Hi, I'm having a lot of problems i guess with consistency. I know the game well and on my good days, I am a good player. But i have days where i play like a hacker, its not like a good player having a bad day, its like Jekyll and Hyde. On my good days badminton is easy, on my bad days i just think i must have imagined the good days... I came off the back of a week where everything else was going wrong in my life but i was really, really good on court and it cheered me up. I had all the shots, all the variations, moved well, everything... I just got back from club tonight and its been the opposite. I couldn't move, couldn't think, everything i did was predictable, couldn't string 2 shots together all night. Like, i'd try a straight smash, which for me is high percentage usually: get another straight smash from exactly the same place on the court next shot and i hit it under the net....I literally was playing like a hacker. I tried so hard i inflamed my tendonitis in my arm and re-injured myself. I also got in a really bad row with people who were winding me up which is not usually me. I'm just so uptight i can't do anything all night. The problem is this happens a lot (not the rows thing but the rest), and i just can't relax and play, everything becomes so difficult, tiring, exhausting feeling i'm fighting my body. I need badminton at the moment. Everything else in my life's ****ed, and badminton's the only fun thing i have left.
Make sure you have enough of the basics first. Like sleep, nutrition, rested body and rested mind, health, fitness etc. These things are also required for your body and mind to function properly.
It's not on the court that you will find the answer to your bad play. It's your problems off court that you are bringing with you to the gym. If you are using baddy as a release then let it be so. Life is stressful enough, don't put stress on yourself at your leisure activity. Don't go to the gym looking to play perfectly; go to have fun. Then you'll play more relaxed and probably better (or at least be able to laugh at yourself if having a bad night). And maybe some of the good feelings wrought in the gym will carry over and sustain you in that crueller other world outside the gym. Good luck.
