College Students' Development of Badminton Skills and Tactical Competencies Following Play Practice

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Play Practice (PP) instruction on badminton performance in college students. Method: A total of 66 students from the United States and China participated in units following either the principles of PP or skill-focused instruction. A nonequivalent control/comparison group experimental design with premeasure and postmeasure was used in this study. Separate analyses of variance with repeated measures (Time × Group) were conducted to examine the effects of PP and skill-focused instruction for each of the four dependent variables: (1) forehand clear; (2) wall volley; (3) game performance; and (4) tactical understanding. Results: Both PP and skill-focused instruction conditions were effective in improving participants' skills from pretest to posttest. However, PP was also effective in improving participants' game performance. Conclusion: PP effectively developed both fundamental skills and tactical aspects of badminton without diminishing the transfer effect from practice to games.