Hey, Ive been playing for nearly 1.5 years now and for the last few weeks I have been playing singles against my trainer every training session, 4-5 times a week. I have yet to win a match. He is rather tall, about 40 years old, ~1.85 m and he is 110 kg. With his strong build and his technique he can make his shots very deceptive, as he can hold very long before flicking with a very small action. He can play late backhand and forehand lifts and drives from the backcourt to any place inside my court. Im shorter, younger (23) and faster, but my technique is worse. Obviously he is not a runner type, but he does work very hard on court and for his weight he is very fit. When he cant play an easy forehand on his backhand side, he just uses a backhand which isnt much worse than his forehand. When the shuttle gets behind him he just runs up while it falls, taking it just before the ground and plays it very hard longline into my backcourt or crosscourt to the net. Problem is I expect him to hit much earlier and when he hits I already relaxed a bit and Im not able to make a fast first step. I tried to fix this, doesnt get better . Guess I need to keep trying. Without pressure I have decent footwork and can move fast around the court, but he breaks my rhythm and wrong foots me all the time. Also he can vary the pace very well. I sometimes win the first game when he didnt warm up, because hes slow then. But when I win a game or when hes warmed up and Im in a lead, he just starts quickening the pace with hard drives, smashes, drive serves etc. My choice of shot is very limited when I dont have the time to strike out, so he can run to where he thinks Im going to place the shuttle. I tried to make him run full distance and make him change directions a lot, which works for a while until he starts drive battles. He can effectively dictate the game and save energy at the same time then. I also tried to mix my shots, varying my serves and using sliced smashes and deceptive shots at the net, which works very well on a good day and then the matches are a lot closer. But he doesnt get exhausted then because the rallies are not very long. Any thoughts on this? I need a master game plan against him. I have beaten players at his level and I have beaten him half a year ago when he was not as fit. But I want to win against him while he is fit.
I recommend doing to him what he does to you: vary the pace. As soon as the rallies start getting faster, use a monstrously high defensive lift to pin him to the back line. I imagine he will hit a good shot from there, but aim towards the middle and he will struggle to hit any winners or deceive you. When he plays some slower shots, play some faster shots but makes sure you move him. How often do you use your punch clears to move him? When you have the opportunity to smash, do you play other types of shots too? e.g. clears, fast drops, slices etc. In particular, make use of the high lifts to the rear corners. He will struggle to start any "driving battles" from there, and you will have plenty of time to, hopefully, impose your speed on the game. The idea is move fast but play very defensive shots so the pace of the rally is actually very slow. I imagine this may frustrate him - the rallies will not be short, they will not be flat and fast, and he will not hit many winners. Give this a try and see what happens if he is any good, he will counter these tactics with some nasty tactics of his own
Agree pretty much with MS, make him move, serve high, don't play smashes unless its a clear winning chance. At 110 kg if he moves up and down the court consistently he will be working very hard. Avoid flat play. Look at what happens when he serves to you, don't give him an opportunity to dictate the pace, lift high to the back and then occasional soft return
Above are strong points that is valuable for your consideration. Apart from strategically planned your game play as mention above to reduced the threat that rises from your opponent existence strength, you also need to critically analysed other important facts: Short term plan - While playing What are your opponent weakness while playing and manipulate on that so it can be your strength, for an example : - For any given high lift to the back court, is he struggling to cover the front court (if you do a block ) for any given attack that he's delivering towards you? If yes, then in any given opportunities go for this. Again, analysed for his other weaknessess. What is your own existence strength and find ways to develop it into your gameplay while playing so that you can continously harness that strength,for an example: - Is your sideline smashes placement is good and he's having difficulty to reach it, in any given opportunities then go for it. - Give him a physical challenge. You are young and you said you are fast,work on this and make him run continously to all the 4 corners of the court according with YOUR speed and paste. This will worn him out. When the best killing opportunities comes, go for the kill. Take away his strength - Move away the birdie at the furthest distance from his reach so that he can't used his wrist strength to his best advantage. If you start to play shots that nearer to his reach such as drives, you will be in trouble. Long term continous plan - Training Constantly improve on your techniques - Improve your techniques in areas that you think you are weak. If you don't then your weakness can be your opponent strength. Strengthening your identified strength - If you'r good in certain shots, improve it into a more higher level. This can be the killing factor that you can use in your game as your favourite shot.
i'd keep my strategy short: since his shots are better than yours I recommend you drop a lot more than you smash. tire him out by drop-clear-drop strategy. dun need to be killer placement, just consistent. lengthen the game and profit (going front back is worse for the knees then side to side especially if you're a heavy set) to avoid being complacent/lazy, try split-stepping before he takes his shots & most importantly, return to the centre! try one whole game this way and tell me if it works
Instead of quickly grab a victory with fast pace for very 1st game, you can reverse your strategy. Make longer rallies to let him work hard for every single point. You may actually lose the 1st game or so, but it's good for a long run, as you are in much better physical shape than he is. So, once he's out of breath, it's whatever you can do to him.
He he, You should accept the Reality First that there would be always Masters of the Game! With these Humility and Respect, you'll Discover His Path and soon Find the Mistakes you can Beat. Right Now by your Forum you Expose your Raw Power and Skill, made you Brain Fried and Mentally Tired. But that Fire in your system will keep you going, just do it in the right path, OK?
Thanks alot guys, really appreciate your input. Im gonna report back on what strategy I tried and how it worked.
he's beating you because your speed comes in the form of anticipation, which against an advanced opponent, will work against you. I was you once... everyone around my level told me I was really fast around the court. That's until I played more advanced players and realized anticipating won't work against them because they'll just lure you in. I had to learn to stay put until the bird actually starts coming back, which meant all the speed I (and everyone) thought I had went down the drain.
Perhaps you kind answer yourself. Work on technique (always), study tactics, and most important train stamina and mental being steady! BTW you wrote more about him than about you, are you aware of your SWOT ?
i think he already mentioned that SWO, T i'll add my own S: faster, younger (doesn't mean better) W: technique, lack of focus, shorter O: train technique & footwork (maybe better equipment too ) T: other players/lazy/girls being able to slice smash means he's pretty advanced. probably needs practise for more consistency
Played against him on Friday, 21-something, 17-21, 17-21. Was leading throughout the first set, played lots of punch clears and defensive lifts to his mid-backcourt. Also cross court lifts after a net shot from him to my front corners, which worked really well. Avoided net shots when he wasnt out of position. It was his first game that night, and moving him was enough. Game got alot faster for the beginning of the second set with flat exchanges. He got into a five point lead which I didnt recover from. Then I slowed down the game with tactics from the first set. He started to hit winners at will from his mid-backcourt, with smashes to the sides. He was breathing heavily at the end of the set, so I was hoping that I was going to wear him down. He took an excessive long break before the next set. Tactics from first set, but again he anticipated my lifts and smashed lots. He even smashed flat clears and got weak answers from me. He was looking tired and took his time between every point like they do in pro badminton. All I needed to do was return his smashes, but I couldnt manage often enough. Next time I'm gonna try and make my base wider like LCW does when he knows there will be a smash. By the way, of course my longterm plan is to improve my technique, too. Im working hard on that all the time.
It sounds like him smashing to shorten the rallies. Getting the smashes back all the time is a very good tactic. Morten Frost, Sun Jun, Chen Jin are some of the examples. When the opponent starts smashing your flat clears, it's a signal to play higher clears over the top of the racquet because he doesn't want to move more. Thus your tactics will change within a game. Congratulations on managing to think of a solution.
Sound like an interesting sparring partner. How do you block his smash? is it high lift or block to the net? I would play like moomoo against such player. drop-clear-drop. He can anticipate the shot, but that doesn't mean he don't have to run. Drop and net is very effective against tired player, then follow by deep clear. We all know how difficult it is to recover from a front lunge, and move to rear court for a clear Play this often, and when he start to get comfortable at anticipating a clear, give him another drop/net before sending the shuttle to the back. He maybe able to return a few good shot, but I can assure you that it won't last the whole game. Smash only mean you have sent too much shuttle to the back, his center base should have shift slightly to the back as well.
