Learning to move across the court in a smooth manner is very important as it improves your game and helps you avoid any knee or ankle damage. This is where footwork becomes so crucial in badminton. This blog post takes you through the dos and don’ts to keep in mind while moving on the court.

Split Step

The most important part of your footwork is the split step. This is the small jump that you do in anticipation, just before the opponent hits the shuttle to your court. A split step is done by slightly jumping and widening your base/stance – that is the gap between your feet. It can be side to side, racquet foot forward or non-racquet foot forward.

Racquet foot in front is preferred for strokes where the shuttle is coming on the forehand side in the front court area or the rear court area. The non-racquet foot in front split step is preferred when the shuttle is coming on the backhand side in the front court area or rear court area. If the shuttle is coming towards the sides, then you need to do a side split to prepare for it.

Chasse Step

The chasse step in badminton is a variation of the split step, where you jump towards the forehand side with the racquet foot leading and the non-racquet foot following. It is important to keep your forward leg in line with the shuttle you’re hitting. Not following this can result in injuring your knee because of the momentum during the game. Another thing to keep in mind is to try and keep your racquet extended first before moving to reach the shuttle.

For the strokes which are going to be played behind, perform a directional foot step, followed by a scissor jump, before returning to the previous position. Split steps are very useful to quickly reach the shuttle. So, practise them well to improve your footwork in badminton. Keep reading to learn all about the singles high service return in the next post.