Hello All, I've a dilemma that's driving me a bit nuts, and it's a terrible habit which I can't seem to shake off. My badminton consists of one game of singles once a week with a pal, which we've been doing now for about 7 years I think. Before that I'd played at many clubs around my area, but I really enjoy the singles game with my pal. The problem I have is watching the shuttle instead of my pal during our games. And he seems to just beat me all the time. And tonight was another 4 - 0 defeat which sounds bad, but the first two games had only two points in them, and frustratingly this seems to happen too often. So, how can I change my thinking or inner talk to watch my opponent instead of the direction of the shuttle? Much appreciate any suggestions.
You are supposed to watch the shuttle! But if he's not deceptive at all, you can watch his stroke preparation and where he looks.
Maybe you can ask him to play in more colorful clothes, preferably bright red or orange, so that your eyes are more easily drawn to him? In all seriousness I don't know how we can help you to look at your opponent more. Just do it!
It would help if you could provide a little more relevant background about yourself. Level of play. Your strong points. Your weak points. Your observation of your opponent's strong and weak points.
(Unconstructive useless post) But I seriously thought this thread was going to be about, the problem not being a need for a "change in shuttle" but players broken mentality.
simple. play without a shuttle! seriously, do a game simulation. pretend it's a real game and the birdie's traveling. you'd have nothing to focus on, except him. works better if you start slow. you can ease into the habit during a real game too.
When the shuttle is hit above you and you have time for it to fall, you basically HAVE to force yourself to take a quick glance at your pal. It's not going to be easy in the beginning but just keep doing it. Best is to practice this during warm ups. Easiest is with clears, take your eye off the shuttle and glance at your opponent. Two biggest issues I see all the time when we all start learning are one, we stand around and hit directly back across to the other person (also standing around), and two, we stare at the shuttle instead of taking peeks at the other person's position. These two severely slow the progress of improvement.
Just to say it clear: You should always watch the shuttle, the opponent is seen by peripherical vision!
I can't see the opponent if I strike the shuttle on an overhead, but by experience, and learning patterns of behaviour, I do know where they will roughly be positioned on court.
As I wear glasses, my peripheral vision is almost non-existent, so I have to rely on experience too. It's a huge disadvantage but I can't wear contact lenses as they make me sleepy! lol
Wearing glasses myself too, I find that the newer glasses frame designs have narrower and smaller lenses. So i play with the old ones that I have from 10-15 yrs ago... those are big and allow better all around vision.
I am glad to see this discussion, since I have terrible problems "seeing" the bird, especially in singles, mainly with opponents' overhead shots. This over a decade of playing Not even sure I can accurately describe the problem. Since most people say to watch the shuttle, try to do that. But invariably "loose" the bird; opponents pre-contact racquet motion distracts me from keeping eye on the bird. Other accomplished players say you dont really keep eye on the bird but the space where the racquet is going to make contact with the bird. Additionaly, never developed a well-timed split step which I notice all good players do. (The one time I did develop this I used to win easily, before I lost the split step too). So either I am moving too early or too late. Very vulnerable to relatively simple drop shots and smashes. I am not too slow for my age and it is not fitness since I rarely loose games due to tiredness. I "loose" it because I cant "see" the bird. This problem is not as much an issue in doubles, though it happens to an extent. How do you manage to keep seeing the bird to keep up long rallies and play percentage badminton instead of trying to finish it too early due to this fear of loosing the bird? Is there any off-court drills to fix this since I can't find a sparring partner?