, your opponent might send the shuttle flying to your backcourt and immediately follow up with a drop shot to your frontcourt. This type of footwork will help you navigate the court fast enough to reach each shot.
Here’s a detailed video to help you learn step-by-step how your footwork should look when you’re traveling in different directions on the court.
Once you understand the basics, it comes time to hone your skills. Figuring out how to improve your badminton footwork means you’ll need a combination of technique, agility, coordination, strength, and precision. And the best way to refine these skills is to practice.
Below are some badminton footwork drills and strategies to help you do just that:
As you now know, solid basic badminton footwork is the foundation for becoming dangerous on the court.
Here are four different footwork drills to help you improve your basic skills:
Speed and agility are essential parts of badminton footwork. Even if you have perfect footwork in form, you’ll still need to bring it to life with speed.
Fortunately, tons of drills and exercises can help you improve your speed, and many of them are easy to do at home.
Here are 11 effective drills to help you maximize your agility on the court:
In a fast-paced rally, you’ll need to decide exactly where your legs should take you as soon as your opponent hits their shot — and this means you’ll need impeccable reaction speed.
Shadow badminton footwork drills are hands-down one of the best ways to improve your reaction time. But you’ll need a partner to get started.
In shadow drills, your partner will send you running in unpredictable directions by pointing their racket. The variability of these drills will train your mind, muscle memory, and reaction time for better footwork.
Here’s a helpful video so you can see what a shadow footwork drill looks like in action:
For stable movement in a fast-paced game, you’ll need to have excellent core strength and balance. The good news is that it’s fairly simple to improve your balance by doing exercises like the ones found in this guide.
Something else you might find useful for balance is taking wide steps and keeping your center of gravity low. Being mindful of your stance will ensure your balance doesn’t get thrown off too easily (but remember not to stand too low, or it could worsen your stability.)
In theory, you can use any badminton footwork drill to improve your strength. All you’d have to do is push yourself for an extra-long time.
But if you want to focus on power and endurance, strength-specific drills are the way to go.
Here’s a strength-focused badminton footwork drill that uses resistance training to help you maximize your leg strength and power:
Mastering footwork in badminton can take a long time. But with practice, you’ll start to see incredible improvements. It’s best to start with the footwork basics, focusing on the main steps and movements.
Beyond that, you can use specific drills and exercises to improve agility, strength, and balance. By using all of these tips, you’ll become a force to be reckoned with on the court.
