Benecia Rodrigues
USP14 Individual Sport
Task 1 Know the skills, techniques and tactics required in individual sports
An individual sport is when participants compete as individuals in a particular sporting activity.
However, in individual sport, team competition occurs for example relay race. For this coursework I
will be focusing on Badminton for my individual sporting activity. In this part of the task, I will be
giving a description of the skills, techniques and tactics required for Badminton. Then I will be
explaining the effective and ineffective use of this skills, techniques and tactics in real life
performance; I will also support it with examples. Furthermore, I will be completing a diary which
identifies the skills, techniques and tactics I have learned during a certain period of time. This also
indicates my performance level and my strengths, weakness and areas of improvement.
Task 1 Know the skills, techniques and tactics required in individual sports
You must produce a logbook or diary that describes the skills, techniques and tactics used in your
individual sports. The logbook or diary must also include the effective and ineffective use of the
skills, tactics and techniques in each session.
P1 Describe skills, techniques and tactics required in individual sports
M1 Explain the effective and ineffective use of skills, techniques and tactics in real life
performances
Skills
Skills are learned abilities that athletes acquire through training and practice. Skills is
defined as the ability to perform at a high standard effectively and efficiently.
The ready stance
Always having the right stance would be beneficial for the players as it minimises the
movement the individual need to make in order to hit a shot. The ready stance is performed
by positioning tour non-racquet leg a step forward and about shoulder width away from the
racquet leg. Both the knees are slightly bend with your weight balanced on each leg. Then
slightly bend forward from the hip keeping your back straight and lift your racquet hand
slightly in front of you, above your shoulder and the head of the racquet to be right above
your forehand. Raise your non racquet arm to help improve your balance.
Forehand and backhand grip
Having the correct grip is crucial in helping players to have better control over their shots
and protect themselves from all possible injury from applying maximal pressure on the
wrist. The simplest way to grip your badminton racket is by imitating a handshake. Your
thumb should press against the handle while the rest of your hand and four fingers should
be wrapped around the racket. The player should not grip too tightly because as they will
require to retain flexibility in their wrist. It is recommended that the individual should wrap
around the grip in order to make it more complete and less slippery allowing better balance
and movement. The grip applies to both forehand and backhand grips as it is used for both
forehand and backhand shots. This variation is performed for the forehand grip, it’s better
to fold your thumb a bit and let your index finger control the racket on the stroke, while for
the backhand grip the thumb pressing against the racket will control the stoke. Having a
loose grip and being a able to quickly switch between grips is an advanced skills that allows
players to shift from forehand to backhand easily.
,Benecia Rodrigues
Footwork
Footwork is a basic and effective badminton skills. Having the correct footwork makes the
game so much easier as it allows you to more movement and covers areas of the ground
while using less time and energy. Lateral steps are the best way to move around Badminton
court as it allows you to cover a lot of ground and change direction faster while putting less
strain on your knees. By practicing the right footwork, you’ll feel that it is easier to recover
and hit shuttles. Some basic drills to improve your lateral movement and can be very
effective in helping train yourself to move around the court better.
Strokes
There are four basic strokes, overhead forehand, overhead backhand, underarm forehand
and underarm backhand. By knowing how apply this stokes an individual can create good
Badminton stroke habits, which they can use in the future for more advanced shots like
drop, smashes and drives.
Overhead forehand is the most common stroke as it is comfortable to use especially for
strong strokes. In order to perform, the individuals must make sure to have a forehand grip,
they can do this by lifting their racket arm up with the racket slightly above their head and
tilt their body to the side of their racket arm with their racket arm behind them. Next their
should widen their chest and use their non-racket hand to point at the shuttlecock to aim.
Then they should straighten their racket arm then swing it towards the shuttle in a
downward motion while slightly rotating their waist towards the front. And finally the
should swing the racket unit it’s pointing slightly downwards.
Overhand backhand is slightly more difficult as you’ll have to face your body backward to
use this skills effectively. This is a slightly advanced shot that is hard to master at first
however practicing and performing this skills will set a good foundation to how you play
Badminton. To start, the individual must turn their body to the back in the direction of non-
racket arm, with their racket arm raised in front of them and pointing towards the back.
Then they should keep their racket arm close to their body and make sure then elbow is
pointing down. As the shuttle approaches above their head level, they should slightly tilt
their arm downwards to gain momentum. Then swing up and flick the wrist upwards until
the racket is pointing up and their arm is straightened out. Remember to immediately go
back your ready stance once you’ve hit the shot.
The underarm forehand allows you to hit low shots with a lot of strength. To do this the
individual to begin with a ready stance, lungs forward with their racket leg and keep their
racket arm slightly bent with the top of the racket’s head slightly below their shoulder level.
Then they should straighten their arm out to make the racket tilt backwards then flick their
wrist followed by their arm to swing forward when hitting the shuttle. Then finally they
should bend their body forward slightly to keep their balance.
The underarm backhand is easy to perform. First the individual should be lunging towards
their backhand area, then bend their racket arm downwards with the racket handle parallel
to the floor and the racket head parallel to their body. Finally they should flick their wrist
upwards followed by their arm until its extended straight and aligned with their shoulder.
, Benecia Rodrigues
Underarm Backhand Server
The underarm backhand serve is the most basic badminton serve as it gives you an easier
control in terms of how strong you’ll hit the shuttle and where you will make the shuttle go
in terms of height or placement on the court. By learning how to utilise this serve, you can
already start to strategise where you place your serve depending on your opponent. To
start, the individual should be in a ready stance with their backhand leg slightly forward with
both feet pointing forward. Then they should lift the racket up so it is parallel to the floor,
with the head parallel to the net and aligned with their shoulder. Using their non-racket
hand, they should hold the shuttle cock by the feather about 5-6 inches in front of the
centre of the racket’s face. Then they should bend the wrist of their racket hand downward
to generate momentum and flick upwards with varying strength depending on how far or
how high they want the shuttle cock to travel. Their goal is to play around with strong hit on
the shuttle and high follow through. They should try to aim for different spots in the court
with this serve and immediately have the upper hand against your opponents.
Tactics
Tactics are action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end. Tactics are the skills
required in any game that allows a player or team to effectively use their skills and talent to
the best possible advantage. Consists of tactical actions as well as other measures which are
adopted before or during the competition for successful participation.
Single strategy: movement pressure
In singles the basic strategy is to apply maximum movement pressure to your opponent.
This means that you force to cover distance rapidly and change directions. By forcing your
opponent to move quickly around the court, you are able to create a situation where the
opponent will not be able to reach to the shuttlecock to strike back in time or may not be
able to play effective shots. This would be an advantage to you as playing a weak shot would
give you the choice between pushing your opponent even farther out of position. Some of
the simple example of creating movement pressure is you play a clear which will force your
opponent to move into the rear court, your opponent plays a drop shot and you play a net
shot, forcing your opponent to move into the forecourt. By this simple sequence of shots ,
you force your opponent to move into the rear court and then back to the forecourt. This
puts some pressure on your opponent’s movement ability.
The central base position
After you play a shot your should recover towards a central base position. This helps you to
cover the whole court. When playing singles, you need to be able to cover all parts of the
court. This means you must stand in a roughly central base position. A competent opponent
will usually be able to place the shuttlecock in any part of the court. If you are too far away
from the centre, then you create a huge gap. Your opponent will place the shuttlecock into
that gap, and you won’t be able to reach it.
Hitting to the corners
We know that the basic singles strategy is to apply maximum movement pressure to your
opponent. The logical way to achieve this is to aim for the corners. Hitting towards the
corners makes your opponent cover the most distance, and moves them away from their
central base. By playing shots to the corners, you maximise the distance your opponent
