Hi I been watching a few matches lately, which I never did before cause it just never crossed my mind, featuring top class players (taufik, lin dan etc) and I realised that they still seem to hit quite alot of out shots and when they do drop shots they still seem to hit the net. Me being a serious player, too make these mistakes, but ever since I started badminton I was thinking I will never play to the standards they play at cause they are classed as professionals, I always thought something must make them were they are now. I even watched a match were a player served with a back hand short serve and the other player returned also with a drop shot but hit the net and I was like what the hell. Please tell me the reasons.
The professionals are playing against professionals, who will give them a lot of pressure, and their speed / agility / expereince / defense / placement, etc will give their opponents way much more pressure than our club level players. Put this way, you see some NBA bench players might score less than 5 points per game for their career. However, if you insert such players into a regular club, he might register a triple double in 5 minutes of playing. Why? Because the opponents in pro level is much higher.
pretend u r the regular good player john doe against a pro and see the outcome. http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38465&highlight=pro
Ah ok I see, I really wish I had a chance to play against them to see where I stand between us. Hehe guess that is a dream though
what you don't see too well on the video's: their deception, and amazing pace. Mistakes happen at any level, because as their stroke skills grow so does the pressure to make a sharp shot... Having played some matches against some pro's (not even close to the world top 100 in singles)(but pro's because..well..they train 3 times a day...and partially make a living out of it) and at the pace I play, they don't hand me more than 3 points a match (in unforced errors)
They are able to retrieve shots and produce more pressure on their opponents than what we are used to. Not to mention the level of deception that they execute their shots with affect their opponent. I do not know what your level is, but their level of play is so high, opponents are FORCED into error.
Even for professionals, they do make mistake during match play. If you are into match statistics, these are classified as "unforced errors". This term is similar to that of tennis, where players hit the shuttle/ball into the net, or out of court when they are in a relative comfortable position. Top players, after having hours and hours of practice, are expected to minimse these unforced errors. Typically in any match (badminton or tennis) the one who made the most unforced errors would usually lost the match. Yes you are correct that at their level of play, you donot expect them to make these kind of mistakes. But afterall, they are mortal humans too and their physical condition and mental concentration cannot be kept at 100% all the time. Not too mention, their coach will be the first one to yell at them if they repeat the mistakes too often in match!!!
They might appear to make a lot of out shots, but mostly it's due to the speed of the opponent and having to go for the corners because of pressure, but also because their rallies can be long sometimes. For example for non-pro's, the length of the clear doesn't always have to be exact because not many normal players can smash at over 270km/h, whereas all pros have a very strong smash and will punish any slightly short lifts. Sometimes pro's can appear to not be very quick, and you may see amateurs that move as quick as a pro, but factor in deception and the amateur wouldn't stand a chance. Deception is a must-have nowadays, and even more importantly so is the ability to read deception.
Even an "unforced error" is greatly affected by your opponent. If you play a pro, you will make a lot of "unforced" errors. Think about the netshot return of low serve. There are basically two ways it can go wrong: You hit it into the net; You hit it too high over the net, and the opponent kills it. If my opponent is slow and unskilful, then (2) is not going to happen. I can play a looser, safer netshot, because I know he's not good enough to kill it. If I play a pro, then anything even slightly loose will be punished severely. That means I must try to play a tighter netshot. But when I play a tighter netshot, I am more likely to make an "unforced" error -- hit it into the net. The pros know how dangerous their opponent is. That is why they must try for such accurate, difficult shots: if they don't, their opponent will pounce on the easier, looser shot. So there's a balance between "perfect shot" and "perfect consistency". If the pros aimed for "perfect shot", they would make too many unforced errors. If they aimed for "perfect consistency", then their shots would be too easy for the opponent to attack. So instead, they aim for a balance: consistent enough, but still dangerous to the opponent.
I think it's normal to have a few unforce errors here and there. Even some NBA player will miss a slam dunk, PGA misses a easy put, NFL/MLB misses and easy catch so I think it's normal for those unforce errors.
i played against world class player... i got 2 points or maybe 3... out of a 15 point game... mostly only because of their errors. i don't think we actually scored any points with our own abilities... hahaha... we were just trying to stay in the game =P
