How to anticipate your opponent’s next move?

Discussion in 'Techniques / Training' started by jyang, Dec 4, 2002.

  1. jyang

    jyang Regular Member

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    I am an intermediate player, I couldn’t seem to find a way to better anticipate/guess my opponent’s next move in a game or match situation, my question is, should I:

    1) watch the shuttle when he hits, or
    2) watch his racquet movement or
    3) else

    Also when I return a shot, I would like to see/know where my opponent stands, so I can better position my shots, it seems very difficult to do cause I can’t seem to leave my eyes off the shuttle, I would like to know how other people are doing it, it’s nice to know where your opponents are before you make you move. Thanks!
     
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  2. jwu

    jwu Regular Member

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    Anticipate opponent's move:
    I get a feel of what my opponents would do by watching them play before hand. Everyone has tendencies and fav. shots. Another way to learn is a "crash course" on your opponent's playing style during the first few points. Also don't be too rushed in judgement, watch opponent's wrist movement can help you determine the power and direction of the hit sometime. these are some of the things that help me, of course I doubt they are perfect or else I would be a much better player myself. :D

    Returning shots:
    How is your peripheral vision? :p I keep a mental image of where the opponent is right when the shuttle is first hit, then the rest is just peripheral vision (general direction of opponent's movement and new position), and hearing (opponent's footstep how fast they get to where they want to go, heavy strides=running, soft quick steps, etc.). Another thing I've been doing is keeping my non-racquet hand pointing and following the bird so sometime I do get a chance of quick glance at my opponent before hitting and not lose focus on the bird.

    Hope this helps. :D
     
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  3. jyang

    jyang Regular Member

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    Thanks for the tips jwu, it does make sense, I need to incorporate more of that to my games, if I can anticipate and see better, I can then hit shots harder for my oppoents to return.
     
  4. tfc

    tfc Regular Member

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    plan few shots at a time

    Just like chess, when you hit the shuttle, you should also know what are the
    possible returns of you opp. After a while you would be able to anticipate few
    shots ahead. When you can plan your shots to manoeuvre your opp. into
    a bad position and/or bad return, then you are really play the game rather
    than hit the bird.
     
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  5. Lefty

    Lefty Regular Member

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    If you're an intermediate player, the best thing for you is not to anticipate your opponent's shot. Don't try to guess their shot because if you guess wrong, you need to spend twice as much energy to push yourself back into another direction and you'll get tired out pretty quickly.

    Instead of anticipating your opponent's shot, learn to anticipate your own shots first. For example, if you know you're already off balance or you're not fast enough to return the drop after your opponent block your smash, then don't smash. Get to know your own shot and know that you'll be able to cover the most difficult shot your opponent can return, then everything else will become easy. You wouldn't get yourself in trouble.

    Anticipating during the tournament is another thing. My coach taught me to test your opponent during warm up and the first 5 points. But when you're practicing, try not to guess your opponent's shot. Learn to react to the bird so player with tricky stroke can't get to you.
     
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  6. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

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    I think Lefty has some solid advice for intermediates like me and yourself. At the intermediate level, the shots are so hard most of the time that you actually need to anticipate.

    After I return a shot, i just get back into the "default position," slightly closer to the probable place of return: close to front for low shots, closer to back for high shots.

    If you are intermediate, looking at where their body are facing is usually a good hint, but i don't usually pay too much attention anyway.
     
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  7. Californian

    Californian Regular Member

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    I like this article from the IBF website entitled PERCEPTUAL PSYCHOLOGY.

    "One discipline in which badminton has been comparatively well researched is that of perceptual psychology. Abernethy's work in the late 1980's (Abernethy, 1988, 1989; Abernethy & Russell, 1987a, 1987b) demonstrated that expert badminton players can anticipate where their opponent is going to place the shuttle better than novice players do. This was due to expert players picking up information earlier in the stroke sequence (167 - 83 ms prior to contact with the shuttle) and their ability to gain information from their opponent's racket arm despite identical visual search strategies being used in the two groups (Abernethy & Russell, 1987a, 1987b).

    Further study showed that some expert-novice difference was still apparent regardless of the degree of expertise (Abernethy, 1989) or the age of the players (Abernethy, 1988). However older experts (adults) showed a better ability to predict opponents shots earlier in the stroke sequence than younger experts (12 - 16 year olds).

    Put in simple terms, this demonstrates that the longer a player has played badminton, the better his or her anticipatory skills will be. The challenge for coaches is to "fast-track" these skills to allow better perceptual awareness of opponents. Some recent papers (Starkes & Lindley, 1994; Abernethy, 1996) using video training may provide the solution for coaches and this is certainly worth exploring in the future."


    I find this to be true, both when playing less experienced and more experienced players. The longer you've played, the more opponents you've played, the easier it is to pick up clues about the coming shot. Of course, that may or may not be enough to make a difference in the end.
     
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  8. Joanne

    Joanne Regular Member

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    Californian, great article! You know, I've never tried to anticipate a more experienced player before, but I always anicipate shots with people of less experince. And when I'm playing with my friends. (;) ) I just go back to the middle of the court and wait for the next shot. Sure, I do ancipate my opponents shots once in a while. You know, I'm gonna use all of your advice at the badminton camp when I'm back home from Malacca. Some people can do trick shots though, they run and jump as if they're going to smash, with their racquet all high then hit it just across the net. lol, that's why I always prepare myself now, making sure I'm in the correct place if he does either type.
     
  9. ronk

    ronk Regular Member

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    I was talking with the best player (US national training squad) in my club (who shows up every now and then) and to him, reaction is automatic. He just reacts very fast and it very difficult to catch him off guard except with really good deceptive style strokes. However, he can catch most of the other club members off guard easily. He has had a lot of coaching and practice with advance players.

    The expertise issue and the automaticity of responses have been well studied in the perception and psychological literature (and I will not go into it in any great detail), but basically experts perceive whole patterns faster and better. They also know what cues are relevant and what cues are not relevant. Practice alone is not enough, but relevant practice together with some inherent ability can result in better reaction to various badminton strokes.

    Ron
     
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  10. jyang

    jyang Regular Member

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    I played with a national ranking player once, I wasn't able to even get a point, it seems he was able to 'freeze' me in most of the shots, it's so decetive, I was just standing there watching him do whatever he wants to the shuttle. It seemed he was able to get to bird so early, then wait til the last moment to hit it.

    I wonder how an 'ordinary' player like me could learn those 'decetive' moves, as well as improving the overall response/awareness on the court, any particular drilling you can do on/off the court, I can only commit 4-5hrs of badminton time each week.
     
  11. bigredlemon

    bigredlemon Regular Member

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    This is typically done by having one "generic" swing, and then rely on wrist power at the last possible quater-second to direct the bird's direction and speed, i think. Its not too easy to pull off though, so my accuracy and power usually goes down. Since i'm usually playing club-level intermediates, deception doesn't help my game much anyway.

    One technique I remmeber was to always swing the same way, and have some one call out the type of shot to make at the last second. (I.e. Smash to left!, clear to right corner!, etc)
     
  12. LIPlayer

    LIPlayer Regular Member

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    Very good topic!

    My two cents:

    Anticipating correctly comes with experience until then do not play your game on anticipation. Right attitude, in my judgement, is to learn how to keep an equilibrium (balance) position during play. Watch the shuttle and commit your body move only after hit not before.

    When you hit the shuttle, you should immediately move to appropiate receiving position. By the time your opponent hits back your body should be balance. In reality, you have very little time to bring yourself in right position with good balance and no momemtum either forward or backward. It is easy to say but in reality very difficult to do. Most of the time our inertia keep us moving to one or the other direction. If opponent hits in opposite direction to our momemtum then we need lot more extra energy to move in the right direction where the shuttle is going. But if you are balanced then it is relatively easy and energy efficient to move your body toward the shuttle.

    Another skill equally important and relavent is your Placements. If you learn to hit shuttle where your opponent have to take time or off balance then it is easier for you to come in right receiving position as you will have some extra time.

    Therefore I believe, after basics, there are only two things to improve upon. One is Positioning and Second Placements (i.e., Racket skills..) and both start with P. These P's are the main reasons why a higher skill player needs lot less energy (stamina) then lower skill player. Personally, I can out run many high level players on tread mill or may be be in sprint run but when comes to playing singles I am the one who huff and puff much sooner.
     
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  13. dlp

    dlp Regular Member

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    This is an interesting thread and ties in well with the recent thread on deception.

    Anticipation can be trained, every time we play we train ourselves to anticipate. Many of the comments here focus on trying to read your opponents strokes before he hits the shuttle. I think when playing people of your own standard or at higher levels this is a risky approach. Sometimes you can read their shots but often , for better players, when they have a choice of shot they will be able to see your position in the court and deceive you. Some signals are clear, many players hit the shuttle wider of their body when they intend to slice, this can be recognised and read. On return of serve some players stand with a certain grip and always brush the same way, again a well directed serve can bring an interception and kill.

    What is useful is identifying patterns of play and likely replies. We all do this to some extent anyway. The obvious examples are when you have smashed down the line forcing a net reply, or better a straight net reply, or when your opponent is taking the shuttle late in the rear court and you know they cannot clear. In both these examples you would anticipate a net reply and move accordingly, before they had hit.

    This can also occur in doubles. For instance if your partner jumps out to the side to kill at the net do you rush to fill the opposite half court and net, or wait for the shuttle to be blocked there.
    Or if you jump out to smash in the rear corner do you anticipate you partner covering a cross court lift or do initially try to cover it.

    By repeating such patterns of play in practice we are able to perform them more fluently and at a subconscious level. Thus the better players appear to be faster and using more anticipation, but it is important to recognise that this can be learned and trained to an extent.

    We react quicker when we have the "options" in our mind. If we decide that the server will serve to the T or flick a wide serve may bring a very late reaction since we have not "considered" it. A player jumping up may clear occassionally and bring a winner since we have set ourselves for the logical defensive shots from the jump smash or drop.
     
  14. blckknght

    blckknght Regular Member

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    Watch the Contact

    Hey,
    a couple words from the wise (not me, Andy Chong). For him, he says the important thing is to watch your opponent contact the birdie - that's what clues you in, not their body. He said (and demonstrated to me) that if you watch their body you get fooled.

    g
     
  15. Yodums

    Yodums Regular Member

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    Re: Watch the Contact

    There seems to be drawbacks from every method. I mean if your opponent had great deception than nothing would you help you much considering he can execute like an attacking clear/push, drop, slice etc from the same position.

    But usually at my age not many people have deception and lots of people wind up for like clears so it's pretty visible. Cept it's easier said than done. :rolleyes: Sometimes in a game I know that I can see what they're doing next but make dumb errors and then I just want to check myself in the insane asylum or something.
     
  16. Matt Ross

    Matt Ross Regular Member

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    Hi,

    There are many ways to guess your opponents next move. I play very little singles and feel this is the main one that requires great anticipation. I'm not saying that doubles doesn't, but requires a little less.
    There are many tell tell signs about what a person is going to do. The person i ''coach'', when recieving a high serve, actually closes his move and puffs out his cheeks for a smash. This is obvious, so i take a step back from my base and wait for the smash to come.
    Also, the angle of the racket will tell you. If they have it facing a particular way then obviously chances are that it'll go over that way.
    Like i say, i done specialise in singles but thought i'd give my two cents. The way to develop anticipation is....

    ''EXPERIENCE''

    Due to the fact you've played so many people at different standards, the angle of the body etc will be instantly recognisable and that way you can increase the chance of guessing correctly.

    Matt
     
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  17. jwu

    jwu Regular Member

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    Think Matt summed it up the best with "experience." Through enough gameplay and watching people, somehow you will just know and can guess what your opponent might do.
    With doubles, I think it's more of an anticipation of what your partner will do rather than what your opponent will do.
     
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  18. nSmash

    nSmash Regular Member

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    Anticipation is most effective when the opponent's habits are known e.g.
    some people will do a cross court drop from a clear to the sides 4 out of
    5 times, some people do only straight drops, some people smash
    everything above their head that's dropping before the doubles service
    line and drop or clear everything that's falling further back or seldom hit
    cross-court nets, etc

    When confronted with a tricky, deceptive opponent, it's best to forget
    anticipation and rely on reaction when it's clear that the opponent
    "has time" and use a little anticipation when it's clear that the opponent
    doesn't have a lot of shot options.

    When reacting, focus on the space approx. 6 inches in front of the
    opponents racquet face. With practice, this should be enough to give
    a sense of where the shuttle is going and how fast. I've seen players
    who are too quick on their feet when anticipating and frequently get
    wrong-footed by players with quick eyes. If you have a habit of watching
    racquet or body movement, you will be easily fooled, especially against
    opponents with good wrist control.
     
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  19. unregistered

    unregistered Regular Member

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    hah!

    becos i play with many people i anticipate correctly but when i play with my uncle who doesnt smash he hits shots accurately..... like.. drop shot same place 2 times......... or hit back 2 times...... How to anticipate? throw u off balance...... When he does a body feint.. is it possible to anticipate? Best is to stay put right.....
     
  20. chris-ccc

    chris-ccc Regular Member

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    How to anticipate your opponent's next move?

    Greetings,

    This is a good thread... "How to anticipate your opponent's next move?".

    I will post soon what/how scientists are studying/working on this subject.

    Cheers... chris@ccc
     

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