Didactic variables in badminton: A literature review

The objective of this literature review is to search in scientific and professional writings from the last forty years for traces of a concept belonging to the scientific field of didactics: didactic variables (DVs). The purpose of this review is threefold: to define the concept of DVs, to identify the different categorizations of DVs, and to identify the specific DVs used in the context of badminton instruction in PE. Based on a literature review methodology (Dumez 2011), we built a scientific corpus of 52 articles and a professional corpus of 21 documents, giving a total of 73 documents. After analyzing them, we highlight that DVs represent a concept that is little used by researchers and professionals alike. The variables are sometimes forgotten, sometimes misunderstood, but research is gradually tending to take into account different facets of this didactic concept. Following this literature review, we distinguish between command, general, and badminton-specific DVs. Among the DVs specific to badminton, we distinguish between technical DVs (including service and the technical shot chosen—for example, the smash, the clear, or the drop shot) and strategic DVs (exploiting the length or width of the court, or changing speed to create an opening, for example).