Tournament tips :)

Now Im no expert, am a decent players who played a lot of tournaments local and not so local lol but nothing professional. Club standard. I thought id share a few of my experiences with people to help them with their own competitions.

Prep:

NO exercise or badminton the day before the event!!!!!!!!: - Ul jus tire yourself out and to be honest if you need to practice the nit before a comp, ur telling urself, im not ready because 1 more nit of practice will not improve ur game. Take it easy so your body is is fully fresh for the comp.

Light gentle exercise 2 days before the event: - For me I find a nice gentle 20 min jog at a pace in which I can sing to my hearts content is good. For me I feel its keep the body going so u arent resting too much but more importantly, i feel it helps get me loose. If you are training hard, a gentle day is what the body needs to heal faster than a complete rest so try it and c. I find it works for me.

Carb build: - I find eating a lot of food the night before a tourny is good. Some tournaments can last hours and u need the energy to keep going. U dont want to eat to much on the day due to playing and nerves etc but having lot of food the night before or day before will help make sure ur stores are full ready for the comp.

The actual competition:

This is where things are more complicated as it depends on the player. What kind of a player are you? Do you play better in practice or when ur under the pressure? If your the 1st (better in practice), then try and relax yourself. Listen to calming music, take few slow deep breathes. Even leading up to the competition - visualise playing calm in the competition playing your best. Everything going in etc.

If your the latter - well you shouldnt ave to do too much but jus run on aut pilot.

All in all, dont think about the end result whether ur thinking about winning or you dont want to lose cause u cant predict the future! The brain cant do it so u confuse it with a command it cant carry out. Instead focus on the point at hand. When you are inbetween shots, when the person is about to serve, I always think, what do i have to do to win this point?

Learn from your mistakes. If you get caught on a shot, ask why and more importantly tell yourself what u need to do to fix it. For example I was playing a man with a awkward forehand serve esp in the right court. He would flick in deceptively down the backhand side and point won!!! He caught me on this 1st time so i said to myself, "Stand more at left side of court to protect my backhand side and be aware of this flick serve." Next time he tried it, I smashed it down his throat .
This is a process I do continuely although sometimes I forget and play on autopilot but it does work.

Dont get angry cause for 99% of players, ur game will get worse! Keep calm, we are not machines, mistakes happen. Jus say to yourself next shot, and what u need to fix it. This means you are not continuing to think about your mistake and therefore losing more points over it. You make an error, so what, move on, next shot and forget about it!

Badminton is a funny game with regards to if you have a terrible warm up doesnt mean nothing!! In my tourny, my warm up was terrible, mishits with 70% of my clears and other bits and bobs but when i played, I was playing fantastic!! Its amazing how a different game can change everything.

Jus because you have a bad game doesn not mean u will have a bad night!! And vise versa, jus because you have a good game doesnt mean you can try less harder and take your foot off the pedal!!!

Never underestimate ur opponents!!! This is a big 1 even for me as Ive done this. Never judge any1. Ive seen players who i watched and I thought:- crap!!!!!!!!!! and they beat me and im shocked!!! As soon as you say some1 is bad, your brain says I dont have to try so you dont try and then u wonder why u lose, cause they are trying their socks off to win. Always keep telling urself, I dont care if your Lin dan or some child who is learning, if your in this tourney against me, Im going to give 100% and crush you into the dust!

Its all experience! Only 1 person can win! Thats jus the way it is. There are some of us who most things we enter we win and thats great for them but most of us are not like that. Ive played now in about between doubles, mixed and singles - 20 comps over the past 3 years or so. Ive only won once!!! Ive been runner up 6/ 7 times which am proud of. Ive seen many players who lose and take a real angry fit and will think about it for days putting themselves down saying am crap, am terrible etc etc. This is the wrong attitude. U didnt lose the competition, u jus learned something more about urself. Why did you lose, what did you learn. I lost in my last 1 due to fitness and jitters on my serve in the final. I will now go again and train on these things so next time I wil be fitter and I will fix my serve so its rock steady. Theres always something to learn.

There is so much more to this topic so I welcome any1 else to has a lot of experience to share their words of wisdom and if you disagree with any of my comments, feel free. They work for me and as i said, am no professional badminton player

 

With regards to eating on the day. Eat atleast 1hr and half before it if not more!! If u can eat gud feed 2 - 3 hours before is gud. If you have to eat say an hour before if you have no choice, eat small meal like sandwich.

I always bring plenty of energy drink with me and also a protein drink for when am done to help feed my muscles after the comp. I find for me its not advisable to drink massive gulps of energy drinks when playing as its sloshes about my stomach and annoys me a bit. If you have to drink, drink sips during play and if you know u will be off for 10mins or more, then ave ur big gulps of drink. Jus from personal experience, I find i almost feel bloated when playin if I drink to much whilst playing

 

I also find a routine is important for tournaments but this needs to be done every time you play. Its a way of getting the body and brain ready for play! For example every time I play, my rountine starts when am getting ready. Il get al my stuff ready. Il check my bag with a mental check list to make sure its all there. In the car, Il get good kick butt music on and start thinking about playing and playing in my head great shots. Being really serious and into it. Thats my routine. I do this every time I play.

Its also very important if you want to be up there in my eyes to be consistant every time you play. Wot i mean is, you either go and try ur hardest every time you play or dont bother. I used to go at times and play real hard and my best, other times if the players werent good, id have a laugh and mess about and of course probably not play to my best. I found this made me incosistant so when I wanted to play hard and at the best of my ability, i coudnt sometimes. I myself personally need to play hard and try 100% every time i play to train my brain, when I step on this court, thats it, its butt kicking time and its working for me!!

If am aving a bad day or not into the game the way I should be, I go home for I am only training bad habits and bad shots so keep this in mind. I heard a story my coach told me about a national irish lady player who came to a club night once. She was put against a couple of new beginners who had never played before and she had no mercy and destroyed them!! The coach was bit shocked wondering why she was so hard on them. He asked her this and her responce was this is jus how I play. She didnt know any different!! She had trained her brain to give her all and best all the time no matter what.

Fair enough am not expecting you to do this to this extreme but jus be aware of it. To play 1 nit easy and having a laugh and another nit, al serious and giving it ur all, u r sending ur brain mixed messages. This could be why some nits you jus cant seem to get ur shots working or r having a bad nit when u r wanting to be serious. Fair enough we are human and make errors and have bad nits, it happens and we have to be aware of this but jus keep this in mind. It has certainly helped me keep on form.