Fundamental singles tactics don't change: make your opponent work as hard as possible. This means: Move your opponent between the extreme four corners of the court. Vary your shot selection to avoid becoming predictable. In theory, the optimal tactic is to move your opponent back and forth along one diagonal of the court. In practice this is not true, because you become predictable. Also, varying the placement forces your opponent to change direction more. So: play to the extreme corners (except on high serves, which should be down the middle). Vary your shots to keep the opponent under maximum pressure. Smash only when you have an advantage. Most of your shots will be fast drops, net shots, attacking clears and lifts. Where necessary you can deviate from this strategy, to reduce the pressure on yourself: play higher clears and lifts, and play shots to the middle rather than the sides of the court. That's a quick primer on singles' tactics; search the forums for more details!
Also, it eliminates the down the line shot. The reciever is forced to hit either down the middle where you already are, or a diagonal shot to the corners, but we all know from simple geometry, the diagonal shot has a longer distance to travel, therefore you have more time. Of course, the disadvantage is, the reciever is also at the middle of the court so you have not exposed any openings yet.
I mix it up sometimes, for low serves... The distance and place, so that they can't guess and rush. (singles) Everything depends, I see KJ and Taufik serve wide on short serves quite a bit.
Learn how to do fake shots, like Lin Dan and Taufik. They're both really good at being deceptive at the net and at the back of the court. One instance is...if your opponent dropshots, and you get there in time--fake it. Make everything (footwork, racquet head, eyes, hand motion) look like you're going to do a drop shot--and when he COMMITS past midcourt, flick it to the back of the court. Also, get to the center of the court ASAP after every shot. There's a reason why most singles pros don't smash their hardest....once they smash, they won't have recovery time. So, they smash at a medium power / high accuracy level, so they can recover for the next shot.
Sometimes they smash their hardest... Depends on the situation. They link their footwork, so they don't "go back to the middle" after the shot, and sometimes rush the net for the kill or tight drop after a good, hard, angled smash that moved the opponent out of position. The footwork for the followup is slightly different than that from the middle.
fake shots are generally a bad idea because you are much more likely to make errors. Usually a simple block is much better. Although occasionally you might see Lin Dan, CHen Hong or Gade do a fake shot, the vast majority of the time they won't do that, instead choosing to play a more simple shot. The reason for this is that even they are likely to make a mess of a trickshot most of the time, and also usually the top players don't get fooled by it anyway. Remember deception is a totally different thing to trickshots. Most pros do smash their hardest, as it is the ultimate shot, but only when they are in a good enough position to recover. Most of the other times they are trying to get their opponent out of position
Does the original poster play at a professional level? And, what you just posted was total garbage because it didn't satisfy the requirements of the post. He asked for suggestions on singles tactics--that means you have to suggest a tactic. You just countered what I said. Now, I'm going to satisfy the requirements to post in this topic--I'm going to suggest to the original poster to do a lot of footwork drills.
Actually, fast3r did recommend a tactic. He recommended to play more simple shots instead of trying to be tricky and make errors. And that is true, professionals don't always play trickshots. You don't have to be a pro to know that, just go watch a professional level game close up and you'll know. Regarding the tactics, it is ever changing within a game itself. Generally, you have a strategy for a game, and many tactics for a game. An overly simplified version of this would be: Say you're playing a slower opponent, your strategy would be to win through speed and power. Your tactics, could be either to play fast rallies or to play medium paced rallies, waiting for him to make a lift so you can get a smash. You have to change your tactics within a game based on a situation. Sometimes it is impossible to keep playing fast rallies all the time as the opponent can wear you out. Sometimes its impossible to play medium paced rallies trying to end it off with a smash all the time since the opponent might get used to your smashes. You have to switch tactics every once in a while to throw your opponent off
It doesn't matter whether they are professional or not. I said to keep shots simple rather than trying to be tricky and making a mess of it. Maybe there's a reason why pros don't play trick shots every time. Deception is a totally different, and good thing. Good singles players are deceptive, for example they prepare for a drop shot in the same way that they would for a clear, keeping their opponent guessing until they play the shot.
baseline to baseline i read your message, my first time to came in here...my question >what is baseline to baseline...?
"Baseline to baseline" means from the back of your court to the back of your opponent's court. The only stroke that does this is the clear. The phrase "clearing baseline to baseline" means playing a clear from the extreme back of your court to the extreme back of your opponent's court (that is, the full length of the entire court).
Vary your shots doesn't mean fake shots. For professional players, it's very important to keep the body action same before he/she hit the shuttlecock. This basic skill can make your opponent hard to predicate your shots. I don't know whether fast3r call this technique trickshots. I think professional players don't play deceptive shots many times in a game. I think this is because beceptive shots also make himself lost good shot positions and choices. This is same to simple block. For example, after you move close to net repidly to receive a drop. You can choose some more aggressive shots such as very-close-net-shot, push shot, even a smash if the birdie is high. But if you block, you will have to do net shot or lift. They're not so aggressive and your hit will becomer a little harder.
Trick shots are fake shots that shouldn't be used in games as its too risky. You are right in that pros don't play trickshots much at all. This is because it is a very risky stategy and the risk of error is high. Also at that level they don't really get 'tricked' that easily. Deception is exactly what you described in your first paragraph and is a totally different thing. It involves simple things like keeping racket preparation the same for every shot, like you said. Sorry for the misunderstanding
