Just out of curiousity, When you guys play, do you plan a strategy? Like setting them up, where you want to set them up etc? how you want the play to go? etc Do you even bother trying to figure out your opponents weakness when playing or are you the type to be so absorbed in your self that you have no clue what is going on?
I think our ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu had said something for our reference: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
What I meant was that you should have a basic gameplan that is based on your own strenghts. That gameplan can always be adapted to your opponents weakness's
if you're playing with a routine partner, you should already sort of know each other's styles and shot selections, strengths and weaknesses. unless you're both equally rounded players, there's one player that's better suited for front and one for back in the attach formation. and if you've played with each other for quite a while, you can sometimes feel which shot he's going to do. for example, maybe the back player has a tendency to do a smash-drop-smash combo or smash-smash-drop combo and the front player will cover the court accordingly without having to guess or look back. i guess this would be the "know thyself" part. as for feeling your opponents out, the best way is to communicate with your partner and let each other know what you think the opponents' strengths and weaknesses are. usually there's always a weaker player in the pair, and the strategy is to attack that weaker player. also, depending on the style of the opponent, you may choose to adopt attacking or defending strategy (if they're weak at defense or offense accordingly). keep in mind, your opponents might be doing the same thing to you: attacking your weaker player and forcing a style that's not your strength. best way is to play within yourselves (not go for risky shots) and keep communicating with each other
