This is one of the most important things said in this discussion. Thanks for saying it Please bear in mind how important it is that the student learns to think about what they are doing. Without this, they cannot think about what they are doing, and they cannot take the coaches feedback about rallies and situations that happened, because they are unable to remember what happened. Good luck everyone!
It's pretty unrealistic in the majority of cases to have a coach to hand for games, though. Probably only if you are in a performance centre (in which case you are not a beginner), or you are on a course will that be available.
Do not forget to ask your opponent for advise either, during games, intervalls and after the game. In Japan, you even ask your opponent you played against in a tournament for advise after you finished the game. I've never seen this in Sweden though. Wonder how it is in other countries.
Asking your opponents for advice/feedback in very common in chess. It's encouraged. Badminton players should probably consider doing the same, especially those friendly games, or games with more superior players. Definitely one way to improve.
I think asking opponents about strategy might be ok. But in terms of technique, make sure you are asking someone knowledgeable. I can play a pretty good game - apparently, as I've recently found out - most of my technique is wrong. So you wouldn't want to learn the wrong technique from someone like me.
I actually got to my level without any drills or training. All my abilities stemmed out from lots of game experience. Want to get a stronger smash? Hit harder. Want to get there faster? Then go! Eventually your muscles will grow and the will to win will improve you beyond any training can teach you. If you know all the basics, start playing many different people
Congrate! You are one of the few lucky ones, blessed with natural ability. Unfortunately, very few are like you at that far end of the bell curve.
I think the answer to this question relies on the answer to this question: What are your training needs? In other words, as a player, what are your strengths/weakness, and how do you improve your strengths and fix your weaknesses? imo training shouldn't consist of 100% games or 100% drills. If you are a beginner with limited or no stroke/footwork mastery, then the bulk of your training should be focused on drilling. Will playing friendly matches make you worse? Maybe. It depends on how focused you are when you play (do you go on autopilot, or are you focusing on using good footwork and hitting technique?), and whether or not you are able to learn from playing. In general, playing matches is time you can spend drilling. If you have access to space and partners to drill with, you should prioritize drilling over games. If you at an open gym situation, then sure, play matches. Just stay focused during your matches, and try to learn from them (either through coach/advanced player feedback, or self analysis—it is key to develop self-awareness early, a player who knows his own weaknesses can improve far faster and better than an ignorant player) If you are an intermediate player, with moderate mastery of strokes and footwork, you may want to incorporate more matches into your training. Why? At this point, drilling will improve your body (muscle memory for strokes and footwork and fitness), but as your skill increases, you need the brains to back up your playing. Depending on how fit you are, or how strong your mastery of strokes/footwork is, you should still prioritize drilling over matches. However, if you are a solid intermediate player, you should be playing more matches against players of you skill level or higher than a beginner. (Ex. As a beginner you would play 1 match per training session. Now you maybe want to play 2-3 matches per training session). Take care to reinforce drilled skills during play. Again, try to learn from matches through either feedback or self analysis. If you are an advanced player, with complete, or near complete mastery of strokes and footwork, you should now know what training you need. If you suffer from injuries, perhaps you may dial back drilling for more matches, or focus on quality drills over quantity of drills. Perhaps you feel as though your tactics are lacking—play more matches against stronger opponents, or with handicaps. At this stage, you should have enough self-awareness to know what training you need. Just my two cents.
a) not playing games is, IMO, ludicrous advice. If you're not being coached to play better in games, what are you going to do with it? b) there are two prongs to coaching: actually making the shot, and strategy/tactics. You can only get better at the tactical side if you play games; you're not going to improve your shot selection if you're just hitting what the coach feeds you.
How do you improve? To me, it's like a neverending circle. 1. You recognise a weakness/mistake. 2. You learn how to overcome the weakness (e.g. better technique.) 3. You practise that new technique in drills. 4. You try to incorporate that new technique in games. 5. You repeat 3. and 4. until you have fully incorporated the new technique and it's your new standard technique/way of playing. 6. You search more weaknesses and jump to 1. Therefore, you should always do both, drills and games. (seriously: nobody would stick to badminton if he never played any matches for a longer period of time...)
I like that you bring out that we should consider level of the player in deciding whether to focus more on games or drills because I just realized that it matters a lot. Say if you are beginner, and you go out playing games chances are you will be making a lot of mistakes and developing poor habits if you play too much games. However, if you practiced a lot of drills (say dedicated 4-5 months doing drills, nailing down the basics) then games at least you can consciously think about what you are doing wrong. I agree with you that at higher level playing games is helpful because that's when you really are putting your drills to a test (to see if you've improved).
I agree. I think instead we can just ask our opponents or teammates for feedbacks. That's what I currently do. It's been helpful..
True, play games to find out your weaknesses and use drills to correct them. I guess overall the key is recognizing the purpose of the drills and games and balancing out their needs.
Just to give beginners/intermediates some idea of what more experienced players do: I'm playing badminton now for 15 years and would consider myself a relatively decent player. I do badminton-training for 5-6 hours a week (and some more hours on other sports (gym, running...)) and AT LEAST 50% of my badminton training is reserved for drills. In a 2h training, we usually get to playing games for maybe 45min. Just to give you an impression of the distribution of drills vs. trainingmatches...
Funny you should mention this. There was a guy in my club who basically practiced for the sake of becoming better at practice.
Process vs. result oriented refer to one's mental attitude towards a game. If one is process oriented, he'd set goals for his games to improve his skills, his tactics, anything that has nothing to do with the short-term win-loss. This mental attitude usually helps a player to perform better, as he focuses on the "right" things. If one is result oriented, he'd be tempted to think about "what if he wins" and "what if he loses", "how many points he could score", "whether he would be first place in the event". This attitude usually distracts a player, and makes him tense. He might have difficulty focusing on what happens on court in the moment.
