Which would you choose if you could only pick one? I pick training... when my friends will prefer playing. Actually, at badminton class I have 2 choices... play against the 'tauke's daughter or train. I always want to train... What about you? If you had to pick, which will you choose?
Play. IMHO, during training, you pick up less when it comes to the department of creativity/ideas in comparison when you're playing. Training needs you to undergo a training regime that can be somewhat 'straight'. Just my two cents.
Lol, Cheung sorry if I didn't say to specify a reason. Anyway, I kinda forgot to add my reason. I prefer training because I feel I'll learn more rather than just playing without improving. If I want to play I might as well call my friends and we'll play... rather then missing a training session.
That depends what level you want to improve to. The answer is yes...but up to a certain point. i prefer training because 1) physically, it's harder...trains fitness and stamina better. 2) practising a shot is better - can train to play a particular shot one hundred, two, three, four + in an hour. In a game, it can only be practiced perhaps a couple of times. 3) the coach can control the routines, we can work on a particular shot correcting the technique. Nobody corrects me in a game. 4) can work on change of pace, rhythym of footwork. Not something you can obtain easily from just playing games. 5) with all the practice, my potential for playing better games is going to be raised playing games only gives short term benefits. training gives a player long term benefits.
Hi, Do not think training is the be all and end all of getting better in badminton because it isn't. Fair enough, you can have the best backhand, but not knowing when to play it in a game situation will see the shot that has been learnt gone to waste. Playing games is where you get to know WHERE and WHAT aspects of the game you have to improve on. For example, if you find you have a weak smash in a game, you will go away and train that smash. Games are important because technique is not all....it's court awareness and other aspects of the game that cannot be put into practice during a training situation. Matt
Matt, I think pretty much everything can be trained, but some things are more difficult to train than others. Particularly the mental aspects. And some things need more time than others. Physical fitness. Easy to train, easy to measure progress. Technique. Racquet skills, shot production. Easy to train, easy to measure progress if you have structured practice and keep records. Tactics. Which shots to use in which situations Easy-ish to train, easy-ish to measure progress if you have structured practice and keep records. you can train it by playing condition rallies. whenever your opponent does x you have to choose y or z... Strategy. How to play a whole match. Run your opponent around, or pick on certain weaknesses. Harder to train and requires more gamelike situations. you can train it by playing condition games. e.g. if you want to train how to play someone with a huge smash, you play a game and your opponent always wins the point if he gets to play a smash (regardless of whether he hits it in out or you get it back) Mental Toughness. Hard to train, hard to measure. you can train it by playing condition games. e.g. you start the game 13-0 down (or 6-0 down playing to 7) or whatever or your opponent can randomly call your shots out when they are in or you have to play a game after hard physical exercise etc. well that's my 2 cents worth. I reckon dlp could add more.
well, I think both are important. Training is important for perfecting ur shots and keeping it consistent. Its also important to maintain the right footwork. But then, what sets apart the professionals and most of us? Experience... and experience can only be gained from games. How to read your opponents games, how to change your rythm according to the situation and things like that, it comes from games. So essentially, even if you train harder than the professionals, you most likely won't beat them unless you play as much as they do as well. So yes, you need a good balance of both.
I wasn't trying to say that you didn't need to play games, just that you can train for pretty much anything
Sorry folks, the original question only gave a choice of one or the other...no inbetweens. Not denying all the arguments for playing games, but given the choice, I'd rather spend the chance training than playing games. Getting games is easy, getting training is harder. If I get my technique good and grooved during training, it is going to be easy to reproduce when under pressure in the game situation. If I keep on playing games, imperfections and inefficient technique will creep in my game. No matter how hard I play my games, I won't be able to improve on it. I look on training as giving the person good basic foundation. Without a good foundation, everything else will be shaky. There's no point in being the greatest strategist in the world if you can't get to the shuttle!
Yep. NO INBETWEENS... but I must say all your reasons are very good. Well... my friends play all the time... do they improve? No. But I'm very sure if they do train and get some basics, they'll do much better. In other words, I think training comes first. Playing games can come second, AFTER you've improved your game during training.
if you would notice professional athletes TRAIN themselves to improve not PLAY with themselves to improve. don't get me wrong when you play you also improve that's why we have those above average bracket players. But when you train your aiming for the expert and professional bracket. so if you just wanna have relaxing fun and beat your fellow ave. and above ave. players go play a lot. but if you wanna beat the crap outta your friends & above ave. players and compete and go toe to toe with the pros. then i suggest you train.
frictionman, like i said before, training will improve your game play, but to a certain extent. Then you need to play to improve a bit again before you train again. If you only train, you won't learn how to apply it in a real game and you will miss out on what real game situation is like. Its good to do smashes from the backcourt and run crosscourt to the net in training, but if you only do that for a year and your game play ends up like that, then you're in big trouble when your opponent flicks it back. I'm telling you now, its easy to say it won't happen like that in a real game, but one of the top player here in Perth have that problem. He always rushes the net diagonally from the backhand side after smashing from his backhand side and my coach just flicked the shuttle to his backhand again to win. So, IMO, you still need a good mix of training and playing. Training is where you solidify your basics, playing is where you incorporate those basics into real game situations. So think of playing as a part of training the next time you play. I'd think that's how badminton professional train, they jog in the morning, rest, do some drills for a couple of hours or so and then play a few games.
Are you sure about this blanket rule, Cheung? No in-betweens, ok. So I'll choose playing. I don't think badminton's any good if I don't get to enjoy it. I believe more people play badminton to enjoy themselves compared to those who undergoes training. What fun is it to keep hitting a shuttle 1000 times in the same way again and again?
sometimes its good to keep playing matches, because i know some people who are really impressive when you see them as they train, but tense up and play bad during tournaments. Also, playing can be a form of training, depending on who you are playing against. If you play with someone with your skill level, then you will not get better. But if you play with someone much better than you, you may see certain aspects of the game you need to improve.
This may suprise you then... I enjoy training compared to playing because wheh I DO play, my friends refused to play games with me. Maybe if I play against someone better sure. Anyway, at training you don't hit the shuttle 1000 times in the same way. I'm sure it'll change sooner or later. I for one have never hit a shuttle in the same way 1000 times! Maybe about 100 times, but not 1000 times.
I am suprised but seeing how your friends shun competition, well, can't blame you. What a pity though, the fun factor of being able to match wits and skills against an opponent is rarely there when you have to do an often repetitive refinement regime. I simply cannot compare doing a weekly schedule of a stroke, with playing against formidable opponents on a high-intensity and exciting game. IMHO-lah. I guess your problem, Jo, is that you haven't met people who are really interested in playing, else, you'd have the best of both worlds. That's strange though, coming from a group of people around you who plays badminton and you can't find someone to play against. Are you too good, maybe? Some people are intimidated by good opponents. Perhaps you can join some of your uncles, aunts or family friends (who are your level or better, of course...) who play regularly every week. Same time, ask to play against strangers etc. Training alone does not help you improve towards your potential, you need a standard to measure to and beat. It matters not if you have perfectly fluid and nice strokes if you can't use it against a real opponent, right?
Wilfred, of course we respect your preference to plays games only. This is only natural and depends on one's own aspirations in the game. My own priority is to keep on improving and to try and realise my potential. I spent many years doing exactly what you describe and playing games. In some tournaments and matches, it was very difficult to keep up with some of the good players here. ie, it was consistently difficult to match certain players. In short, I could not due to technique deficiencies. Therefore I took a radical step of employing a coach and asking him to go right back to basics - footwork first. So, I have tried both ways and would pick the training given the choice of only one or the other. If a person was only playing for fun or some competition, then of course, training is not the option. That is the most surprising comment in this discussion. Many people have had to hit shuttles more than a thousand times to try and get the right stroke technique (and 'feel' of the shuttle).
