Dear Jonas, In one of our local HK tournaments, I have reached the final of the singles (OK, I had the aid of some byes!) The final will be played in a weeks time. A couple of the matches have been really tough beating some quite good players. One match lasted 1.5 hours and the other lasted 1hour 15mins. (muscles aching really badly at the moment) Just to describe my style of play, more attacking style but these last few months, I've changed to a rallying type game trying more to outmanoevre the opponent. (previously not confident about rallying) with corresponding improvement in gameplay. Any tips on how to play the final? This is what my coach said to me "Of course, everybody wants to win. But try to relax and take one point at a time Try not to think it is the final. Try to play each shot with good quality" Is there anything you could add? (just to clarify for other readers, 'good quality' does not necessarily mean always into the corners. Just deep lifts, net shots that go over, drop shots that land in the court)
Coaching Hi Cheung!! It´s very difficult for me to coach through the internet because I don´t really know your game and if I knew I also had to know something about who you´ll be playing in the final and his good and bad sides. But like you said there is some general things where I can help, maybe. The first thing is that even though you´ve reached the final it´s just another game of badminton which you obviously love playing. Therefore, winning or losing is not the big issue here because you´re doing what you like and there is always a new day tomorrow both after a win or a loss. This is my best advice playing in a final because if you start thinking about the situation and if you´re the favorite or that you cannot win because your opponent is very strong you´ve already lost!!! This takes some practise and is not easy to do but I think you can achieve it through time and this goes not only for playing badminton. I think, many things in life are determined by these factors. This is just my opinion, personally!!! GOOD LUCK IN THE FINAL!! HOPE YOU WIN!! Kind Regards Jonas
Thank you Jonas. It's a mental game. My opponent is another very experienced player on the local scene. So it will definately be a tough match. I am looking forward to it. Some other people told me his strongpoints and hmmm, that makes him a very tough opponent. So who cares? I can be a tough opponent as well One chap from my club said "There's no pressure on you but you MUST win!" sheesh.
So I am back from a difficult match. The first set did not go very well. This is the first time I have ever played this person. I found out his drops shots are really good and his forward movement to receive my drops shots was really good as well. I tried to rally around to get a feel for the court but the opponent controlled the shuttle (and me) very well. Tried to get the shuttle over his racquet to the back of the court but he has excellent clears as well. Suffice to say the first game was not much of a contest. With the help of an advisor in the break, I changed the game around to do low serves and speed up the game. aha, more success. Still very diffiuclt to win points but I manage to get 13 points. It was very hard work because I just cannot get the point of contact right on the overheads - he's making it difficult for me. I end up with a groin strain in the final stages and lose the 2nd game. Overall, I am pretty satisfied because of being able to change the game around in the 2nd set. Made him sweat. This little tournament is like a grandfinal of all winners/runnersup of all of HK's districts. It's a pretty major acheivement for me who only started taking coaching and singles training about 3 years ago. Most of these other guys playing are very experienced in terms of years playing singles. Tomorrow (and the next tournament ) is another day. Many thanks Jonas
Well done Cheung It's good to see people playing singles and more importaintly stick to getting coaching. Many people seem to learn a bit and think they are great and forget that others will catch up because it's the nature of the learning curve for badminton. Has it made you hungry for further victory?
It's too bad that I missed the chance to watch this little tournament this year ... Who is your opponent ? Who won the title end-up ?
Oh dear, my last post was the report on the final match itself. I forgot to write that down (making things quite confusing for you guys) Ricky, I PM'd you
