Badminton Drills for Beginners

As Bollywood star Aamir Khan, an avid badminton player, says, "Badminton is like ballet dancing. It requires a lot of control, strength, mind play and measured movement." Stamina and speed are essential to performing well in badminton, though accuracy of shots taken is also important for high scoring. If you are new to the sport, practice a few easy drills until you are ready to try practice games.

Instruct a player to step out onto the badminton court. Serve the shuttlecock to the player and direct her to move around the court as if she were playing a professional badminton player. Instruct the player so she covers the front court, back court and mid court while using overhand and underhand moves to hit the shuttle back over the net. This exercise not only helps a player's overall fitness level, but gets the player used to moving around the court and how to best move while on the court.

Place baskets or buckets that are at least 1 foot in diameter around one side of the badminton court. Have the player stand on the other side of the court and see how many shuttlecocks she can hit into each basket. Have the player move closer as well as farther away from assorted baskets, and move the baskets to different positions if you want to make the drill more challenging. This drill improves players' ability to hit the shuttle in desired locations more accurately, though you can also use the drill to work on long end shots and short drop shots.

Lay four shuttlecocks in the four corners of the court--use one shuttle per corner. Instruct the player to run as quickly as she can to each of the corners to set the shuttlecocks in upright positions. Time the drill if desired to look for improvements in speed. This drill helps a player work on speed as well as balance.

Group players into pairs and have them face their partners on either side of the badminton net. Play this drill at the court's service line. Tell one of the players from each pair to lie down on the court while the other player serves the shuttlecock. The player that is lying down must jump up as quickly as possible and serve the shuttlecock back across the net using the correct form, whether it be backhand, forehand, volley or overhead smash. The player that served the shuttlecock must lie down on the court until the shuttle is served back to her.