BADMINTON Special Olympics Sports Skills Program

• Write down your goals for the season.
• Become familiar with first-aid and emergency procedures
for conditions that may affect people with intellectual
disabilities, such as seizures.
During Season
• Manage your eight-week training program.
• Plan your practice sessions to include skill, drill, and play
experiences.
• After practice sessions, consider and make adjustments
that will make the next practice better and help all
athletes feel and become successful.
• Plan for and use both cooperative and competitive
experiences throughout the season.
Post-season
• Evaluate your pre-season goals.
• Have parents and athletes complete a program
evaluation form.
• Identify the successes for each athlete and share this
information with the athlete and the parent(s).
Suggested Topics for Beginners
(in an eight-week program meeting once a week for
approximately one hour)
Session 1: Introduce grip, forehand ups, backhand ups,
a l t e rnate ups, partner ups, underhand short serving technique,
underhand cooperative rallies with a partner at mid-court and
close to net (hairpin drops).
Session 2: Review underhand serving and hairpin drops.
Teach ready position, high deep serves (long serve), forehand
overhead clear, overhead drop and underhand clear off the
net. Play cooperative rallies with overhead clears and drops;
play competitive short court play at the net.
Session 3: Review ready position, short and long serves,
and overhead clears and drops. Teach the drive shot and the
overhead forehand smash. Play singles rallies.
Session 4: Review all strokes. Teach the basic rules, scoring,
and strategies of singles play. Play singles rallies using the
singles scoring method.
Session 5: Review all strokes. Teach smash defense and
overhead backhand clear. Incorporate partner rally drills
using a combination of strokes (see drills under each stroke
section). Play.
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Session 6: Review all strokes. Teach doubles play. Teach
doubles rules and scoring, and play doubles rallies using the
doubles scoring method.
Session 7: Review the rules of competition and final
preparation for match play. Play practice games for singles
and doubles.
Session 8: Set up match play.
It is ex t r e m e ly difficult to create one generic eight-we e k
practice plan that will fit all situations and skill levels. Please
use this outline as a starting place for your practice situations
and refine what you do in each practice session to best meet
the needs of your athletes. If a wide range of abilities ex i s t s ,
ability grouping can be ve ry useful to help your athletes
practice at appropriate challenge levels. Try recruiting assistant
coaches to help teach and coach athletes of differing skill
l evels. Plus, a low athlete-to-coach ratio is always helpful.
After the Eight-Week Season
• Continue training athletes who are
going on to other higher events.
• Thank the facility owner/manager.
• Thank the assistant coaches.
• Thank the other volunteers.
• Evaluate the season.
• Send results to the media.
• Develop next year’s season plan.