How do you inspire a winning attitude?

2. With great difficulty!
This is often what seperates a good player from a top player. Many of the professional players have the skills but their attitude lacks, and they have sports psychologists to hand! Sometimes it can be a matter of years before a player develops a winning attitude. I've seen this first hand with some of the players who came through on the UK national circuit that spent many years losing games they should have won.

1. In doubles, if you watch the pros the partnerships are used to each other and they just tend to concentrate on their own games. The only way to inspire is not to lose your confidence or make unforced errors. If you start to vocalise or focus on your partners loss of concentration you are not focusing on the game itself and you are letting it affect you, then you're both screwed. It's best to lead by example and just get on with it.

UKP

 

Oh yeah and if you remember the Sidek brothers from the 80's, despite being a pro of the very highest calibre, razif often used to have problems with his serve. We are talking putting the shuttle into the net or too high in the All England semi-finals, 2 years running from what I recall. In the end he ended up flicking for most of the game before he sorted it out. You didn't see Jalani tutting, shaking his head, telling him to take his time or tapping him on the shoulder constantly!!
UKP

 

I totally agree with UK Player!

 

It's easier to coach athletes with a good attitude and strong desire to win. To work with kids, I think in the development phases the most important is skills acquisition. Good working attitudes will guide them in the future. If they have that winning attitude with them then better. These will have better chances to succeed.

 

Both. A lot of the correct psychology comes from experience of playing competitive games at tournaments and matches, and this is where coaching also comes into play in order that the player can see where their mental attitude is going right and wrong in the post match analysis. Some players do have a naturally good approach, but others have to be guided, and some just won't listen! It's not something that can be taught in the same way as a drill can be taught, but it can be taught to an extent. Some players find it beneficial to visualise themselves winning for example. This is in the realms of sports pyschology - it's worth reading up on this subject as it is a vital part of badminton. As an example, directly before a game, if you observe a pro player, they will spend a short period of time intensely focusing on what they are about to do. Of course, the attitude that comes out on court it is also dependent on the amount of practice the player has done,their level of fitness and the general confidence in their game.
UKP

 

Something else I forgot is that you should never understimated the power of a good warm up! It takes some players 5 minutes to hit their sweet spot. It takes others an hour, by which point they've lost an important game. How many times do you see a player drop their first game for no apparent reason and then wipe out the opponent in the next 2? or start to play in the middle of a round robin group having lost the first game that they shouldn't have lost. Sometimes the player begins to play by the end of the game by which point it is too late. If a player needs time to warm up, get down to the venue as early as possible, and keep them warm right up to the time the game begins. A lot of junior players suffer because of poor tournament organisation and the lack of facility to warm up properly.
UKP

 

Answers to 1 and 2: promise beer if you win.

Seriously, inspiring a partner can be pretty difficult. Perhaps if you notice a weakness on the other team that you and your partner are not attacking sufficiently, it might help to do a bit of quick strategizing, so as to give a bit more focus to the partner's game. Sometimes making a change in the game plan can help. While I usually play front-and-back when serving, occasionally it has helped me switching to side-by-side, especially when playing someone with a quick, low return of serve into the alley, just outside of my reach. This may be somewhat elementary and not particularly useful advice for players who are more advanced than me. However, on a few occasions, it helped me a lot. On one night, my partner and I were getting hammered (something like 2-12) and it was primarily as a result of my errors. My partner suggested that we switch to side-by-side, and while we didn't win the game, we did stop the awful hemorhaging and lost 7-15. We challenged them to the best two out of three, and by the middle of the next game, I fell into a zone, played more confidently, and went from making the fewest winners and most errors of the four of us, to the most winners and fewest errors. We won the next two games 15-8 and 15-6.

One way to instill more confidence is by doing whatever is necessary to eliminate doubts, excuses and reasons for poor performance. If player has eaten and hydrated properly for a match, it will elevate his or her energy levels and make it more difficult for that sinking, losing feeling to take hold. During the Sydney Olympics, American runner Suzy Favor Hamilton did not fall to the track because dehydration made it physically impossible for her to continue running, as she claimed (that level of dehydration would be altogether incredible for a world class runner, especially on a middle distance run) - she fell because she gave up, likely aggravated by physical discomfort or weakness from mild dehydration. Same goes with being more physically fit. It's a lot easier for the mind to give up if the body is giving out.

Now if only I could heed some of my own advice, remember to eat lunch and dinner before playing, drink adequate fluids, lose some weight and start running again, maybe I would stop serving into the net against better players, and actually be able to reach some of those drop shots....