Hello, It's nice to have registered and be a part of this badminton loving community. I have been a long time visitor to the badminton central forum and have enjoyed reading the various topics that are posted in these forums! So I decided to post something that has been frustrating me lately when playing against a particular opponent in my club. He seems to be a singles specialist (going by his footwork pattern and game type) who is also playing doubles. The reason I'm frustrated is because he is a very deceptive player who also likes to hold his shots till until very late. He does possess the deceptive clear, holds the shot when playing close to the net and has a well disguised reverse slice drop. Now I like to anticipate the shots from my opponent a fraction early and make my movement on the court. Because of his deception and the ability to hold the shots until very late, I'm forced to wait before I make the movement. This puts me under pressure and invariably in a weaker position which makes him win rallies. Granted the games run close and we managed to win a few but overall he is controlling the game. Look forward to your advise on how to deal with these kind of players in general. When faced with such a player what strategies do you adopt? On a side note this has made me thinking more about developing this aspect of deceptive game into my arsenal. I haven't played a lot of singles and maybe because of this the main weaponary that I developed has been being fast on the court, being aggressive and put the opponent under pressure. I now know this has its limitations. :-( Thanks much. Vijay.
I do have this problem for my whole badminton life. Just this year (5th year) I think I made some improvement. I just made/make my splitstep too early and anticipate too much... So my resolution was to splitstep later..but I found it so hard to do..and still find it hard to adapt to certain players Of course deception is key! Especially in Singles. Again about me... My whole "career" i practised the basic shots because I am a pretty basic guy who likes to be perfect at the basics before getting fancy, but I am at a level of play now where my opponents can run to every inch of the court and see what i am going to do if it is obvious. So recently I am concentrating more on holding the shuttle at the net, slice shots and other deceptions. It is such fun if you see it working in a game!!
If you are used to "moving early", then you can' t possibly be doing a split-step. When done correctly it feels like you've taken the first step in any direction. So that's a good start. Apart from that, all you can do is get more used to this dude's shots. There are probably some "tells" he gives for certain shots that you may read better with time. (But of course that doesn't help with the next new deceptive person) Good luck.
I think you can try to up the pace of the game and play more flat. Deception relies on the player having sufficient time to hold the shot. With increased pace and flatter exchanges it limits his timing window. You mentioned his net play and reverse slice are both difficult to read. If you push a bit faster and use the mid court area more it'll limit his play at the net. At the same time he won't have sufficient height or time to reverse slice. Alternatively you can try to isolate his partner and force his partner to make shot decisions. Only attack the deceptive guy and this should limit his control. Give thsee ideas a try and let us know how it goes.
Yeah, with deceptive players you'll have to wait for his shot and split step later. On the other hand, learn to be deceptive yourself. Show one direction with your racket, but change it to another direction at the last split second.
Wow, this has got me thinking. So do you mean to say if I've been moving early I couldn't possibly be executing the split-step? Would love you to elaborate on this one. Actually the first thought that came to my mind was exactly this point when being exposed a few times by his "hold till the last moment" kind of play. I've not received professional training and all I've learnt is from observing and picking up things from coaches on the internet. Against opponents who don't possess this skill, I tend to get into positions early and able to anticipate the shots especially controlling the net area. Maybe they are unable to exploit this weakness of mine? In the last session I've been trying to consciously execute the split-step and staying calm when reacting. But I didn't get a chance to play with that person in the session, I'll try this when I play him the next time. I spoke to a coach in my club about this problem and he had a couple of points. 1. Watch the shuttle closely and focus on the shuttle. 2. Improve reaction time. One of the drills he suggested was to do a high knee for say like 20seconds and then do a sprint. So two things that I plan to work on is to correct my split-step execution and improve my reaction time and staying calm. Sometimes when the adrenaline is flowing during the game, muscle memory kicks in and all the plan about executing the split-step calmly goes out of the window Vijay
Completely agree. I tried this strategy during the game. My partner tended to lift quiet a bit and this resulted in us being attacked often. But this is a good suggestion.
Completely agree I need to do this. Again during a game situation my natural game tends to kick in. I keep telling myself to do some practice sessions in a week. Otherwise I don't have the confidence to try this in a game situation.
Watch out with not over committing your anticipation of his shot, because that's how the deception works. In your mind, you should be anticipating not only one shot/direction, but also the other/alternate shot/direction as well.
If you are faced with such type of player, there is only one thing that should go through your mind: DO NOT ANTICIPATE! As other have said before, you need to delay your split step to a point at which you see to where he will hit the shuttle. Everything else will be gambling with a higher probability to make the wrong choice. During training, you need to improve your ability to perform a quick start in all possible directions. What could help you build up that ability is to do some Fast Feet drills or specifically do some workouts with a so-called reaction ball (https://www.amazon.co.uk/66fit-Spee...78253668&sr=8-3-spell&keywords=reacition+ball). Here are some videos how that could look like: I got myself one of these little bastards and let me tell you - that is a lot more exhausting than you would expect it to be (especially if you keep a low and wide stance) and is still so much fun. Our club coach has ordered a couple of them too, mostly for kids training - and they too just love it.
That's a nifty little ball to train for improving reaction time. Will definitely give it a try! Thanks.
My coach is very deceptive and I always fall for it during training, especially when warming up. My coach says to focus on the shuttle, don't watch the racket. It works for me. I noticed that sometimes skipping the split step may work as well, but you need fairly good anticipation to get to the shuttle fast, but I get scoldings from him for skipping it. Another way might be to threaten various shots, such as kills, so he will have second thoughts. At the same time, you prepare for both net shots and lifts so you have the advantage of taking them early. I played such shots with great success, especially against those who like trick shots around the net.
Here is a tactic you can use. Accept that this player has the upper hand at this moment. Observe his game very carefully on his shots in one area of the court. You watch him play against other people. Note which shots are deceptive and which are not. Now what you have to do is try to is predict when he plays a deceptive shot. Such as : What height is the shuttle? From what angle is the shuttle arriving? What is the speed of the shuttle? Does he play the shot when he runs in a diagonal direction or when he runs straight? I find during games, if you try to do this, there are too many things going on at once. Doing it like this, you can start to build up a picture of what scenarios he will play a deceptive shot. He might only play them if the opponents are standing in certain areas of the court or if the shuttle is marginally slower. In general, the more time and the more in balance a person is for the shot, the easier it would be to play a deceptive shot.
That is a vital point. One goal to counter deceptive players is to constantly apply pressure and to keep them busy and moving as much as possible. The later they arrive at the shuttle, the less time there is to deceive. Amongst the pros, the perfect example to see that is Tai Tzu Ying. Her game relies a lot on her deceptions and as long as she's in a good shape and her opponents give her enough time, almost every single shot comes with more or less deception. A perfect example to see that was the 2016 Indonesian Open finals agains WYH - especially the second game was a demonstration of what happens if someone is not able to apply pressure and gives her enough time. To see the opposite, take a look at her matches in the late 2015 season (especially the Destination Dubai '15 matches vs. CM and NO), she almost lost her deceptions completely. The reason was simple: She had issues with her feet at that time (plantar fasciitis AFAIK) and in general was just not at her best shape. So she was constantly reaching the shuttles later than normal and hence losing the possibility to play her usual deceptive game.
You have received lots of advice. All of it appropriate and ranging from better quality shots beforehand to avoid the situation, more pressure on opponent to take away his chances for deception, and better quality lifts to allow you to recover from the situation. You need ALL of these. I will share with you my experience against "deceptive" players. If you stand and wait for them to hit the shuttle and only then actually move (move = momentary bounce as a very fast split step, followed by footwork pattern to intercept the shuttle early), you will easily get to all his shots (assuming you are actually capable of moving to all areas of the court). So the key against the deceptive players is to only move once they hit the shot (this is the same against all players!). However, it conflicts with your "strengths" in anticipation - which are actually weaknesses that have so far been left unexploited. Let's talk about anticipation: Anticipation does NOT mean moving before the opponent hits the shuttle (which makes you a vulnerable target for deception). Anticipation should mean that you prepare for them to hit a certain shot, whilst covering the entire court. If they do what you expect, it allows you to pounce on it. If they don't you just go and get it at a normal speed. What happens when you learn to move properly? So once you learn to stay on the floor and only move once they hit the shuttle, (and just play safe rallies to get used to the deception), what you will probably find is that the deceptive guy doesn't cope very well. Because you are not being deceived, he may start trying harder and harder to deceive you, holding the shots longer and longer trying to provoke you. My experience is that this means they take the shuttle later and later, and the quality of their shots decreases significantly as they lose the "earliness" that they previously had. And this ultimately results in mistakes as they try to be deceptive. Being "deceptive" is also a disadvantage, if the player themselves believes thats all they have to beat you with. If they are also very good at everything else, then they have achieved a very high standard of play, and you are in for a tough but fun game of badminton! Good luck!
Alright, time for an update guys. It has been a couple of weeks and I have received a lot of good advice on this thread. So here is what I did - a. Did exercises to improve my reaction time - the reaction ball suggested on this thread has been very useful. I have been bouncing it off the wall for 5-10 minutes (I typically do it before I start the session) - helps me warm-up and poke my reactionary instincts. I like it and surprisingly quite tiring if done for a longer period of time b. From a strategy point of view I now understand how "that" player reacts to certain situations. I try to cut the chances of him able to be deceptive - which means limited lifts at his backhand corner where he seems to possess a variety of deceptive shots. I've also been advising my partner(s) on this. Seems to be defective. So being prepared and knowing his strengths helps c. The biggest adjustment that has delivered positive results has been my movement and my "awareness". That is say I now expect not one but two (if not three) shots from him. So I had to slightly delay my split-step, watch him closely and be lighter on my feet. One of the frustrating scenario earlier has been when there was a bad lift and he would be able to delay and then do a defective clear. Being lighter on the feet and "expecting" the deception has greatly improved the chances of getting back with a nice body position. Overall, I'm pleased with the improvements. Granted I've not started to dominate the games (but the percentage is about 60-40) now. Even with a weaker partner I can run the games a lot closer and with very few instances of getting caught wrong-footed! This is fun. Hopefully there is more room to improve. Thanks for the advice guys! V
Does anyone have some drills or training methods to help falling for deception, or simply avoiding over-anticipation? I play much better against people who are less deceptive - even if they execute stronger/more accurate shots than me, i tend to find I can gain an edge in fitness and have an even match. Against deceptive players or even those who have very similar movements for clear/smash/drop (normally sliced) but don't make double movements etc., i struggled much more and games will tend to be around the 21-10 mark, even if their strokes are less powerful/accurate than mine. Much worse if they are as strong. I asked my coach about how to retrieve sliced drops landing in front of the service line, and he simply said if the drops are landing that close, then they'll be slow, and it's likely I'm not reacting well to the shot. Sure enough, if he fed them to that corner, i was getting there with plenty time. The next drill he either played a straight clear (with me clearing back) and eventually he'd play a crosscourt drop. Some of these drops i didn't even manage to move off my split step. I would split and then freeze, with my legs rooted to the spot. Equally, some of the clears i was scrambling to. In both of these cases, i wasn't anticipating the drop then scrambling for the clear, or anticipating the clear, then scrambling for the drop. I simply didn't know what to expect, and ended up scrambling. How do the top players react so fast?
