✕ Close Setup
Before you start
  • Check the space and the kit.
  • Get your child's attention first.
  • Show it from two sides.
  • Say one thing only.
  • End on one that works.

Put the phone down where you can see it. Tap Next with your thumb, or use the arrow keys.

Setup · 1 minute

Is the space marked?

  • The net line across the middle of the strip
  • A service line on each side, 2 m from the net
  • A circle about 1 m wide in each far corner (chalk or tape)

A net or rope; a chalk box 1 m deep just behind the net on the far side. A racket and shuttles.

Warm up · 3 minutes

Three minutes to get warm.

Easy jogging on the spot, then arms and legs. How to warm up well is explained at workonfitness.com.

3:00
Show it · 1 minute
  1. Start as for the clear: side-on, racket up behind the head.
  2. Swing as if to clear, but slow the racket just before you hit.
  3. Stop the racket soon after, with very little follow-through. The shuttle falls just over the net.

Show it once from the front and once from the side, slowly. Then let your child try.

The skill · 10 minutes
  1. The player waits in the middle.
  2. You send a high shuttle.
  3. The player gets behind it, side-on, and swings as for a clear.
  4. Just before contact the racket slows; the shuttle drops into the box.
  5. The player goes back to the middle at once.
  6. 10 shuttles a round.

How much: 4 rounds of 10 drop shots

Same swing, softer hands

10:00
The game · 5 minutes

Drop and get back

The rules

A point for each drop shot that lands in the box and a point for being back at the middle before the next feed.

  1. Each turn is 10 shuttles
  2. You send one high; the player plays a drop shot
  3. Send the next one as soon as the player reaches the middle, but no sooner

Fair play: Make the box twice as big for a younger player.

Points
1 point for a drop shot in the box, and 1 point for being back at the middle before your next feed. Up to 2 points a shuttle.
Fouls
No points for that shuttle: it goes into the net; it rises above head height after crossing the net (easy to hit down); the player stays to watch it instead of going back
Win
After one turn each, the player with more points wins.
Score
0
  1. 8
  2. 12
  3. 16

5:00
Finish · 2 minutes

5 of 10 drop shots land in the box and the player is back at the middle each time.

0/5

End on one that works. If it was hard today, finish with the easier version.

Finished

Well played.

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