I think if you're trying to be in competitive mode all the time you should actually be leaving them if they're out. In competitions people might only be hitting it out by a few cm, and if you're regularly hitting them in friendly matches you're not developing the awareness to leave shuttles when you need to.
Isn't this just a feeling thing? If you have a hard time judging, let a few fly by. It's not intentionally losing points or sacrificing the rally since there's a decent chance that the shuttle is out. Plus you'll be developing 'feeling' for these shots as you do this.
You can play specific drill games to enhance your judging capacity on the line calls. Play half court (or full court) singles where only points are valid when the shuttle lands between the short service line and the net (gets you to also work on your drop shots, and netplay) and between the doubles back service line and the backline (gets you to play lift, clears, you will learn how to be more consistent and precise on those shots and judge better when letting the shuttle drop). All other areas are considered fault including the middle of the court. If a shuttle goes out at the back of the court it's -1 point. That will push players to let the shuttle drops to get one point and have their opponent loose 1. You will end up working on your clears, drops, lifts and netplay while learning how to better judge when it's in or out at the back.
I want also to add shadow footwork. This helps to develop a rhythm to reach each corner and the sides. If you need an additional step to reach the shuttle it is out. Also you can do drills for the backcourt and give the feeder the additional task to play 1-2 shuttles out of 10 too long. Also record yourself from the side of the backcourt to get a feel were you stand and hit. There are soooo many solutions and easy solutions for this simple problem.
Besides it's a skill too to judge when a shuttle is in or out so it demands training somehow. Dare to make mistakes and misjudgments here and there it will only be beneficial on the long term.
Definitely. I've got a playing buddy who when I play against I can hit almost 1 ft wide or long and he will hit it because he can't judge it even if his life depended on it. Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
It is precisely this - the difference between playing to win and playing not to lose. By hitting every stroke that 'might' be out, you are not playing to win, just like you would be if you decided to wait for a net shot to tumble down lower and play a high lift, rather than take it earlier and play a push/drive/net/kill in response. Playing to win doesn't mean playing aggressively - it mean you shouldn't be risk averse, that is to say, you should be playing to maintain a neutral rally or perhaps take the occasional risk, but you should not be giving away opportunities to your opponent or relieving him of pressure easily! The approach to line judgement should be similar - in competition/serious games, you should aim to take as many points as possible where you think your opponent might have hit a shot 5-10cm out, but if you think it's more like 1-2cm out (or even on the line), then you would be best to continue the rally. In training, you might want to be less risk averse and take more chances i.e. you should leave it even if you think it's on the line itself, which means you can confirm your judgement, or adjust as necessary. If you take every shot even if you think it is 10cm out of the court, you will never know if it was in or not.
I think it is all about risk-reward. Higher risks can lead to higher rewards, in this example, risking to lose a point by leting the shuttle drop, will be rewarded by gaining a point immediatly. On the other hand, if you are under pressure like 5-6 pts behind, you want to play more safely and are you really risking to lose a pt in this situation because you are unsure if it will be in or not ?
Some people play this way, where they adjust their play according to the scoreline (myself included). It is seen by coaches as a bad habit. At the highest level, players are drilled to ignore the score. That every point is the same. If you watch the pro's, they will often leave shuttles 1cm out when their opponent is on 20 points - we find it incredibly brave, but they are playing every point the same. Otherwise, they will give their opponent too much ground - you are basically saying when your opponent hits 19/20 points, you are willing to make your side of the court bigger. If I were your opponent, I would say thanks. I've even seen tournaments where the coach and player are chanting "it's 0-0", to remind themselves that they should play every point the same. It is quite amusing to see a coach ask his player, "What's the score, x?", "IT'S NIL-NIL!" being the response. The coach/player shouldn't really care about the score, with it only being relevant to pacing themselves in terms of intensity of movement over the course of a match. In this way, not only do they play more consistently within a game, they are less likely to: crack when their opponents get ahead by 5+ points, get lazy when they get 5+ points ahead, or get tense when they get towards the 20 point mark in a close game.
I fully agree with the general idea of playing every rally like it's 0-0 which I try to do but as amateurs we are the one keeping up with the score and it definitely gets in your head a bit faster than it does for pros who can just take a look at the board quickly to be reminded of the score without paying that much attention to it. By keeping scores we are constantly reminded of where we're at in the set and that's not always easy to play like it's 0-0 when we're losing 17-20.
Even at 17-20 the game isn't over and none had won or lost. Especially at this score (me and partner having 17), I don't do any risky thing. I'm confident about my shot security. How often do opponents say "Just one point" they're so close to win and think that this one point will go to them and then their unforced error chance is high. As longer as the rally goes they often go risky. The closer I come they go riskier as well. This is an advantage which you can use. When you want to force yourself to make 3 quick points, one of them will go to the opponent and you will lose 100%. Especially when you might think "I'm gone to lose" you will have an advantage if you play safe and secure with trust in yourself and your opponent will tend to make errors.
