Singles mental strategy

[ploppers]

I was watching Peter gade vs Lin Dan ENG finals the other day and noticed that Peter Gade seemed to know what kinds of shots to do in diferent stages in the game. For example, there was one point in the first game where Peter got 3 or 4 points in a row with short rallies. This was when Lin Dan was very frusturated and was missing his shots. Lin Dan, on the other hand, stuck to a fairly consistant game plan as Peter hid his emotion very well. you could not reconize how he felt throughout the game. My question is, what kinds of shot should you place more often when it is:
- The begining of the game
- When you oppenent is frusterated
- When your opponent feels confident
- When you are frusterated yourself
- Ending the game in your favour
- Losing by a large margin
etc...

thnx
AZ

 

[Big Slick]

It really depends on the person you're playing. You also have to take into acount that these top players play against eachother many times so they get to know eachothers games quite well. When you go out to play singles you might not know the guy you are playing against very well. Here's some options that you have:

Beginning of game:
1.Just keep the shuttle in play and try get settled down and get a feel for the game.
2.Go for early winners in the hope of getting a few quick and cheap points if your opponent isn't warmed up yet.

Opponent is frustrated
1.Keep the shuttle in play and wait for opponent to make mistakes. (frustrated players often want to keep rallies short and go for winners when they shouldn't.
2.Play some deceptive shots and try catch your opponent out (send them going the wrong way etc), this would just make them more frustrated...

Opponent feels confident
Not much you can do to get rid of opponent confidence becides winning a few points. Perhaps hiding any tiredness that you have as much as you can, then your opponent may lose some confidence if he starts to think that you are much fitter than him.

When you are frustrated
Chill out lol. Try not to go for winners when they just aren't there, cause you'll end up making lots of mistakes. Also try not to over complicate things and play easy shots.

Endind the game in your favour
This is just another term for winning lol. If I could explain how to win all games in a couple sentences, then I'd be a lot richer lol.

Losing by a large margin
Work out what your opponent is doing to win all his points, and do something about it!

 

[Neil Nicholls]

Endind the game in your favour
This is just another term for winning lol. If I could explain how to win all games in a couple sentences, then I'd be a lot richer lol.

I think the question meant, "how should you play when you are ahead in the game"
e.g. you are 10-4 ahead. Do you keep playing the same way or not?
answer: it depends.

 

[Dill]

I would try to keep the rally going for the first couple of points and see what the other player is capable of, you get more from this than a deceptive warm up for a couple of minutes with someone who can hide things from you.

After this try a few quick winners and to move your opponent around a bit and then try and wear them down quickly.