Do you improve rapidly if you just play against better opponents all the time?

I think it depends on whether the player already has a solid technical foundation. If they do, the player will find that they have to play faster and more accurate, because anything less will be punished. Because they are forced to play this way, their shots will become higher quality shots and the shots will become more consistent. They will also learn to cover their weaknesses better, because the opponents will be looking to exploit them.

If the player does not already have a good technical foundation, they will pick up bad technical habits that might improve their results initially, but will prevent them from improving further in the future. For example, if they don't have a high backhand clear, many players are tempted to let it drop and wack it with the backhand because it gives them more power. In the moment this might be better than using their non existent high backhand technique, but it creates a bad habit that will prevent them from improving in the long run.

 

I think it depend on the person itself and what the meaning of training.

For example myself & my close friend.
By mean training we both had no official coach nor join any badminton training. Just casual play with anyone. But we normaly come early like 30minute or 1 hour earlier (my club schedule are at the morning so earlier mean the court are empty) & do some different trick we like to learn like drive exchange, net exchange, smashing each other, etc.

Then i play basically with anyone. Even when the opponent are like imposible to beat, we just play (many times we get beaten 2vs1 with 0:30, i dont care & i still play again). But lucky me, this better player are nice enough to tell what we do wrong (my unofficial coach i guest). This where we start build our fondation.
Next we just play with many different player. Friend or some random player we meet at the hall. This give us experience for different play style. Some love to play slow pace, some like to play fast n aggresive, some other like to play deceptive. We win some & lose some to but every times i always like to argue with my friend after the games like if we do this its better, no it must be like this so he will be dead on spot. Kinda like doing simulation & brainstorming.
Even when i play & had to carry beginner my mindset are how to win with this handicap on myside, so i work my brain again to think my strategy & again with my friend (be the opponent or just spectator) we always comment each other like if you do this, i will had hard time.
So i guest that what makes us grow better. In simple we always ask ourself why & how. Why it happen, why its good to do that, why its bad to do that. We hardly able to accept any theorical stuff & memorize it just like that, we always question the reason behind it. Then after we think how to do it, how to avoid it, & how to prevent it. Understand it makes your grow limitless rather than follow the book just like programed robot. (This not just in badminton but also helpfull on our daily life).
Back to the topic, all in all it can only happen when one had the good fondation. One need to understand basic math before able to calculate more complex math.
Thats from me, hope that can be any help.

 

In my experience, it took me 5 years or so. It wasn't a rapid improvement for me.

Started off as beginner when I was about 20. Attended an adult learning course at my secondary school and when I was good enough to beat everyone there I moved on and looked for clubs etc. Was initially rejected at one specific club and it hurt me.

After a year of playing at no strings sessions, and learning all I could from internet resources etc, I tried out for another club. I had improved a lot and they let me in. It was a great feeling because the person who said "sorry, we don't think you're good enough for us yet" played at both clubs and in that year I had improved beyond that persons' skill level. So it was a big win for me.

In the next 5 years I changed working hours and job, passed level 1 coaching qualification (uk) and played as much as I could. My league club didn't survive lockdown and dissolved, and I have now found another club in the same league to play at and help coach juniors from the ages of 6 to 16ish.

I tried out for a high standard club 45minute drive from my house last year and one of their coaches described me as "advanced", which surprised me. I'm not the strongest at the club, but I am able to keep up and have good games with them. I'm getting challenging games with my club at the moment as there are at least 4 other strong clubs in the same divisions that we play in (mens 4s, mens 6s and mixed 4s and mixed 6s).

If I had coaching, I would have improved far quicker over these 13 years. It's a big regret of mine that I didn't get coached as a junior.

If an intermediate player wants rapid improvement when playing against better players, I would say it requires a lot of dedication, focus and self-reflection.

 

You will improve over time and depending on each individual the gradiant varies.

Attending coaching will give you better techniques and footwork. But you won't gain game play knowledge.

So slow improvements not rapid to me.

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Yes and No. Really depends what you make out of it and in which department and about which disciple we are talking here. If I played better opponents I reflect every game after it and write down 2-3 the most important departments/issues where I lost the point/advantage often/keypoints and work on this in extra training. If it were things related to my fixed partner and me like rotation, we practice it together.

I personally think that if you just play, you will improve (getting used to faster games), but not rapidly improve overall. Especially in technique you will not improve due only playing, because each try and fail means a lost point which speed up the end of the game. Also depends how much better your opponents are. intermediate is a wide range. If your opponents are far better than you, you will have very short rallies and less rallies (if your opponents are not toying with you), which also effect your learning curve, because each rally in e.g. doubles will be ended after 2-3 shots so you will never get to the point where you will improve in strategy at the backcourt, game reading etc.

If I take a look at my club, we have a smaller group of people who train and a larger group who only play. And since I mastered to beat players who just play twice as long as I, more often than me, but without serious training, and I never beat them a few years back, but now on regular base, just playing has not much impact. IMO you won't improve rapidly by just playing if you compare it to training.

 

They will improve, but not rapidly. I'm basing this on the premise that anyone that spends 12 hours a week just playing games does not have the mindset to improve rapidly.

 

If the good intermediate player gets instant quality feedback from the better players eg a national or county player, giving quality feedback, then even a few games , or even just one or two games, partnered with them, can instigate a big improvement. But for every partner like that, there are a hundred or a thousand yes men partners whose feedback is useless.

If somebody is the kind of person that is making mental notes of what shots they miss and the scenarios and how opponents get them and even without video, then they can certainly improve rapidly. I once faced one opponent where if I did a shot well, and it was simple enough, and repeated enough, they would clock that and imitate it and I'd be on the receiving end of it. I'd only really win well against then if on the day, I had answers to all the things they did. So if something worked on me one evening, I trained for that and next time it wouldn't work on me. That was a similar level opponent, but one that I made great use of. (I don't have the imitation ability he has though).

I don't think you can really play being always the worst player on the court. Its socially problematic.

 

Answer is yes & no.

• An intermediate player will improve drastically only when he plays with a peer group one level above him. Then he can have competitive games, longer rallies and learn many things from better players.
• But if the difference in skill level is too much, it is pointless -there will not be any competitive games and rallies will be over even before you realize.(Unless, the peer group is ready to mentor the inferior player by slowing down-then I would call that coaching)

One step at a time is the right strategy. Find a group slightly above your skill levels. Match them, excel them and move on.Don't ever get complacent and stick to an inferior group.