i realized something about pace and control yesterday, in particular, the control of pace. i was playing a doubles game against two fast and smart players. the other guy on my side is a pretty ok player. as i play more and more regular doubles, i noticed that myself and the ppl i play against are playign at a faster and faster pace, there isn't really much time to stand still, relax and watch the rally go by, so to speak. if one gets a little bit relaxed, then the opponents will take charge and the rally will be lost very quickly. this is as opposed to a couple of years back, when i was still in the stage of just joking around and not paying extra care into how each shot is made and how to set up a rally. in those day, as the opponents aren't that good, a couple of high probability shot was "enough". and this match yesterday really shows it. my partner had a couple of good shots, and that he used it to our advantage a couple of times. but soon the smarter and faster opponent was able to read the shot and they got to the shot early. the other observation i had was that my partner was generally leaning towards a slower paced game. he tend to block the shuttle, i think that was ok but the problem is that the opponents are very sharp and the blocking was of a lesser quality for that level of a game. a good block can be very effective but at the same time, it needs to be of a higher/tighter quality otherwise the opponent will be able to take advantage of it. so the gist is that, when one advances to a higher level game, what used to work before may no longer work anymore as you will be facing better opponents. it is neccessary to either increase your own pace, or if you want to limit the pace of the rally, then you must strive to be able to control the shuttle and place it well and tight to your target. there is really no short cut to that.
yes, pace is faster and rally a bit longer. for me, i use to relax after i got a tight net spin shot or a solid smash to good locations but now the shuttles do come back.
Sometimes you determine your pace. If you can control your opponent with your shots.. no matter how fast their pace is.. they will eventually follow your pace. I do agree with Kwuns comments.
Very true. Against lower lvl opponents, there are more chances to get an "amazing" trick shot here or there (lower standard, of course). Once the lvl got pushed higher, the "amazing" strokes simply become "useless" and all got kicked back with "even more amazing" returns.
