Our Badminton Academy Coaching History
Since 2006, our badminton academy has been dedicated to providing high-quality coaching to our students. Over the years, we have evolved from traditional training methods to a cutting-edge training system that has earned recognition from both parents and players. Today, we continue to strive for excellence in bringing the proper foundation and the best training to our students.
The Startup of ST Badminton Academy Coaching Foundation
In 2006, Coach Eric, a passionate badminton player, met Coach Wilson Tuan, a highly experienced coach with over 15 years of industry experience. Under Coach Wilson’s guidance, Coach Eric gained a solid foundation in coaching, including practical skills such as serving shuttlecocks, sparring, working with multiple shuttles, and differentiating coaching quality. Coach Eric attributes much of his success to Coach Wilson’s mentorship and teaching.
ST Badminton Academy Established
In 2007, ST Badminton Academy was founded on the belief that enabling students to improve quickly is not just a matter of serving shuttlecocks. Our badminton coaches recognized that playing and teaching badminton require different skill sets, and that being a talented player does not necessarily equate to being an effective teacher. Moreover, as every student possesses unique characteristics and playing styles, our coaches strive to tailor their instruction to address each student’s individual weaknesses.
Training Method Development
In 2008, the badminton coaches at ST Badminton Academy recognized the need for new training methods to help their students achieve better results. Through experimentation and analysis, they identified the importance of using the right training method for each student, taking into account their individual weaknesses and playing styles. To ensure the effectiveness of their new methods, the coaches even went so far as to test them on themselves, pushing their muscles to the limit to ensure that their students would benefit from the most useful and effective training possible.
Implement Academy Terms and Conditions
After refining our training methods, we recognized that adherence to our academy’s standards and discipline is crucial to our continued success. Our badminton coaches strictly follow our established rules, such as not using phones on the court while coaching. Similarly, we prioritize taking in students who display a genuine interest in badminton and exhibit good discipline during training.
Given our limited resources in terms of coaching, time, and available training slots, ST Badminton Academy implemented terms and conditions regulations in 2009 to ensure that all parties involved are committed to maximizing the value of our training class.
Implement Academy Training Group Structure
In 2010, we established distinct classes based on students’ age and level on various days and at specific times. Our decision to organize the classes in this manner was informed by our findings that grouping students of disparate levels, ages, and genders in a single session according to parents’ preferred schedules is not an optimal practice.
Such mixing can lead to slower progress and negatively impact every student’s improvement trajectory. Our objective is to provide structured badminton training to our students, ensuring they learn in a conducive and orderly environment.
Implement Academy Training Group Size
Our badminton coaches have determined that the key to rapid student improvement is contingent on class size. We acknowledge that some students require heightened attention, support, and supervision during training and that large class size can impede their progress. To address this issue, in 2011, our badminton academy adjusted the group size for our classes to a maximum of four students, as opposed to six. This change has allowed for greater individualized attention and a more favorable learning environment, which has resulted in improved student outcomes.
Implement Beginners Training Method
The conventional approach to badminton training for novice students has typically involved group instruction by an assistant coach. However, our badminton coach has observed that this methodology can result in the development of poor habits and weak foundations among students. Recognizing the importance of imparting sound fundamentals from the outset to expedite student improvement, our academy has transitioned all beginner-level training to a professional, certified coach-led methodology effective 2012.
Implement Sport Science
Our badminton coaches recognize the value of sports science in providing a scientifically grounded framework for guiding our young athletes toward the best performance on the court. By strengthening the body’s internal structures and developing the neural pathways needed to enhance speed, power, endurance, flexibility, coordination, and more, our coaches aim to equip our students with a well-defined rudder and compass. To achieve this, our badminton academy incorporated sports science principles into our training curriculum in 2013.
Implement of Foundation Training Method
While there exist numerous training methodologies for high-level badminton players in the coaching industry, effective training methods for beginners, particularly children, are few and far between. In response, our academy badminton coaches undertook the task of creating more efficacious training methodologies for novice students, beginning in 2014. By prioritizing the development of a strong foundation in badminton, our students can improve their skills more rapidly and effectively.
Implement Precise Rules of Footwork Foundation
In 2015, our badminton coaches recognized the need to provide our beginner students with precise and rigorous footwork training to help them better understand and master professional badminton footwork. Our coaches understand that footwork is the core foundation of badminton, and an accurate and professional footwork technique is crucial for progress in the sport.
Moreover, we acknowledge that students with improper footwork may experience slower improvement, underscoring the importance of this training. By incorporating precise and strict footwork training, we aim to equip our students with the skills and knowledge they need to learn in badminton.
Implement New Technology
As an academy, we prioritize the rapid progress of our students and strive to provide the most effective coaching methods. To this end, we continually explore and integrate new technologies into our training regimen. In 2016, we introduced a shuttlecock feeding machine for our beginner students and developed a training methodology to leverage its capabilities fully.
The shuttlecock machine has the potential to be a valuable training aid, but proper usage is important. Our coaches closely monitor both the machine and student progress to ensure its optimal function and effectiveness while minimizing the risk of inefficient training.
Implement Training Rules of Upper Body Foundation
At our academy, our coaches emphasize the importance of the upper body foundation in badminton, including the wrist, fingers, thumb, and turning of the body. For this reason, we focus on teaching correct upper body foundation techniques to our beginner students.
Our goal is to optimize the potential of all our students under our guidance and create a lifetime of positive memories for them. By instilling strong fundamentals from the outset, we aim to equip our students with the tools they need to succeed and thrive in the sport of badminton.
Implement Grading and Award System
To ensure our students have clear goals and benchmarks for their badminton training, we have implemented a grading and award system. Our system requires students to pass practical and theoretical exams to progress through the levels of badminton training.
Our coaches recognized that many students lacked specific targets when training, which led us to implement the grading and award system. The system provides our students with a deeper understanding of professional badminton knowledge, both in theory and in practice, as they work towards their goals and achieve new levels of proficiency.
Implement High-Performance Coaching
We are proud to have our badminton training classes recognized as best practices. Our academy coaches understand that physical capacity alone is insufficient for success in badminton. Therefore, we have implemented High-Performance Coaching that combines physical player capacity with skill proficiency training.
Our training methodology now emphasizes the development of appropriate movement skills alongside physical conditioning to help players achieve optimal performance on the court.
Implement Sports Data Analytics
At our badminton academy, we recognize the value of sports analytics for our students. Sports data sets can provide insight and analysis of our student’s performance, and we have found that using the Python programming language is particularly useful for this purpose.
In 2020, our badminton coaches learned this programming language and are now proficient in using advanced programming techniques to analyze large datasets. Our coaches can now use these techniques to analyze specific performances, such as the repeatability of footwork, swing racket, and agility training time, among others.
Implement New Technology for Agility
At our badminton academy, we have found that incorporating new technology with the right training methods can yield significant improvements for our students. With our coaches now proficient in using Python to analyze data, we have been able to identify new ways to optimize training.
During the Covid-19 period in 2021, we also introduced agility equipment that enhances student performance during training. The sensor-based technology employs IoT sensors to monitor student actions and provides valuable feedback to optimize training and improve outcomes.
Implement New Technology for Upper Body
At our badminton academy, we recognize that traditional badminton training methods such as hitting plastic and shadow swing techniques may not be effective in providing beginner students with the necessary sensing accuracy and feel of hitting a shuttle. To address this issue, we introduced shuttle training equipment in 2022.
This equipment helps beginner students improve their upper body skills, including swing racket techniques, accuracy, and consistency, while also enhancing their reaction speed to hit the shuttle. By incorporating innovative training equipment, we aim to provide our students with the tools and techniques they need to excel in badminton.
Implement New Equipment for Foundation Training
In 2023, our badminton coach implemented a new shuttlecock hitting device to help our students build stronger muscle memory on forehand and backhand drives. As our coach found that every beginner, especially kids, although they have trained once or even twice a week, after our coach corrects their bad habits, they can still forget very fast, especially the way they grip their rackets.
The wrong gripping technique and flexibility in changing between forehand and backhand in a short time is a common pain point for every kid beginner. This is the reason why our coach customized training equipment for our academy’s students. And this equipment only exists as 2 units in the world.
ST Badminton Academy Relocates to KL Malaysia
As many know, our badminton coach had been coaching in Singapore for years. He decided to relocate to KL in part because he was originally born there and spent his childhood in KL. Moving allows him to accompany and spend time with his beloved elderly parents. Although its not easy to start everything again, but a capable values driven person brings those same qualities wherever they go.
There are things money can’t buy, some parents understand that family is far more important. Even just making a meal together can provide profound warmth. Since our parents accompanied us into life, it’s an honor to accompany them in their later years. We wish everyone the best in 2024!
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