Guidelines for competitive players - how to prepare/play against an unknown opponent

[cobalt]

In general terms, I believe sweating is one of the body's way of dealing with, and expelling toxins from the system. One of the side effects of course, is the loss of salts in the process, and this is why certain athletes need to intake more salt-based liquid than others for the same amount of energy put out.

Scorpion1 and Matt (MSeeley) have certainly introduced some very interesting and important aspects to preparation. How the psychological state of the person can be affected by his food/fluid intake for some hours (days?) prior to the game, and how other practises such as breathing techniques can affect long-term (hours) and short-term (minutes/seconds) performance... can often be the vital difference between 2 players otherwise evenly matched.

[visor]

Yes, that darn frontal lobe keeps getting in the way with all that thinking and stuff. Every time I find myself in the zone, the realization thereof makes me fall out of it . Doh! Gotta ask my neurosurgeon friend if there is such a thing as a temporary lobotomy. Or Botox for paralyzingly the overthinking muscle. :-/

Don't turn off the brain! Being in the zone, is like performing on the piano... you don't consciously think of putting this finger here and that finger there. It just happens automatically as you depend on your muscle memory and training. It should become as second nature as breathing and blinking. Then the brain is free to do higher level processing like anticipation, tactics, mental strength.

[scorpion1]

The very next sentence is:
"Some people just sweat more easily than others. It’s in their genetic makeup. Sweating is also more common in individuals who are overweight or out of shape."
So lets try to avoid taking bits of a source out of context, as it could be missleading unless somebody read the article themselves. Your comments may, mistakenly, mean that someone is worried they have liver disease because they sweat a lot. Which is not true.

So, with that in mind - that sweating is a symptom of some medical condition, a fever, emotional, or in response to doing something like exercising or eating, and also bearing in mind that some things - medical conditions, general fitness, being overweight - make sweating worse... Can you point me in the direction of anything that indicates what excessive sweating is... or what kind of things in a diet will reduce your sweat levels?

Please note: I am not expecting a definitive answer, but am interested to know more/read what you have read. I would be interested to know whether it is possible for a single person to put in the same level of physical exertion and under one good diet sweat a certain amount, and under a different better diet sweat even less? What I mean is that that persons body is physically having to work as hard as before, but the difference in diet changes their sweat levels. I am not interested in hearing that bad things are bad for you - you said "If you eat foods which do not affect liver, then there will be less perspiration or even zero" - what kinds of food affect the liver or dont? And by that I mean what "Good foods" have a more negative effect on the liver than "amazing foods". Also, getting fitter and healthier, because of a healthy diet, and thus being more comfortable to do the same physical exercise, with less effort, and therefore sweating less, is not the answer I want to hear. I know from my own experience that as I get better at something, it takes a lot longer before I begin to sweat when doing it - thats nothing to do with my diet, but to do with my becoming accustomed to doing the exercise.

Any reading you could recommend would be greatly appreciated! Preferably links to free articles and whatnot, I am not willing to pay to read research papers etc [IMG]file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CRAAAMK%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5 Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_image001.gif[/IMG]

Cheers!

" I am not willing to pay to read "," I am not interested in hearing" lol . I think that i am not compelling you to read my statement.
See. I have not said that if you sweat, definitely you would have liver problems.
Lets coming to the point, I will explain with badminton in mind and how liver related problems affect a player who is in play.

I said before both liver and lungs are necessary for a person's perfect control of the body.
Lets start with the lungs.

Lungs control:
----------------
Nowadays humans with all the fast life in hands, they dont have time for anything. Even they forget to breath some times. Even while inhaling, they are not taking a deep breath which is extremely necessary for 100% lungs function. We are not using our full lungs at all. Only 70% for even a guy who is extremely caution about the lungs. Then you can imagine how about the normal person who is not at all aware the lungs function or anything. So, i am here to talk about some news which you need to know before having full attention.

Lungs should be operated at its full capacity so that it lasts long for many years. How can you attain your full capacity?. Deep breath is the only option. So, if you inhale to its full capacity, then it will definitely decrease the number of times you intake per minutes. Here there are certain examples relating to breath and life time .

For example:
------------
1) Rat ----> 85 times per minute ---> 2.5 years
2) Man -----> 12-18 times per minute ----> 80 - 90 years
3) Tortoise ----> 6 times every two minutes ---> 300 years.

If you decrease the number of times you intake breathe, it will increase the life time accordingly.
Why i am saying all this is that in order to do that, your lungs have to be in full capacity. Indirectly , if your lung capacity is in its full capacity, then it will give you the power to withstand long standing rallies and 3 setter games.

For improving your lung capacity, the person need to do yoga and pranayama. Pranayama is the best medicine for lungs.
In pranayama, you need to do certain excercises which will increase your lung capacity.
I will give one such excercise which will increase lung capacity(4 steps process)

Step 1 : Inhale a deep breath till clock moves ahead for 4 secs
Step 2 : Sustain there(keep the air inside without exhaling) for 2 secs.
Step 3 : Exhale the air for 8 secs slowly.
Step 4 : Sustain there (without inhaling again) for 2 secs

This ratio 4:2:8:2 is one cycle . Do it atleast 20 times daily in the morning and the evening but with empty stomache. Atleast 4 hrs gap after food is necessary.
This excercise is a vital excercise for improving your lung capacity.

Once you increase your lung capacity, you will stay in the court for long time. Even for 3 setter games comfortably. This will enable you to concentrate more on your game rather than on your body.

Liver Control:
--------------

In order to play a good game even during tense moments, you need to have that grip during the tense moments. What do you mean by grip?. How will you attain that?. Even you can find top players not performing well during tense moments. Though they perform well during normal conditions, they fail to perform during tense moments. Eg. Lee chong wei. He is an extremely good player equally similar to Lindan. But Lindan performs well during that tense moments. How?.. You cant simply say that is because of his experience or any other external reason. In those kind of situations, liver is the main part in the body which affects our performance during the tense moments.

Extreme sweating even when the person is idle ,is one of the reasons of liver problems. If you strengthen your liver functioning, you are definitely able to control that excessive sweating.
During tenser moments, your hands will tremble and you tend to make mistakes. If your liver is in your control, your hands wont tremble and your hands will follow what your mind says.

Diet control ===> strengthens liver function ====> Reduces the trembling of your hands
&
Excessive sweating during tenser moments

Foods that Hurt
Common foods can lead to liver problems, including excess coffee, any food that contains pesticide residues (non organic foods), junk foods, artifical fats such as margarine, transfats, refined sugars, French fries, fried chicken, doughnuts, chips.

Foods that Heal
Dark green leafy vegetables support liver health as well as parsley, tumeric, radish and licorice (not the candy variety), kale, garlic, beets, carrots, dandelion greens, organic beef, fish and cow’s liver. One of the best herbs for liver health is milk thistle (See VitaLiv). The scientific name for milk thistle is Silybum marianum. It is a member of the aster or daisy family and has been used by ancient physicians and herbalists to treat a range of liver and gallbladder diseases and to protect the liver against a variety of poisons. “Evidence exists that milk thistle may be hepatoprotective through a number of mechanisms: antioxidant activity, toxin blockade at the membrane level, enhanced protein synthesis, antifibriotic activity, and possible anti-inflammatory or immunomodulating effects.”

Note: I discussed one of my friend ,who is an accupressure specialist about the topic related to trembling of hands and excessive sweat during tenser moments. He adviced me to concentrate on liver pressure points which are situated in the palms in order to control the the perspiration and trembling during tenser moments. There are numerous articles related to this topic.

One of our ancient medicine is SIDDHA, which also have their roots more than 1500 years back, talks about these problems. But it is in native language. Thats why i could not translate that. Otherwise i would have given you the reference.

Badminton is the game which i love along with cricket. Diet and air definitely pave way for a proper functioning of liver and lungs respectively. Lets have a healthy life and play a positive game without mistakes.

[cobalt]

Yes, that darn frontal lobe keeps getting in the way with all that thinking and stuff. Every time I find myself in the zone, the realization thereof makes me fall out of it . Doh! Gotta ask my neurosurgeon friend if there is such a thing as a temporary lobotomy. Or Botox for paralyzingly the overthinking muscle. :-/

There is. It's a 3-letter word that gets inexplicably mangled every time I type it on this forum...

[visor]

^ Lol! I suppose you could also call that being in the "zone" .

[vixter]

scorpion, you're tripping... Topic is about your strategy against an unknown opponent. Not biology class about liver and lung-functions...

[vixter]

I think already the 1st answer in the thread was the clearest

If you play a lot of clear and a little bit passive/reactionary style in the beginning. then you will feel very fast the strenght and style of your opponent.

Scorpion I just find it quite radical to believe that the key for winning tight sets/matches and controlling your nerves is to control your liver functions by diet.... I dont know.. My personal experience is that the best thing for not getting (too) nervous is a lot of match-play and, maybe more important and if possible, a lot of match wins... The more used you are to actually winning sets and matches, the less "big-a-deal" are these situations of 18-all, 19-all, set points match points....

I think control of breathing, not getting ahead of your self, "one point at a time", very important.. Focus your thoughts completely on the strategy for the point: Should i take chance/risk or should i play long rally/consistent. The most rational desicion will differ from match to match due to the circumstances/feelings of the players...who has the momentum...who seems more tense...

[cobalt]

At the ongoing German Open 2013, Li Xuerui came up against a player she had never played against before, Sayaka Takahashi from Japan, BWF ranking 39.

The reigning Olympic champion, current world #1 and winner of several prestigious titles in the past 12 months, lost to her unknown opponent in what appeared to be a hard-fought match, 17-21 21-12 21-17. LXR did not appear to be injured or otherwise unprepared.

Is there anything yet on this thread that may have helped her to avoid defeat?