This sorta got "spun off" of the whole playing with beginners discussion that was just around, but from the perspective of beginners trying to improove in games with people who play better. I go pretty frequently to play badminton with a handful of friends. I myself play about 3-4 times a week, which is more often than my friends who play perhaps once or twice a week with me each, or sometimes every second week. And I'm beginning to notice that it's as if they've peaked as far as they're willing to go. See, if I left my friends to all play together, the games are usually sucessions of lifts and lobs, with the occasional smash or drive that just comes out of nowhere. The problem is that even after playing with them for some time, though they have improoved a lot, it's as if their futures in the game will be marginally better because they're not willing to take it further. The thing is that they *want* to play better, but not quite enough to make them want to take the time to think technically or practice-- their basic play strategy at the momment is to get the bird over the net by any means possible and hope that the opponents make the mistake. And, given the current skill level, this strategy seems to work more often than I would like. One of my friends has wanted to learn how to smash and clear harder, but he insists on holding panhandle and hurts his shoulder on certain angles-- and my insisting that "if it hurts, don't do it" has just led to him hitting mostly underhand shots, period. A lot of experts say that, when playing amid this kind of game, you can challenge yourself by playing according to certain unsaid self-imposed restraints, like no smashing, no dropping, etc. Unfortuantely, my game has been reduced to lobbing mid court... I've tried all sorts of sneaky tricks to get them motivated. I lend them my good rackets, I've sneakily fed them easy shots for net kills, etc etc. I've tried encouragement, I've tried friendly taunting. To top it off, my girlfriend is also one of the crowd, and she's made a lot of progress, but like I say, even that has seemed to reach a peak, in relation to the amount of dedication she wants to put into it... (frankly, I kinda wished that I didn't use my usual alias on this forum, for frear that word might get back around and further discourage them) It's one of those scenarios where people want to be better but aren't willing to do the work. I've asked myself the question: why are we playing badminton? I've come to the conclusion that we're all playing badminton because it's an easy way of spending time with eachother, all of us, that gets our blood going. But.... i suppose it's selfish, but I don't much enjoy waiting to pick up birds more than hitting them. I suppose I don't entirely understand the mentality all together, because I feel that anything we take the time to do should can probably be done passionately, or at least in an engaged sort of way. So I'm not sure if I'm really asking a question here for all you gurus to answer, or if it's more of a sighing observation that expresses my frustration-- the obvious suggestions would be to try and get them motivated, but that's easier said than done. As someone who is very close to them, most of my advice on small technical improovements that might easily improove the game get passed off as fanaticism, but even so, it's not that they don't beleive what I tell them, it's that fundamentally they don,t want to go through the "trouble" it seems. Having been in the lowest pits of the beginner pool before, i understand all the trouble that my betters went through to "put up" with me until I caught up a bit... but I don't know, in reverse, if the same situation works when playing against people who don't seem to be making the same progress.
You said something very important in that big block of text. Let me remind you of it: You are right to ask that question; but like your friends, who aren't prepared to put effort into improving their play, you are not putting enough honest effort into answering the question. Why do you play badminton? Why do they play badminton? Do you both play for the same reasons? I think that you and your friends play for different reasons. I think you are more interested in improving your game than they are. This is shown by your greater commitment to badminton: Your friends probably see badminton as more of a fun social activity than you do. Whilst you enjoy the social element of playing with your friends, you are also frustrated because they lack your ambition to improve and your commitment to training in order to play better. You recognise that your skill level is rising much faster than theirs; soon, if not already, you will not be able to have any kind of competitive game with them. You will simply be too good for them to play against. So what can you do about it? The answer is: not much. You cannot force them to change their attitudes. All you can do is encourage them to learn to play better; help them learn by offering technical advice, by suggesting they play in a club, or recommending some coaching. If they want to learn, you can make the process easier for them. But you cannot make them adopt attitudes that will help them to improve. An ambition to improve, and a positive attitude to support that ambition, can only come from the individuals themselves. This is the tragedy of becoming a better player: you can no longer play with your friends in the way that you used to play. As time passes, you will play less often with them because you want to play competitively elsewhere. But you can still have fun together as a group of friends; it will never quite be the same, but that doesn't make it worthless. I've coached a number of my friends. Sometimes the success of my coaching has amazed me: in one hour, I was able to transform the play of one friend, so that his badminton was almost unrecognisable. But when I next played him, he had reverted to his old habits. What could I do? Just smile and accept it, and be ready to offer whatever help he would like, even though I know he will never improve very much.
This reminds me of someone I know. He's a good player but his gf isn't. He joined 2 clubs, one where he could play with other people who played at the same level, and one where he played with his gf at a sort of beginner's club. A bit naive, I asked him why he played at 2 clubs and why he didn't sign up his gf at the club with all the good players. You guys must have figured out the answer by now.
I agree with Gollum. Even though, u and ur friends are playing "together", but not all of u are playing for the same "reason". Your friends (including gf) might just consider this as social activity, and doing some work out. You actually focus much more on the "competitiveness", and willing to improve asap. My suggestion is, don't have to play every single game and spend every single minute on court with them. Leave them as a group, and enjoy their work out, while you get some proper training and games with more proper group of ppl. Spend reasonable amount of time (i.e. after 2 consecutive teeth to teeth MD, after 1 hr of die hard drill/training), go back to them, to have some fun and relax. This way, you do have time with friends, and you always should have enough work out as well(as you play 3-4 times per week, vs. they do 1-2 at most) The worst thing is to "push". Make sure everyone is having some fun, rather than everyone must have to suffer through 3 hrs of footwork drills. Even with less (or even no games) together, friends still should have a lot of time together, such as off court chat, after session cafe, etc.
Thanks guys, your advice is definately well founded. With regards to 'being honest with myself', I guess I already knew these answers and was just looking for an opportunity to vent and see if anyone else had similar problems, and what were their experiences. I didn't find any previous threads under this subject at first, because the words 'playing beginners' or similar yielded wayyyy too many results, most of which were old and off-topic. Strangely, i punched in the word "girlfriend" and got more relevant stories, very similar to my own. Go figure. Mostly this subject has required venting as resultant of another phenomenon: school and work. I don't know how many of you go to school, work, play badminton and have a relationship, but I think you can make a fair guess about which of the 4 ends up getting the slim end of the deal, which puts more emphasis on playing intense games on what little badminton time I have. At the momment, I'm doing final exams and papers and whatnot, so time is tight and if there is a pin that cannot be given as much juggling priority as the others, it unfortunately has to be badminton. But that's an entirely different discussion on its own. On a happy note, finals will through in about 2 weeks, give or take a few days, and so I'll be free to frolick in the hills and play badminton and do whatever with the whole school time-sucker out of the way, and all the while have opportunities to play on my own or with friends and enjoy it whichever way it comes. To top it off, although 3/4 of my casual badminton friends haven't really changed since my original post, it just so happened that my girlfriend expressed annoyance at being beaten at intramural badminton in her school by players that she knew she should have been able to beat... and all of a sudden, she's motivated, and asked me to help her train, or at least, play more seriously. We'll see how far this goes, but it just goes to show, i suppose, how people will go as far and set their sights as far as they want to, and it has nothing to do with me. (Unless somehow i beat someone who is then inspired to train for revenge )
Make sure you dress warm if you go "frolicking in the hills" ... I hear it's cold in Montreal at this time of the year. Good turn of events, i.e. your gf is motivated, and you get to train with her -dave
Her teammate beats ur gf, she's motivated to train harder. You kept beating her in ur private training, ur forehead will meet up with a frying pan or something pretty soon. Make sure keep up with the good work!
One thing that will change the motivation level is to try playing in a semi-competitive tournament or club ladder. Not every tourney is for "A" players and eventually you will find skill levels the same as your own at "B" or "C" draws. If they are stricktly there for social reasons and the get a little exercise, no it will probably never change.
