Wow, everyone's from Toronto. Keyboard combat is lame... I think ksrboi and blisse should have an exhibition match against each other I'd watch!
I understand the feeling. Part of the problem might be your dependence on anticipating shots based on your opponent's stances. Try anticipating more based on where the shuttle moves rather than the player's shot. His weird stances might be what's throwing you off. I know a friend who has really weird stances when he's going for a drop shot. It looks like he's half stumbling, half stomping, with his arm extended / twisted in a weird way. Always throws me off. Just gotta ignore it and remember that... the rally isn't over until the birdy hits the floor
I won. Finally. Probably due to the advice in this thread. My attitude is completely different now. Whenever I play, I laugh a lost point off. Like when they hit a really good hit drop and I can't get it, I'll go, "wow!" I don't get mad at all anymore, even when I'm horribly out of position and fall over trying to get the shuttle. And here's the other difference, I'm moving a lot more. Diving for the bird quite often. I'm moving because I'm trying a lot harder. Even if I'm out of position I still try to go for the bird. It's a lot better. I played two games. The first one, I got roflstomped by another opponent. He was very good. Much better than me. Excellent drop shots, and clears always to the back. And his clears were never out of bounds. His backhand was strong as well, a couple of backhand drops completely fooled me. But it was fun to play completely free since I knew he was tons better than me. I lost of course. The other one was much closer, we were probably of equal skill, but I was tired from being roflstomped. A great battle, back and forth, drops, smashes and clears, movement everywhere, some of my longest rallies, and a very fun game. I lost 2-0, but I managed to catch up in the second set from 15-20 to lose 20-22, so I'm proud of myself at least. On to the guy I mentioned in the main post. Everything seems so different playing him after playing the others. They were my first real singles games. This one is more teammate practice games. Still a matter of pride though. When I played him this time, I actually felt it was my game to lose. And it was. Everything felt a lot easier, and the main reason I lost points was due to my clumsiness, not because he finished me. I gave up 5 or 6 points because I kept believing his shots were out, even though they were a foot or so short. I gave up even more points mis-hitting. But I managed to win. My style is completely different. Whenever I try to speed it up, I hit the bird out. So whenever he gives me these easy smashes from midcourt, I still miss into the net or out of play. So now, I rely on drop a lot more. My overhead drops are terrible, and only 1 in 10 are good and fast, but they work. I am a lot more consistent. Thus, I get to move him around a lot more. I don't think I hit any clears or drops out of bounds. Maybe hit into the net, but very safe hitting for the most part. I'm still trying to learn how to drop smoothly, since my drop action is very bad. But I won 21-16, down 13-16 at one point. Never got mad and tried not to smash. Consistency and not getting mad. I think those are the keys to my development. I'll be tested again tomorrow, but as long as I play like this, I'm happy. The game with the second game was the best game I have ever played. It feels good to say I played better than I ever have before. The first guy I played got the bird like 5cm off the ground at the net with a ridiculous dive and did a ridiculously tight net shot. And he did this maybe four or five times. I was dumbfounded.
It's great that your attitude has changed. . It's great that your attitude has changed. IMHO, when we play Badminton (or any other sports), we need to; * Place the enjoyment of the sport first. Winning or losing, it shouldn't matter. * Appreciate what good skills are. Great that you have noticed that some players are better than you, and some are not. One thing for certain, as you become more skillful, you will surely defeat those with less skill and/or experience. .
I read an article linked to from somewhere on here that bascially said singles is more about placement and touch than smashing, I got blasted off court a couple of weeks ago mostly because my opponent got his racket on pretty much every smash and somehow the birdie came back over the net.... and I lost the point.. I am alosy playing with another group and enjoying the playing more, even though I get annoyed with myself when I miss an 'easy' shot..
Singles is more about placement and touch than smashing . Your tactics should depend on yours and your opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Here are some examples; * If opponent's Footwork is slow, then place your shots to different corners of the court. * If opponent's Return of Smash is good, then Smash less. * If your touch at Netplay is better, then create to play more challenges at the net. * If you find insufficient time to deal with your opponent's Return of Smash, then Smash softer, or do the Sliced Smash. * etc, etc, ...... .
Another game, new opponents. Gave it my all in the first set against the first guy. Lost 8 points in a row whilst being up 16-13. Didn't have enough energy to continue. Lost 21-10 in a very tiring match. Immediately after, had to play another even better player. Eyes were hazy and mind was in shambles. Of the 42 points it takes to beat someone, I probably gave him 30 of them from mis-hitting his serves. Was honestly too tired to do anything. I never lost my temper, but it was really hard not to get frustrated, and really hard to hide how frustrated I was. I haven't gotten much sleep this week. And I've been practicing or playing for the last four days. I guess I need to find out what my limits are. To be fair, I can't say I'm better than them since I lost, but I really believe I could have taken at least a set off either if I wasn't so worn out. It was also my first time playing against someone who made every effort to deceive me with his shots. Sure his smashing was predictable, but I was caught out of position maybe 7 or 8 times. It makes me feel good that in order to beat me he needed something more, but I still lost. What do you do when you're too tired to play, and it actually affects your game?
Although you might have won that guy, but i would still like to give some advice (pls forgive for my bad english later on) You might have the same problem I have. I'm also a decent player. Not the best, not great footwork. but my technique and form are solid. I can do baseline clears. And could drop or smash perfectly at the back court. I could play very well against skillful players, but once a player similar to yours come which have bad techniques (can't do baseline clears) or very bad footwork, I often make mistakes (out of the line, smashing down into the net). But the problem is not that i'm not focus, so what is the problem then? It's stability. Normally, we are often train HOW to receive the shuttle at all 4 CORNERS, and play it perfectly back to the other player. But, the problem is that, if we meet an opponent who COULDN'T HIT TO YOUR 4 CORNERS OR MIGHT JUST HIT IT INTO THE MID COURT, we will find out that we aren't used to receive this kind of shuttle. You could just compare using the same power for hitting a high clear in the back court and the mid court. If you could hit the shuttle far back to the baseline when you are hitting it on the back court, using the same power in the mid court, the shuttle is bond to go more further behind the base line. Of course we have the ability to control the power to use to hit the high clear. But reducing how much? Reducing to much power may end up giving them a mid court clear. Reducing not enough might also hit the shuttle out. Same concept goes to the other skills. How steep the smash need to be? How fast the wrist should more to preform a good drop? That is why sometimes i fail to do great drops, smashes or clear in that situation. This is why that i can beat skillful players without making many mistakes but can lose to low level players. My coach always train me to play with very low level players (might not even know how to serve very high and far) in order to train my stability. He wants me to learn how to adjust the wrist angle at impact and the power given at ANYWHERE at the court BUT NOT ONLY THE FOUR CORNERS. Now i have improve to face any kind of players, but the problem still exist for me. Just saying the problem may exist for you too, since you said that guy couldn't do a baseline clear and it seems that you didn't dare to smash it now.
When tired, it's easily to lose your concentration. And it is serious if you do since you are just favoring the opponent as he or she could deceive you more at ease and he or she won't lose his or her stamina quickly since you just made the game more relaxing for them. Just endure your tiredness and focus more or you will have no chance to drain the opponent stamina for your favor.
When you feel you are too tired to play properly, it is understandable that you don't perform to your best. I will not comment on what you should do in that situation. However, something I would consider if I were you, is to ask your coach what you can do to help your recovery after playing, and how to improve your focus when you start playing! That way, even when you have been playing a lot recently, you can recover quickly and come back fresh the next day to new challenges, and by using an excellent warm up routine (including neural activation of all the muscles needed for changing direction quickly, and moving in multiple direction) you will be ready to play to close to your best every time you play. The reason I say this, is because then you may be able to start increasing your "limit" and enjoy the game all the time. Before you mentioned losing to a player, but it was still enjoyable because you feel you played well, and were outplayed (i seem to recall), and this is what you should be looking to achieve next! Consistently playing to a good standard for your skills, and making sure that you can maintain this enthusiasm by recovering properly from tough training sessions or games. Keep up the good work Badmitnon is all in the mind - the more you practice thinking about what you are doing, especially against better players, the better you will get Matt
Thanks guys I've since beaten him several times easily following the advice in this thread. And I've got a lot more singles experience. I can't play him anymore since he broke his finger or something, but still invaluable lessons learned. And forgotten. I was in a rush today, the game organizers were over 30 minutes late with the games, and I had to get to work, which I was eventually late for. I had to play a game in a rush, and again, it was the same thing. He was worse than the first guy I couldn't beat, but I was playing to win after every shot, rushed everything, and just lost my focus completely. It's something I haven't done since the first time I opened this thread, because I simply played calm, slow and methodically, or as best as I can do that. I would attack too much, and lose to simple clears, or hit into the net. Frustrating, but it really showed me how much of a difference that the advice in this thread actually makes. I'm disappointed in myself for breaking my ritual and ruining a game against an opponent that had not done anything against me. I was still close, which is why I say that I'm better than him, but I hate that I'm unable to say that with full conviction since I didn't beat him that time. I'm happy when I play at my best, win or lose. I'm frustrated when I play not at my best, if I lose. If I win when I'm not at my best, then I probably wouldn't feel like it meant anything. But that hasn't happened yet since I'm not at that level. Once again, thank you.
This is why our game of Badminton is so interesting . I was also thinking that our training is the problem; not what our opponents can or cannot do. This is why our game of Badminton is so interesting; Sometimes we can defeat better/stronger players, sometimes we can lose to weaker ones. .
As an intermediate level player, you should have a good arsenal of strokes so I would say concentrate on your footwork. The easiest way to beat someone better than you is to get to the shuttle earlier than they can (assuming you know what to do when you get there). A lot of the time it's about recovering quickly after your shot, getting back into position and anticipating the next shot through eliminating a few corners on your court. This depends a lot on your footway and ability to accelerate and move quickly and efficiently. The best players are those who can get to the shuttle a fraction of a second faster than everyone else and doing it consistently. So many times have I seen good players beaten by inferior players simply because they are not fast enough, not because they have poorer racquet skills.
The problem exists when the opponent is unable to hit to the corners of the court . I believe that sychong95 was saying that the problem exists when the opponent is unable to hit to the corners of the court. That's why I mentioned that our training is the problem (if we are only training to return the shuttlecock from the corners of our court). .
For me, in similar situations it boils down to usually one of 3 things. Confidence. Pressure. Fitness. I'll start losing easier games as a result of the mix of the above. But I have found solutions to try and deal with each. For example, if I'm lacking confidence or feeling too pressured, I'll stop worrying about winning altogether and concentrate just on having fun. Once I start enjoying myself and forget about lacking confidence or feeling under pressure, I find I quickly start playing better, and regaining that confidence and momentum involuntarily. With respect to fitness, if I'm feeling the burn, I'll just slow down the pace a bit. Try and flick shots with the wrist as oppose to putting all my body or arm in to it. I'll also try and play more tactical than agressive, make the opponent run more and not letting him control the game and have me running around like a headless chicken. I talk like I'm really good, I'm actually just a beginner. But the above has helped me thus far. Main thing I need to work on is my fitness and in my smashes. But I get the feeling the two are mutually correlated.
I've watched the training series conducted by coach Zhao Jianhua and Coach Xia Jie, they said "In every match, no matter how bad your opponent's skills... do not set in your mind, that u will kill them in 1 or 2 shots..." which i totally agree... just play, wait, and hit! Its a game after all, why rush? correct me if i'm wrong... T_T
