Sports Psychology

Discussion in 'Techniques / Training' started by crosscourt, Jan 22, 2006.

  1. crosscourt

    crosscourt Regular Member

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    I've just got home from the AE. A fantastic tournament. I saw most of the games for the last three days. If there are any Chinese, Malaysian or Indonesians who are on this forum I have to say your chanting did your teams proud, especially the kid who was shouting "Lin Dan Jai You" all through the semi-final yesterday!

    What really struck me more than anything else was the psychology of the players.

    On Friday night I watched the Malaysian pair Abdul/Gan up against the Indonesians Hadiyanto/Yulianto in a thrilling match. The match went to three games and, to a neutral like me, it seemed really even until the last game when the Indonesians heads dropped after going behind and you could just tell they expected to lose, they almost seemed to give up (I have to admit, this was at about midnight!). The same thing happened today in the XD finals. This was a really evenly matched final with Robertson/Emms taking the first game and leading something like 14-7 in the second only to lose the second game and then walloped 15-1 in the third. The most bizarre thing was that Nathan Robertson just seemed to give up in the third game. His head went down and you could tell that he wanted to go and no longer believed they could win. How can champions lose 15-1?

    The answer to this must be having the technique in your head as well as in your shoulders, your pronation/supination and wrist. It's not something I've thought about much before to be honest, but seeing these two games, especially the XD really made me think. We're all coached how to win games, but just as importantly I guess we need to learn how to lose a game and move on.

    I saw Lin Dan almost go out to Lee Chong Wei but claw his way back to win. In todays final Lin Dan went down injured got up and in his next point smashed the shuttle down with such ferocity you knew that he would give everything to win!!

    I've been reading this forum for a long time and you've all shared some really useful techniques for physical preparation, but does anyone have any mental preparation techniques or exercises to focus whilst actually playing? No-one who has ever coached me has talked about mental toughness but perhaps coaches only do that for elite players of which I am certainly not one!
     
  2. Kamen

    Kamen Regular Member

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    Very good posts!

    I would love to know the answer too so that i could tell my fellow Malaysian players.

    During the AE,
    1) Gan/Zakry choked in the SF. flopped while leading 14-5 in the first set.

    2) Lee Chong Wei choked in the SF, flopped while leading 13-5 in the rubber set.

    3) LWW/CTK choked in the final, flopped the entire match.
     
  3. raptorman

    raptorman Regular Member

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    Very good point, yesterday I lost my competetion match because of this I think. First set I was leading with 12-2 and my opponent managed to turn it around to a 14-17 win for him. Same the second set, was leading 12-4, he made a comeback to 12-11 but I managed to win in the end with 15-12. The third set it went the whole time through my head that there never should have been a third set, I couldn't concentrate anymore and lost with 0-15.
     
  4. crosscourt

    crosscourt Regular Member

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    I think it's like taking a drink during a break. You know you're dehydrated and that you need a drink to carry on playing at your best.

    If you suddenly find yourself mentally tired you ought to do something to combat it. I don't know what you should do as it's not something that a coach has ever mentioned to me! If you do nothing at all and just let yourself slide mentally you are letting down your own fans.

    Maybe the Chinese coaches instill some kind of mental toughness regime that other nations don't? I only say this as I didn't see any of the chinese players give up in the same way that some players of other nationalities did (especially Nathan Robertson).

    It also raises the isue of delibrately upsetting your opponents. My friend thought that Erikssen/Lundgard were upsetting Abdul/Gan in the semis. I couldn't work out what was going on but the Malaysians game was definitely affected. What was your view on this?
     
  5. wirre

    wirre Regular Member

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    I haven't seen the game, so hard to make any opinion about this occasion. However Erikssen/Lundegaard are well known to play the "mental game" during matches to affect their opponents.

    /mats
     

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