awww thanks dan! you seem to be a very good source of knowledge on the game. and seem to have a lot of friends who also play at a very hgih level. do you play in many tournaments? im looking to play in the circuits this year a bit more seriously, so hopefully by the end of next season will be able to post a much more comprehensive video with longer and better rallies aswell.
@yippo888 I just have 2 tiny things to say. 1) KEEP YOUR RACKET UP the number of points I saw due to the fact was shocking from a county player. This is typically true when you are high serving you hit the shuttle and then bring the racket to your side, try to keep it up. As when you start to play tournaments people will be smashing a lot more (from what I've experienced) by having the racket by your side its going to take longer to get the shuttle decreasing the number of available shots. 2) Try and think about placement you have good shot selection but hat was letting you down was the placement. you would have had a much larger lead if it wasn't for the fact that a lot of the shot went out the sides. Try to visualise where you want the shuttle to go. Over all you are a very good player just try and take into account what I have said and you might find that your game improves a little. David
thanks david! well dont be too harsh about the racket up! it was a friendly game after all, and i wasnt exactly expecting a thunderbolt to come back at me! dont worry in seriously play i will be a lot more hot on racket up situation, just lazyness i guess. but yeh i agree with you about the shot placement. was shocking that day. we were doing a cross court drop drill, i was missing LOADS! got quite annoyed actually. better yet still to come i think when i train with my circuits partner.
sorry about that its just annoying when you see players with their rackets down it seem like there not interested in the game and then when you serve they say their not ready and you have to retake it. But yeah if you just work on the shot placement. We all have bad days but IMO by doing drills it helps to become more consistent and have less of those bad days. David
yeh that IS annoying! lol. but then again so players are really wierd and like to play mind games. even when i play county and tournaments i like to say good shot and have an amicable relationship with my opponent. u never know, if u let a good shot from your opponent call in, that u thought may be slightly out, they may be more willing to call a questionable shot from yourself be called in. not like ina stupid way, but like accept a shot that they would originally argue, but in good sportsmanship accept. 9 times out of 10, after playing a county match, even if the match was a heated tight one, i can always shake hands with the guy and say good match, and have a laugh and talk about it. at the end of the day its a game, and u need to enjoy and appreciate it! yeh we always do drills, its harder with just the 2 of us, its better when u can get 3 or 4 guys, can have more intense drills that way. used to do like 2 on 1 and stuff at uni.
I hate that when they start playing mind games. There's one player at my club and he love to start talking about random things during a game it gets really annoying.
With all the university work and exams, i havent been playing much, however, got a good mark on my debate this morning (despite not sleeping) so thought id treat myself to a little badminton. It was with a friend (who is better than myself) and had a friendly knock about in singles. the game ended with blood from my opponent and a stitch from myself, so it was a light hitting. nothing too exciting unfortunately. anyway, here's the short clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vul5_BrH5x8
I'm lucky enough to practice with quite a lot of very good players; that of course isn't to say that I'm a "badminton snob" because I'm willing to play with anyone at all really. As you may have read previously in this thread, I injured myself quite badly playing squash so for a fair while, I was unable to play at all, let alone play tournaments. Over the past two weekends I have played two relatively low key tournaments - that isn't to say low level though, I ended up playing numerous county players at both. Last Sunday, my shots were a vast improvement over the previous week but tactically, I was very poor. I have never considered myself to be a master tactician - more a shotmaker but I barely changed the pace and stubbornly refused to change my tactics up throughout the match. I mean seriously, what on Earth was I doing out there? I discovered early on that my opponent in the match I am referring to couldn't read my slice drops and I got numerous points from them yet still, I continued overusing the smash - a shot that they dealt with well. Oh well, I suppose at least I know where I was going wrong and I can change that next time I play. As for being a source of knowledge on the game, thank you. I suppose as well as a keen player, I see myself as bit of a "student of the game" if you will. I think it's important not only to know how to play the shots but also to understand the deeper workings of the game both physically and mentally. Best of luck in your future badminton endeavours and I should get an analysis of your video up later today.
Hey guys I'm thinking about putting a video up. Just out of interest what angles would you like iIcan get 2 as I have 2 cameras. the game play wont be great as my normal training partner is injured and the rest of the people at my school are not great but it will give an idea of what level I play at. Cheers David
Danstevens, are you playing at senior or junior level ? ''I think it's important not only to know how to play the shots but also to understand the deeper workings of the game both physically and mentally.'' That really sums of badminton at a higher level , you can be my coach any-day !
Right, I've finally got round to it. To say this is "not greatly competitive" game, you're playing at quite a high level. I do hope that at 0:32 you would have done something more aggressive and creative with the shuttle in a more competitive game but I think it's safe to assume someone as good as you would have. At 0:50, could you have moved the shuttle in to space a bit more? Video can sometimes be deceptive and you may not have had the opportunity but if you did, in my personal opinion, that same flat, driven smash return would have been even better had you played it cross court. I noticed that your opponent gave you a fair bit of open court to hit the return in to there. Of course, it's very easy for me to type this but as you will know, it's impossible to see all of these tiny openings in a real-life game situation. Perhaps at 4:58ish you were a bit flat footed when you got left effectively standing still by that drop shot. Admittedly, it was a very good shot and I don't know that I could have done any better but for once in your video, you just didn't look quite as ready to move. I must admit, whilst I like the high serve as a tactic, I do think you overused it just a little bit or rather, underused the short/low serve. Your high serve is really good and you're obviously confident in it to use it as much as you do but if possible, I would try to incorporate a bit more variety in to your serves just to keep your opponents guessing. I suppose that if your short serve really isn't good, it's better to hit a slightly more predictable but very safe high serve than to hit a poor short serve and have it rammed back down your throat. I think that generally, a high serve executed well is less likely to be victim to an effective attack than the short serve but I will always try the short serve out on an opponent relatively early on in the game just to see what they do with it. If they are able to exploit it, I will use it very sparingly during the game. If they hit a lift, I will probably try it again relatively soon after. If I find them constantly lifting, then for the latter part of the game, the short serve is often my "go-to" serve because against opponents like that, the short serve is an easier way to get on the offensive. Against strong smashers, I also often favour the short serve just to stop myself from having to defend straight away. Your opponent served short quite a lot (I think I counted a total of 3 flick serves in total from him but I didn't get the total number of serves) and some of the short serves early on especially were not that great. You probably could have cheated in just a half step and been in a better position to attack them. You would be surprised how easy it is to move backwards to cover the flick when compared with getting towards the net to attack a short serve. The only other point I can make is about consistency, perhaps just look at it a bit? I saw couple of (seemingly) relatively routine smashes get put wide. Overall, this was an excellent game to say it wasn't played in a particularly competitive mindset. A lot of the things I have pointed out could well have been non-issues in competitive games but it's hard to tell without seeing one so I thought it best to point them out just in case. My final suggestion to you is, if you haven't already, watch your own video a few times. You will be surprised at what you are able to pick up about your own game from the "third person" perspective. It's highly probable that you will notice a few little things that I didn't. No-one knows more about your game that you do and watching it back might help you come up with some ideas for things to work on or allow you to improve your tactical awareness. I'm 16 so technically speaking, I'm a junior but I try and play with adults regularly - I have found that by doing that, you get a feeling for seeing all different ways of playing the game. The tournaments I play are almost exclusively junior tournaments though. A lot of the best adults I am able with are considerably better than the juniors so playing them is always a learning experience even if the final scorelines are not always the greatest. Part of improving is playing people who stretch you to the absolute edges of your limits. Whilst winning is great, I find that defeat is often better for the development of your game - it generally means you have more to take away and learn. That doesn't mean I am happy to lose, far from it but it's important to accept defeat graciously and make sure you learn something from it. In fact, I have just come up with a new objective for developing my badminton. From each game, whether I win or lose, I will aim to take something away that will allow me to somehow improve. On a slightly off topic note, do any of you keep badminton notebooks or journals? I suppose what I'm referring to is a kind of book for you to write in maybe after matches or just whenever a thought about tactics or a shot comes to you? The idea came to me a while back but I'm still not sure if it's a good one or not. Perhaps I'll have to try it but I thought that maybe someone else had already and could comment on its effectiveness as a learning tool.
Here are 2 videos of me and 2 friends playing singles (to 11 points). I am the person closest to the camera in both matches. A few things to point out before watching. I was very tired having played singles the previous 2 days for 2 hours and then going to the gym then playing badminton. I have had some coaching although I've had none for about a year. Been playing for 3 1/2 years. Before this year I played mainly doubles but played a bit more singles this year. We were missing a player to film doubles. Maybe have some doubles at another time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OkPkdoq2wI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8C95IXwODo Having said I was tired having watched the videos I didn't realise how bad I was. Not bending my knees much, waiting around for ages after hitting the shuttle (in some cases), not lining my shoulder up to hit the shot (although some of that was tiredness), generally seeming off balance a lot of the time, not keeping my non racket arm up, failing to split step most of the time and not keeping my racket up very often. Despite this I managed to win both matches fairly comfortably. This is probably a slightly below average performance for all player involved. If anyone has any tips/critiques on how to look more like a badminton player (rather than someone clumsy) feel free to comment. My friends also wouldn't mind advice. Also apologies for the blue tint to the game, that was the hall lights, I couldn't get the camera white balance right for video and for a bit of the court being missing, that was to avoid some people who did not wish to be filmed.
A couple of observations I know it's always just easier to react to a stuttle coming to you when you're tired so here are my two main observations. The first is your consistency in smashing/driving towards the middle of the court. In singles, you should always use up the spaces, testing the fitness of your opponent. Varying your shots with drops, clears and drives would definitely made for an easier game. The second is the delayed reaction to shots coming over to your side when you move to the right of the court. Again, I understand you're tired so what I suggest you could do is practice focusing on your footwork. There will be times in matches when you just want to fall over but just concentrating on "getting there" (the center of the court) can make your returns much easier and save you some energy by ending the game sooner. Cheers!
Thanks for the comment. My footwork is a little messy due to the fact I bruised my foot 4 months ago and my footwork hasn't quite been right since. I'll definitely work on it I wasn't aware until you said how much I did play to the centre of the court. I'll mix it up more next time, it may be why I've been struggling recently, my game is too predictable. Being tired shouldn't be an excuse, still need to aim to be in the right place on the court! Saving energy when tired is always preferable! To answer the other question, I am based in Reading.
hello BC people, ive been in love with badminton about two years now. playing weekends mostly two hours since then and the short clip was taken by my lovely wife on her iphone only that she did it while iphone is upright and me too lazy to edit it. btw, it was one of the games where we are against a different team from Cardiff UK in our little tournament. playing doubles and i am the one on the white with BLUE around the edges of the sleeveless. id say i love to play aggresive but be tentative and passive sometimes but given a very good opportunity id rather smash to win points. im using karakal mtec 70 in this game. id be more than thankful for the advices to improve my game although at 34 competitive playing is slowly fading on me. thank you guys... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cx91jame7E
