He drops a lot. I am good, was the best at my club till he turned up. I have been playing for maybe 6-7 yrs. He drops most of the time from the back(barely clears) and has an annoyingly decent backhand. whatever i do..... he's there because of his footwork, so its hard to break him down or beat him. Suggestions pls... i hate losing and not knowing what to work on
If he always drops and never clears from the back, then you've already defined one habit that you can use to your advantage. Anything predictable in your opponent is good for you, no? With an opponent with good footwork and "decent" with all shots, it is possible that you might have to be more patient in the rallies than you are used to being (given that you were the top dog in your club). So work the rallies a little more. Don't be surprised if he gets what others didn't. Just keep moving him about; keep the pressure on without prematurely going for winning (low-margin) shots; but when the situation presents, jump on it. Perhaps the best part of the new guy coming is that your game will improve as well. An opponent like this will focus you on further improving your own footwork, stamina, patience and consistency. Good Luck!
improve your explosivness and netplay. if he drops alot the best response is to launch exploisve and take the shuttle higher and closer to the net to gain an advantage. a tight quick block or diagonal block on the drop is always a goood response.. if the drop is slow ad predictable you may even be able to launch and kil it immideately.
If his footwork is good, then one option is to practice and improve the accuracy of your shots to the 4 corners - make sure drops are short and wide, not deep and central. Similar thing for clears. This will make his court 'bigger' and ensures that you work him as hard as possible. Shot selection will also play a part here
Yah... I hate playing against such players... It'll take much more rallies, stamina, patience, accuracy, tactics and even deception on your part to outplay someone like that.
Are you kidding me? I enjoy playing someone like that, and I'm not even a competitive player (days long gone). I'm guessing you're so used to be #1 in the club that anything else is bad. Strategically, the only guaranteed way to win against someone with better footwork is to kill at the first shot - he serves, you smash & get a point - so he doesn't get to use his fancy footwork. In reality, this will never happen as winning a point means that you'd serve to him, your smash doesn't have 100% kill rate, etc. Like others have said - improve yourself footwork & all. Expecting his drops is probably a good strategy & could net you a couple of points before he recognises that you're playing the memory game & change his tactics. Good players adapt to the situation at hand. Be one .
he's toying with you. He's probably a LOT better than you think and he's just using drop shots because he doesn't want to destroy you. He's beating you with just drop shots, so imagine how it'll be when he starts to mix things up (because I know for sure a player with excellent footwork, great backhand, and winning drop shots, has MANY more weapons at his disposal).
I read the first post, and thought, "boy! you don't know the half of it" and then I got down to your post! Totally agree!! Op should learn from his opponent, and take this golden opportunity to improve his net skills.
Thanks everyone Thanks for all the helpful replies...but to those of you who say he has many weapons, I was watching him play yesterday and he got taken apart but by someone with average footwork but good consistency and net play. The guy kept dropping and losing points and when he tried to clear they went sort of deep mid court no further. I can beat the person who beat him.... because of their different play styles. I have come to the conclusion that my footwork and net play and constancy needs to be involved so that i force him to clear. Anyone know any good footwork drills that can be done WITHOUT a court
search the footwork drill videos by user bonkowsky (he plays international tournaments and is fairly good...). the footwork drill by jonas rasmussen on youtube can be done without a court, an open space of reasonable size will be enough.
I'd like to visit this club. Must be interesting. I am in England at the moment and watching/playing in a few places. Very interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnnUGFtoP5Q&list=UUpEC9SYB1JopHnDHIu_4Yog&index=13&feature=plcp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFKAnvg_RQE&feature=bf_prev&list=UUpEC9SYB1JopHnDHIu_4Yog
MrBobby33 - definitely let us know how you get on with this project of yours. Report your first win over this guy and we'll all toast your victory.
add reading his opponent to the list and adjusting style / tactics accordingly. It shouldn't take 21 points to figure someone out given the claim that he's IHO one of the better players in the club.
I will play him on wednesday and hopefully should win, using my improved footwork and net skills will post the score on here