To Wildstyle (was: Mixed Doubles)

[raymond]

Don't know why the other thread was closed/locked. Anyhow...

I'd say the training perhaps is more on you than on your partner, given what
you described so far (i.e. physical Singles games).

As for your partner, you probably can't use the traditional Doubles/Mixed
strategy/formation. Just a few thoughts:

+ Make sure she can handle receiving serves well. Perhaps this's the part
you two need to work on. This is about the only time you absolutely can't
help at all. Of course make sure she doesn't hit up in her replies. If she can't
even manage this part well, I'd say you'd lose 1/2 of each game real fast.

+ Put her closer to the net (perhaps even in front of the service line). The
idea is to "hide" her from your opponents. The opponent guy won't be able
to easily pound on her.

+ If you want, ask her to track the lady on the other side; just move to the side in
front of the lady opponent. Have her racket up. The strategy is to attack the
other girl, and your partner would always be ready to put away weak block
returns.

+ As other people suggest, you'd have to play 1-on-2 with a bigger court on your
side.

That's probably all you can hope for. The ounce is on YOU... If you can take
90%+ of the shots, your games would have success/consistency that of yours,
not that of your partner. Good luck.

[wildstyler]

raymond: Thanks for the reply, I don't know where the thread I posted is, really weird. But if you do find it, please tell me. Thanks a lot.

Wildstyler

[wildstyler]

hey, I just found the thread that i posted and yes I'm in the CoSSa area. it's not that hard, hopefully. but from what i've got from the other thread, i think the only things the hot girl needs to work on are net shots, net kills, serving, and receiving serves and for me I guess i have to work on footwork and teaching her the stuff above. hopefully i can cram these things in. Bay of Quinte is in a week and CoSSa is in 2 weeks, just wish me luck and well... give me some more tips if you guys and gals can. thanks.
later
wildstyler

[bigredlemon]

Originally posted by wildstyler
hey, I just found the thread that i posted and yes I'm in the CoSSa area. it's not that hard, hopefully. but from what i've got from the other thread, i think the only things the hot girl needs to work on are net shots, net kills, serving, and receiving serves and for me I guess i have to work on footwork and teaching her the stuff above. hopefully i can cram these things in. Bay of Quinte is in a week and CoSSa is in 2 weeks, just wish me luck and well... give me some more tips if you guys and gals can. thanks.
later
wildstyler
Maybe the girl could try this serve: smile, wink, flick.
Gets me everythime! :p

[wildstyler]

to bigredlemon: too bad she's not that kind of a person. she's a good girl. haha. but it's better than nothing right? haha j/k. cmon, something usefull here!!!

wildstyler

[Winex West Can]

Originally posted by raymond
Don't know why the other thread was closed/locked. Anyhow...


Coz the postings were getting off track. Instead of focussing on the main topic (how to teach beginners in XD in two weeks), it got off track on how hot wildstyler's partner-to-be is, etc..

Cheung already issued a warning and yet no one seems to notice.

[bigredlemon]

Originally posted by Winex West Can
Cheung already issued a warning and yet no one seems to notice.
Where was the warning? :o Guess it got locked before i had a chance to see it.

anyways, make sure your partner knows which shots to get or not to get. Call out each shot if you need to, even if it sounds a little silly. If you are much better than her, than have her only go for shots that are easy for her to get and or difficult for you to get. I know this sounds obvious but i've seen many times when the girl runs to get a shot she couldn't get in position to return, making it impossible for either of you to return it.

[Cheung]

WWC, Thank You!!!

[wildstyler]

to all: ya, I was hoping for a more of a response to the topic rather than the girl. but hopefully you guys could come up with something good on this thread because i really need help or maybe i shouldn't have played mixed but i guess the coach kind of force me to so... oh... well... i'll do my best! report my scores here so you guys will know. thanks
wildstyler
ps:cheung - sorry :p

[nSmash]

If you're dead serious about training yourself to back up your partner,
try this... get 2 of your friends who are at a fairly comparable level to
yourself and play against them 1 on 2. See how long you can keep
the rallies going without giving them any clear opportunity to smash,
instead creating opportunities for yourself to smash. You can ask your
friends to avoid playing tight netshots in the beginning e.g. hairpin
and tumble shots, until you feel more confident.

As for your partner, you are right... focus on netplay and serves but
delay the fancy crosscourt stuff until later. It's more important to keep
the shuttle low/tight to avoid netkills by the other side. You can also
train her to do a weak drive or drop so that the shuttle travels down
the side of the court closer to the tramlines and lands about 1/2 way
between the service line and the baseline. To cut down on the angles
you have to cover, you might like to try avoid playing in or to the
tramlines altogether, unless you have a sure kill or you can pull your
opponents way out of position and create a huge opportunity for
yourself as a result.

[Kariya]

A team is sonly as strong as its weakest link. Not to put you down, but it would be next to impossible for you to actually teach her all the things mentioned above. Anyways, if you really want to improve, have her practise net kills, and tight net shots. If shes got good reflexes, try and get some smash returns as well. Good Luck. And try to focus on using you strengths, and exploiting the other teams weakness. If you get caught up in this, and worry too much, you wont play as well.

[LazyBuddy]

wildstyler,

How's the progress in the 1st wk? Any particular drills that u did with ur partner? How did she like it? Any improvements?

[wildstyler]

To Lazybuddy: I hate to say this, but haven't practiced with her for the first week because of two day snow days that occured on Thursday and Friday, so no school for me and her which results in no badminton for me and her. But I'll give you some feedback on how our progression is, our teams going to have practice tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday, but wiht Thursday left out to play another school which won't be a hard challenge from what I heard. Hopefully there isn't going to be more snow days, though I heard that there might be one tomorrow. :(
I'll give you some info after tomorrow's practice, if we have any :(

Wildstyler

[wildstyler]

Just to inform you guys and gals on how I did in the First Qualifying Round to Ofssa (Still another one to go). I placed 4th, but I believe my team can beat the other players with just a bit of practice. Though it was hard playing against some teams, I think we can qualify for Ofssa (I'm not over-confident or anything, but I believe). Also, the next Round is next week, Wednesday. Any suggestions on how to keep up the good work or maybe improve?
I'll give further details later because it's late for me already, got a time limit on computer time. But tomorrow is Good Friday, so no school. I'll be posting more info tomorrow. Thanks for the support.

Wildstyler

[LazyBuddy]

wildstyler,

Good to know u have such a lot of confidence. Keep up with good work, and if u r willing to provide us a little bit more "analysis" on ur current situation, i think u will receive more feedback from everyone.

[wildstyler]

Sorry for the delay of reply because I had to go to a Youth Rally yesterday. So now I'm going to explain all that my partner has learnt from the last tournament.

First of all lets go to the serves, she's going to usually serve low to the man and long to the woman, but with some exception which I'll tell her.
Second, when she serves short she's going to follow in to it and expect a cross court net shot because that's what the woman will probably do because my partner is weaker. So any replies from the woman she will attempt to hit down.
Third, if she serves long then we will take a side to side formation, if the opponent constantly smashes at her then I'll have to cheat one side to return some of the smashes.
Fourth, I'll move on to receiving serves, if she gets a high one she'll try to smash down the line or just do whatever done the line. For low ones, she'll just do the usual and stay in front to play the net.
Fifth, now to the rallies when the bird is in play after the serve and receiving the serve. She will not play net shots when the opponent has played one already, but try to push down the line instead.

I can't think of anything right now, and I didn't bother to read over what I just typed, so any confusion please tell me.

Thanks,
Wildstyler

[bigredlemon]

sound like a solid plan. Hope it's not etched in stone though. Badminton is like a mind game and being flexible to the situation can yeild great benefits. You'll let her serve long if the other girl starts creeping too closer to the front right?

Also, for the man's serve, you think she could handle a cross court drop shot? If the drop shot catches her off guard (expecting a smash) then a good drop might be problematic as it would either cause you to lose a point or force a weak return + out of position. Make sure she knows to expect all the possibilities to avoid being caught off guard... something newbs are vulnerable to. But then again, you don't want to overwhelm her either. Use your judegement i guess.

[wildstyler]

To BRL: Ofcourse! It's not carved into stone that she has to do these things, but it's what she learnt and could use during a game. Sorry for the confusion :p .

Wildstyler

PS: Any other suggestions you think would help me, BRL?

[LazyBuddy]

Wildstyler,

Not bad that ur 2 have various plans to handle different situation. Strategy vise, I don't think I can add too much, but just need to know, "always easy to know/learn, hard to masterize and perform in consistent base".

Also, try to let ur partner be mentally prepared. I have seen so many cases, that the ladies in XD, started to lose their confidence (losing consecutive pts) after massive attacks from opponents. Need to let her know, it's ok to lose some pts, or even lose a set, as long as she tried. No matter leading or losing, make sure stay in the game. Once she still perform, u always get a chance. Once she stops, and get bothered, well, needless to talk about the result.

Also, if she could not find a effective way to avoid the attack, try to be aggressive to let the other team's lady getting into trouble first. Sometimes, good offense is the best defense.

[wildstyler]

I don't worry about the mental side because I keep on encouraging her to do better and it's ok that she missed a shot or hit it in the net. I don't know if you've seen teams do this, but we clash our rackets lightly together after every rally (not intended to chip the racket or anything :p ). Usually the first match is the most nervous one, I don't know why but it just is. Nothing really much to add, but thanks again.

Wildstyler

[LazyBuddy]

Originally posted by wildstyler
I don't know if you've seen teams do this, but we clash our rackets lightly together after every rally (not intended to chip the racket or anything :p ).

Nah... Don't want to put my rackets (both are mine, since my partner lost his rackets in parking lot, and recent days, he just borrow my tactic 8500). So, if anything happened, only I will cry, not him. :o :D

We only high-five each other after some good rallies.

[wildstyler]

or we high five...
meh... same thing

Wildstyler