1. Every Child Arrives With Their Own Movement Pattern
When a child walks into a session for the first time, I’m not looking for skill or technique. I’m watching how they move. Over the years I’ve learned that every child brings a completely unique movement pattern, something they never learned from badminton, something no coach taught them.
It comes from their genetics, their baseline muscle tone, and the natural way their body likes to operate.
Often, I see a small action, a hop, a reach, a turn, and I already know what sort of badminton-specific movement this could evolve into.
Sometimes I can even tell which skill they’ll one day do exceptionally well. When I spot that, I guide them early: try this, adjust that, feel the movement here. It doesn’t turn them into world-class athletes overnight, of course. Real development still takes years of focus and consistency. But it’s always exciting to see the early signs.
2. Foundations First: Mental and Physical Readiness
Even when a child shows a natural tendency toward a particular movement, it rarely means they need specialised coaching straight away. Most young players need something far more important: general strength, coordination, confidence, and basic physical literacy.
Before anything else, they must develop mentally and physically. Without stability and body awareness, no advanced technique will stick. That’s why I refuse to jump into one-to-one coaching with a child the moment they join.
It would be a waste of time and money on both sides. In the early phase, they don’t need highly targeted technical instruction, they need simple movement, simple games, and time to play with their parents.
3. Learning What Training Is (And Who the Coach Is)
Children also need time to understand the dynamic of being coached. They are used to teachers, and teachers are familiar, predictable, and part of their everyday life. A coach, however, is different.
Suddenly there is an adult they don’t know, who gives instructions they don’t fully understand, in a setting that doesn’t feel like school or play. They don’t realise yet that I’m trying to help them improve. That relationship, coach and player, trust and listening, doesn’t exist naturally at the beginning.
Most children need their parents to help them make sense of that new relationship. And they also need time to understand what training actually is. Sport used to be a joyride, pure fun and no expectations. Many children have never imagined doing it in an organised way, with progression, discipline, and purpose.
Some take months. Some take years. To the untrained eye, they may look like bad students… but they aren’t. They are simply at a different stage of childhood.
As Sir Ken Robinson once said, funnily and accurately:
“They’re not suffering from a psychological condition, they’re suffering from childhood.”
4. When the Foundation Is Ready, Real Coaching Begins
So before I ever suggest one-to-one training or highly specific technical work, I wait to see the child’s readiness.
Not only in movement quality, but in maturity, confidence, and physical stability. Only then does targeted coaching truly make sense.
Until that point, the most valuable thing they can do is play freely, be active, and enjoy the game with their parents and peers.
Development is not a race; it’s a gradual unfolding, over time, in front of us. My job is simply to recognise the right moment to guide it.