Badminton World Champion, Zhao Jianhua, Discusses His Views on Players Who are Too Eager to Improve Their Backhand Technique

In this second to the last episode of the Complete Badminton Training video series, Coaches Zhao Jianhua and Xiao Jie team up to discuss a question that has come up the most throughout this series, which is how to improve the backhand skill.

Coach Zhao Jianhua notes that many coaches encourage players to not play the backhand shot, because it is an inherently dangerous shot. If possible, always use a overhead forehand shot and use the backhand only when under pressure.

Amateur players are always eager to ask how to clear to the back line with backhand or how to perform a backhand smash. Coach Zhao Jianhua thinks that they are too rushed. For every sport and skill there is a natural progression. Beginners should not be worrying about how to use the backhand to get the shuttle to the backcourt. Instead, new players should work on getting the correct form for the badminton backhand stroke before working on power. Good form will ensure that while they may not get very much power, at least they will not expend a great deal of energy. Also, they can work on backhand drops which are very effective.

For training, players can practice the badminton backhand technique with a racket but without hitting a shuttle. Then, they can practice hitting an easily fed shuttle to get a feel for where the racket should contact the shuttle. The next step of this progression would be to move back and forth between frontcourt and backcourt, hitting only backhands. This would help with footwork as well as the stroke.This will lead to the player being able to cover the entire court and be comfortable with the backhand.