Hi tHere... I just wanna ask you guys something. can anyone tell me how to read opponents game and catch his weakness?? Thanks for your suggestion!!
Hello, to all people who have the same question, here is what I have to say after thinking briefly about it: "SIMPLY SAID", reading an opponent's game is to take notice of what situation gives you the biggest hassle against your opponent. You'll soon notice that he'll be trying to get you into that situation more and more often. Sometimes, it is not just one hassling situation, sometimes its two sometimes its three. An opponent's game is pretty much like your game, he's trying to find your weakness, and when he finds it, he will exploit it. So really, reading an opponent's game is like finding out your own flaw. That is only half of it though, reading an opponent game also means taking note of his habits. What does he usually do when you're trying to play a certain shot, what does he usually do when he's hit a certain shot. You'll be surprised that you can actually make use of his habits as his weakness when you've found them. However, as people progress to become a better player, these flaws and habits becomes less and less obvious and so it becomes more challenging to win against them. Seriously, there is no easy way to learn to be able to read an opponent's game and weakness. What you have to do, is just become more and more experienced, treat each game seriously, find out about people's habits as much as you can and think of how to make use of it to your advantage, do this on and off court and do the same towards yourself, thinking of yourself as an opponent you have to beat. If you know how to beat yourself, then you have found a step to go up one level higher.
If you study a person's game while he/she is playing against someone else, you may find that you will pick up certain clues & cetain tendencies for shots that this player will execute. I talked a bit about this is the following post: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20713 If you practice this with a a lot of players, after a while you may find youself getting better at reading ppl's games & uncovering their weaknesses while you are playing them for the 1st time.
The most important thing i think when looking for an opponents weekness is that your level of concentration on the game never slips below your opponents level of concentration, if it does you will miss the mistakes that your opponent makes that you would have norrmally picked up, and also if you drop your attention it is easyer for your opponent 5to see your weeknesses, so uif you want to see you opponents faults and yto hid your own make sure your concentration is in top form and never drops bellow his. Never underestimate the power of food in sport. If you want to keep your concentration high, dont consume caffine on the match day, though it makes you feel more awake, it raises your heart beat and it is hard to focas on one task. Eat omega 3's, these are graet foods to aid concentration, they aree like the knife shrpeners of the food world, they will make you much more focased and able to concentrate on tghe tak i hand.
i got a question here.... what do you guys do for the first few rallies(against an opponent whom you've never played)?. i heard from some people that the first few rallies are often played more 'safely' and used for reading/exploring your opponent's game. so how exactly can that be done? how do we 'sound the opponent out' or find out a specific weakness?? or do we simply play the 4 corners as per normal and observe/analyse along the way??
I, personally, tend to lose 2/3 points when I start...I just need to adjust to his pace/shot selection etc. I'm nto proud of it, and it's nto a good thing..But that's just the way I get to know my opponent...like: -what's his favorite shot? (smashers, cross-a-lot, high-clear-a-lot..etc) -does he like the netgame? -how easily do I get a lift? -how is his backhand?(very improtant at the lower levels) -what is favorite backhand shot (seen players do 75% of their backhandshtos do clears/crossdrops) -how well does he handle my shots? (steep smashes, attacking lifts, netgames, backhand tormenting) If you can answer all these (not saying I can do it all the time) your opponent is an open book...though it keeps getting trickier at higher level opponents..
The way i basically discover players are: 1. rally a bit (friendly clears, easy smashes) while warming up 2. drop towards his forehand and clear next shot to his backhand (this will determine whether his backhand is decent as well as his footwork)
When playing the first few rallys, play how you normally would and if you are a half decent player as you are playing you will be able to adjust your shots and way of playing to make your game better. Dont be afraid to stop and talk to your partner and try to analyse the weeknesses of your opponents, during the game.
