You did it very well. Kudos to you. Next aim should be 24 of 24. To me Singles is like Bullriding. The aim is to stay as long as possible into a rally without hitting out or giving advantages. A good clear and all variants of it and a deceptive drop shot are nearly a half match. If you can hit it consistent and secure it's nearly the whole match. Most players who play super offensive at all costs singles are afraid of their mistakes, make the court of their opponents smaller and put more energy into the game. Keep on going until your friends will call you swiss clockwork.
Agreed with your point of view regarding singles. I just recently understood that playing single was like a giant game of chess where patience, consistency and variety in strokes selection was key. I even close my eyes and imagine some imaginary match after an actual practice one and try to see how could I have done things differently on lost points tactic wise. Thing is, if like me you always watch LCW and TTY games or such agressive and skilled players, well you kinda want to copy as they are admirable athletes but they are not us even if we sometimes would like to believe so and trying too hard often results in lost unnecessary points. At our level, if we plan to win matches, the most consistent player has more chances. I find the OP to be better technically than his opponent in the first video and I’m sure with different tactics the score could have been in favour of @DarkHiatus .
@LenaicM You made a very good and valid point. Many people built their game up according to the inspiration of their idols. Tactics got copied and matches got analysed deep to copy these strategies. What most people forget is that they have a totally different toolbox for designing a game and their opponents as well compared to the pro players. E.g. the Backhand. Who of us can really whip at chest high 50cm behind the body a cross court backhand clear under pressure like Ko Sung Hyun in XD? Who of us has a smash like Praveen Jordan, is quick like Zheng Siwei and partner somebody like Christinna Pedersen or Arisa Higashino? Do we play such opponents? I definitive not. Some things up to a certain level work well, which you will never/rarely see in a Super 1000 Event. Even in doubles I met so many players who are scared of defending and maintain the attack like the pros, with the difference that their own attack abilities are much more limited compared to pros and goes earlier down. And due this limitation and earlier dropping quality of attack they strip often themself If I need inspiration for my own games I normally watch games of players which are closer to my level than pro players. Professional badminton is really entertaining and makes you hungry to improve, but for a short time improvement it's better to look at the people who play 1-3 divisions higher. Much easier to adapt for your own game with your own abilities.
I am rather doubtful that the technical aspects are better. The OP's movement and footwork patterns (which I include as technique) are still not solid enough. The OP also needs a lot of work on finger technique on block defense and forecourt areas. That's partly why his defense is so weak even on simple blocks. He doesn't have the ability to 'feel' the shuttle on the racquet because the arm is so tense. But I have to say, OP has improved a lot since he first posted videos. I suspect there hasn't been enough training on court. OP knows a lot what is wrong but has not been able to fully break out of previous bad habits due to not training frequently enough.
That’s interesting, then do you believe a less technical player (say here the OP) could win such a match (video #1) against this opponent by changing his tactics and style of play? Or would he first actually need the extra skills and techniques before being able to change his style of play?
I think that's hard to say because in that match, OP's tactics didn't test the opponent enough to see potential areas to exploit. I do believe the scores could have been closer. Whether enough for a win is impossible to say.
One crucial point to make a better tactic work is a very low error rate. Over 50% of the rallies are over within 5 shots. Within such short rallies how can you discover an exploit which work for 5 points or even more? You don't have much time to read an opponent, how can you really push a good MS opponent into his weakness in 5 shots? Won't happen. 5 shots are not many to play a decent tactical pattern. Maybe in XD and MD, but not MS. I agree here with @Cheung @DarkHiatus Do you know the exercise 3 vs. 1 corner or 3 vs. 2 corners? It requires a solid feeder. I can imagine that several versions of it could be very helpful to built up a lower error rate, which can help you to go into matches more confident, which will result in less panic and frustration. IMO these 3 things: errors, panic and frustration can be a vivious circle.
There was a question on how to adapt quickly to the conditions. Everybody has their own speed of adaptation and personal preferences. This is what the pros do - they go on the practice court and play rallies and some routines before the match starts. How long for? up to the individual players. Some like to have a long warm preparation on court, some like it shorter. Of course, you can do things like go for a quick few short sprints and leg lunges to raise your metabolism before the match. Also those dynamic stretches. Before the tournament day, I think playing in different halls a couple of weeks beforehand is very beneficial. If you tend to play in one venue, it's not so easy to adapt to a new hall. If you go around playing in some bright halls, some dark halls, some with a bit of drift, high ceiling, low ceiling, then you will adapt faster to a new hall on tournament day.
@DarkHiatus apologies mate - I haven't had a chance to read everyone else's posts. I am sure it contains lots of good stuff. Let me know if you want my analysis. I watched a couple of minutes of each, and I see major issues in the following areas: Overhead preparation and power production Movement (particularly to the rear forehand corner - your pattern and body positioning is leaving you in lots of bad places) Defence - you made many mistakes off shots that came to your racket and thats something you can work on Shot quality - your shots don't go anywhere near the lines (side or back) with any kind of speed. This is killing you. I can help with the "tactics" or the "how to play well in the first match" etc etc... but I don't want to confuse you as you already appear to have loads of advice. Give me a shout if you want to ask a question. Good luck!
Finally some time to really get into this! I’ve been looking forward to some tactical/training thinking. As @Cheung rightly points out, I’ve been slacking on training somewhat. Unfortunately, my work has required me to take regular business travel so 1) less time to practice (not as good facilities/coach available) and 2) lower focus during training that I do. I hope it’ll settle down a bit so I can make bigger strides in improvement. That said, I’m somewhat surprised to see that the majority of you believe I have improved technically, but my tactics are holding me back significantly. I’m not sure if it is habit, positioning, or lack of technique, but I find it very difficult to play a clear off of a drive/attacking clear, particularly off of a backhand. That specific situation aside, I can see how the punch clears when I have the option to smash (but don’t) are effective. I’ll really focus on doing this more. It’s incredible how much the psychology of the sport changes performance. It’s a side of competitive play that is completely absent when you play leisurely. Frustration is guaranteed when I’m playing poorly, so it’s figuring out how to mitigate a bad day. And on the positive side, my best performances have also been during competitive play - adrenaline is one hell of a drug after all! I don’t feel the camera rolling affects me at all. I often actually forget to turn it on. Or even off (and end up filling my memory with the next match on court, oops)! Having friends present does affect me somewhat, though in both these tournaments I was visiting alone. I understand what you mean by lightness/fluidity missing. I think this is reflective of me being uncomfortable on court. I don’t have the belief that my tactics are effective - I KNOW I shouldn’t be smashing, and as highlighted elsewhere, if I don’t smash, my shots don’t serve a tactical purpose because even I don’t know why I’m playing them. Suddenly, I’m not playing a clear to create space in the front to play a drop, I end up playing a clear ‘because this one looks like a juicy smash but I probably shouldn’t smash because I should be able to play an effective shot without smashing’ etc. I need more practice of building and winning points without smashing.
I whole load of specific insights which I’ve noted down. In general, I feel like my footwork is generally hampered by my reluctance to allow my opponent to smash, as I lack confidence in defence. To clarify - I think the reasoning in my head for playing smashes/drops and moving forward (probably too much), is that my opponent will have fewer angles to pressure me with, and I won’t have to cover as much court. This is clearly not true, and possibly the opposite, since my opponents can still play the full court and I have less time to prepare to move. I think I fear giving my opponent the angle and opportunity to drop/smash from a corner, as I struggle to reach line smashes, particularly if the opponent varies it with drop shots. If I do reach the shots, I feel that I would only ever play a block, as there’s just too much to think about. In terms of percentage play, it feels like if I play a downwards stroke, there are fewer options for him. Whereas if I give him an overhead stroke, he could hit it anywhere. It’s a tricky one to convince my badminton brain that 1) I can reach these strokes and have time to vary my response and 2) it doesn’t matter if my opponent has the full array of strokes, as the purpose of the clear is to move him backwards, as well as to vary my play. I need to learn how to up to pace of a rally without smashing and dropping necessarily. Every now and then I do take a shuttle very early and I can see how much it makes a difference, but building it in as standard is so difficult!
I think I am actually going to try and play a significant number of games without smashing (unless it is a weak mid court kill). Your feedback is really useful in determining which rallies are just luck that I won because he missed, and which ones you feel that I won without smashing because I built a point up. I genuinely lack the understanding on how you win rallies at this level without smashing...which sounds a bit silly given the amount of tactics I’ve been studying I think I need to see rallies being won without smashing to build patterns of what constitutes good rally play.
The backhand is certainly a weakness. I think as others point out, it’s likely I’m only getting into these late backhand positions because I have given away control of the rally earlier before I get to this point. Nail on the head! Ironically, playing more offensively likely makes me more error prone... I personally think my opponents both had superior technique to myself, particularly control of racquet face/finger power. I’m convinced with better tactics I could have come much closer, but I’m doubtful that I would have won. I do this drill a lot. Unfortunately my regular training partner annoy hit full court clears, so it is normally from the front of court vs 3 corners on each side. With my coach I do the back corners every now and then. BG66um, 26 lbs. I have BG66um at 24lbs on my spare and use this when I’m really struggling to find the sweet spot or for slow shuttle days.
I think I have mentioned it before in this thread. For most of the shots, you are aiming to make the opponent change direction. (as opposed to running in a straight line to the next shot )
Yep, this. I overheard TTY's coach Mr Lai give this same advice to TTY, plus also making sure to make her opponent (Nehwal at the time) take at least 2 steps to retrieve her shots. Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
Yup. Make the court bigger for the opponent. @DarkHiatus I appreciate it's difficult to change the footwork pattern and get into the habit of crouching. Even I went through this again last year to change my footwork patterns from singles to doubles. I am trying to teach my kid these patterns and it's hard for her to remember during a match. I myself have a tendency to stand up straight especially after my breaks due to injury and it took a lot of training to get back into good habits. What you can also do is practice the footwork at home, especially for those change of directions which are killing you so badly. You don't have to wear badminton shoes, you don't have to do it fast. You are just training to groove the pattern, especially in those situations before where your left leg works against you (as identified in the video). Try to work out some way of identifying at home whether you are standing upright too much when doing these practice footwork patterns.
Sorry, for beeing not precise. Do you use it in a specific pattern or open? IMO You can make of this exercise in different ways. The best is IMO open and the feeder never play anything which will make you run straight and through.
Both - we normally start with a predictable pattern, then move onto a random feed. There is a massive difference between my performance in each type.
So today the badminton courts were booked for training were inadvertently double booked. As i was already there, I went to the gym for some general fitness, and then had a brainwave to practice footwork in the gym studios. I found that with the floor length mirrors, the footwork practice feels completely different. I can see how upright I look, and my movements look stiff. I also noticed that the 'instant' feedback meant you could connect a well-balanced and executed footwork to a better looking movement in the mirror. One thing i could not figure out on, was what to focus on with so much information. Do any of you regularly practice with mirrored rooms, and how do you integrate what could be a very useful feedback mechanism into your training? How do you figure out what looks good and what doesn't - is there a list of major things that you check off your list when you do your training?
