FOOTWORK EDUCATION

4 november 2019 - Lấp Vò District, Vietnam

Why so many people got it wrong in footwork training

Footwork is the key to good badminton, without this solid foundation the whole building will come down, I even dare to say that 95% of all injuries come from wrong footwork and over compensation due to it. I’m very very very sure that we still have no clue of what we are doing in for badminton when it comes to training footwork. I see players go to the gym and do heavy workouts for their legs, and I can see injuries on court in the making. 

Players have to trust the coaches they are working with but why is there no quality test for this coaches, in many countries you can just start and call yourself coach. There are no tests to prove that coaches know what they are talking about and they can go out and tell other coaches and players the things they know nothing about. Already many years ago I have shown that all the “top” coaches did not follow the BNL rules about maintaining the coach license and following their own rules all these coaches are not qualified to give training. 

The lack of good education and/or discussion at SL4/5 level is one of the reasons why Holland (and many other countries) have been falling behind in the development of footwork. About 25 years ago the Danish Badminton Federation did a coach education and one of the speakers told us coaches that Denmark was without doubt the best country in the World to learn about technique and tactical training but we were far behind compared with Asia about the footwork. After I have been working in Asia on and off for more than 10 years I have been picking up on the footwork and we started

to be specialists about this subject on the DGI Coach education we do every year in our Academy. The basic thing we do in the footwork is the way we come to conclusions about what can be done better in the total game, we analyse from the racket to the feet and we correct from the feet to the racket. 

The only thing we do is let coaches from all over the World see, work and discus about footwork and the influence it has on stroke technique. We are 6 year down the line with our DGI  coach education and we have had coaches from Denmark, Germany, Holland, Italy, Africa, Vietnam and India staying with us from a couple of weeks to a whole year. The time with us has changed the way they are thinking and looking at badminton, one of the coaches told me he was a specialist on the footwork of Lin Dan and after a couple of weeks with us he stated: I have never seen this details in his footwork even after I have been analysing it for so many hours.

The way we look at footwork is new for most of the coaches we have worked with in the past, it turns their view on our sport upside down, but after learning about this way of footwork training everybody wants to implement it in their training and coaching. To do the coach education in Denmark has become increasingly more difficult because of the visa problems coaches from Asia and Africa have getting to Europe and also the costs can be a problem for coaches and players from other parts of the World. We have moved the Coach Education to Asia, it is the same program we do in Denmark but without the problems of the visa and the high costs in Europe. In Feb/ marts 2020 we start with the next Education program, if you would like to join please write to us [email protected]