Forced to quit badminton

E

Ephrium

New Member
I have played since young for almost a decade and sad to say I must quit. I foresee no solution to my problem.

I keep losing to people despite them being recreational players and initially I have no idea why. When I realised it I find it insurmountable.

I train so much, have such innate reflexes that I can serve or drop shot or not play within 1cm of the line of net. I have perfected the footwork so that I cannot make it better anymore.

When they smash with so much power, me having trained so long and use my reflex to counter the most powerful of smask.

However I still keep losing. For over five years I have no idea why.

I realised that I am born with arms more slender than a woman's. With such small arms I cannot hit a full back line to back line overhead even though the lines are straight, let alone cross diagonal court. Any player who has played with me long enough will be able to take advantage of this.

No matter How much techniques and push up I did to overcome this nothing can overcome this. My arms are LITERALLY more slender than a woman's

Do I have to quit this sport which I invested so much time just over this
 
Not sure exactly how much physical limitations you might have, but it's kind of a mystery for me why you have such a constantly losing streaks in your games, although i suspect that it's still more about your technique rather than your luck or slender arm that's giving you a hard time. I know of young players who have slender arms but can play like beasts. Maybe you should try doing some arm exercises and appropriate diet to add some muscles and practice more your strokes to solve your problem. And it's quite normal to feel frustrated about it, but if you love the sport, remeber to take a rest when you feel tired and not quit

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How would you know you meet your sky limit? Does losing mean it end for you or everyone?

Do you know how many times i got terible lost 2vs1 0:15/0:15 when im still beginner? Its a lot for sure that i lost count. How do you think im in this skill level today? One night & out of sudden, a badminton fairy bless me & im become good at it? No, i keep losing again & again & again, but every time i lose i learn & as the time goes, i add those point 1 at a time till i manage to catch up this one player point.
Today the duo Minions from Indonesia positioned as no.1 double player. We see them how success & skillfull they are. We only see their finish line, do we ever see his long journay from begining up to this point? How many times they fall?

Do you have coach? If you dont & you are interest on more serious play, i suggest you to get a coach.

Or open up your mind for advice & suggestion. Never shy or hestitate to ask other player advice. Dont let your ego become your own wall to improve.

And last word. Do you still love badminton? Are you happy playing badminton? If not, no one can force you to play thing you didnt enjoy. But if yes, you can find many teaching & advice in court, internet, or here.
 
Ephrium said:
...However I still keep losing. For over five years I have no idea why.

I realised that I am born with arms more slender than a woman's. With such small arms I cannot hit a full back line to back line overhead...
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For five years you couldn't figure out why you were losing when you can't play one of the fundamental badminton strokes? Hmm...

Moving on, here are some kids who can play full court clears despire their arms being more slender than a (small) woman's and also happen to be shorter than most women too. Doesn't seem to stop them - but then, kids don't often give up:



That said, if you genuinely have a physical impairment/disability e.g. ME, MS, chronic fatigue syndrome, then you must acknowledge that you'll have to derive joy from the sport in another way than winning. This is really true of everyone come the scourge of age. You'll find few 80-90 year olds who can keep up with a (regular) recreational badminton player.

If you're keen to get a final opinion, feel free to post a video of you attempting a clear and we can quite easily tell you if your technique is limiting you, or that perhaps you genuinely have a physical issue that should be diagnosed by a medical professional.
 
Darkhiatus are you able to repost with a link the video does not play.

I can with much exertion hit line to line but not a FULL overhead back line to back line which clears the person. I had many professionals at the places I played so if I did anything wrong technique wise I would have been pointed out.
 
a video would be more helpful.

and losing isn't the correct reason to quit. i don't remember when the last time i won a game/match. :)

maybe your focus should be something else, sounds like you want to be competitive, but instead perhaps just treat it as a recreational activity.
 
Ephrium said:
Darkhiatus are you able to repost with a link the video does not play.

I can with much exertion hit line to line but not a FULL overhead back line to back line which clears the person. I had many professionals at the places I played so if I did anything wrong technique wise I would have been pointed out.
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On the contrary, unless you pay them for coaching or ask them specifically to look at your clear technique, most pro's will not volunteer the information themselves.

It can be very condescending to offer unsolicited advice, no matter how good you are. It is standard etiquette (which is practically a rule) in golf not to discuss technique unless someone asks. Of course, that doesn't stop recreational players doing it anyway (especially males to females!), but you're really not likely to see it from a professional player/coach.

Anyway, second the suggestion that we can't evaluate without a video. So many of us have tried to perfect overhead clear technique even WITH the help of videos, and it's difficult. Without videos, it is genuinely impossible to tell.
 
Ephrium said:
I can with much exertion hit line to line but not a FULL overhead back line to back line which clears the person. I had many professionals at the places I played so if I did anything wrong technique wise I would have been pointed out.
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I'm betting on wrong technique and wrong tactics in the game. Maybe you just record a video? Then you can be helped much better. I know many of us in the club who have been playing "wrong" for years and stay at their level.

With how much weight do you string your racket?
 
There is nothing correlate between your thin arm and unable to perform a clear shot correctly. I dont see the reason for you to quit since this should be a good reason to keep pushing. I lose most of the time and I still bet on every game I play [9 out of 10] because I love to team up with partner who has a little disadvantage. I love to be an underdog trying to win the game because it gives me an opportunity to improve. Keep losing and learn from it.
I met a guy at one club he has only one arm, but he is actually pretty good. He can play all the basic shot flawlessly even though his balance absolutely be out, and he just love to play. I think he plays almost everyday.
 
Ephrium said:
I had many professionals at the places I played so if I did anything wrong technique wise I would have been pointed out.
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I'm guessing those pros you played with were either too "polite" to correct you or don't care at all. At least that's my experience where I play. In the case of the former, some players are under the impression that some players don't want unsolicited advice unless they asked for it, so they won't voluntarily offer tips. But when asked, many of them are just too willing to help.

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For your own personal development, badminton aside for a moment, You could get into weightlifting as a sport, you only compete with yourself.

You may double in strength.

Also maybe you are not eating enough.

You can track your diet in myfitnesspal, scanning in barcodes, making sure you get your protein

You maybe able to find a personal trainer that can help you with this,

Even women can increase dramatically in strength doing that kind of thing.

At least get to a point where you can do some pullups and squats and push ups(not from knees, from knees is for average girls), bodyweight exercises. Before looking much at lifting weights / before looking at weghtlifting.

You can double in strength and then be as strong as an average guy

Then see how/if that affects your badminton.
 
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Ephrium said:
No matter How much techniques and push up I did to overcome this nothing can overcome this. My arms are LITERALLY more slender than a woman's
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Hang on a minute! You just said you do many / however many push ups?

I assume not from knees?

Then you are not weak like an average woman, (an average woman has to do push ups from knees), so what are you talking about.

You can be strong but with thin arms.

So if you are strong enough to do those bodyweight exercises what has it got to do with badminton how big the circumference of your arms are?

Your issue makes no sense.

You are saying your attempts at hypertrophy(muscle growth), are failing. Well, muscle size isn't that relevant, and if anything is relevant besides technique, it's strength.

And you are saying you can do however many push ups. If that is true then your strength would likely be fine, so this isn't adding up.

And suppose you can do 20 pushups and 10 pullups but have very thin arms then that's possible, but don't then compare yourself to a girl because many men can't even do one pull up (and some of them can clear it out the court easily, sometimes ability to do a pullup is related to build).

If you are very weak on other exercises besides push ups then work on those, and if you can do those well and strength things that an average girl can't do then any equations of your strength to that of a woman just make no sense, especially not based on arm size.

Strength is also about the neurological connection your brain makes with your muscle fibres. For example lots of women have more trouble with pushups than men, possibly 'cos their brains don't communicate well enough with their muscles for them to recruit sufficient muscle fibres to do it. Similarly there are some men whose arms aren't huge but they're very strong.
 
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When I started I told my friend I couldn't do a clear from the back of the court to the other side back because I wasn't strong enough. He laughed and said 5 year old children can do it because it isn't about strength, but technique. I'm guessing, like everyone else in this thread, your technique isn't actually as good as you think it is.

I play with some guys who are VERY slender, and don't have the strength for the back of the court, so they play front of the net (or do drops when the are forced in the back) and they are hard to beat because their strategy and placement makes up for their lack of strength. So it also sounds like your strategy and precision aren't very good. Physical inefficiencies can be made up in badminton with technique and strategy. So work on those.
 
badmintony said:
I'm guessing those pros you played with were either too "polite" to correct you or don't care at all. At least that's my experience where I play. In the case of the former, some players are under the impression that some players don't want unsolicited advice unless they asked for it, so they won't voluntarily offer tips. But when asked, many of them are just too willing to help.

Sent from my JSN-L22 using Tapatalk
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i guest im just lucky (or not) to have player around me that willing to give advice & teaching to me regardless i might feel insulted.
 
If you have a hole in your game (long clears and from that I also assume smashes) then those are the ones you need to work on. If your footwork and netplay are fine then get a partner and hit some shuttles couple times a week with all your strength until you're tired. After a while you will notice you can do it longer and hit the shuttle further (some people progress faster some slower, but everyone gets better with practice). And I'm actually not sure if pushups help the right muscles for that at all.
Second, while playing, if you're not strong, then you need to be clever. Make the oponent run and try to outsmart them. And try to get your clears as close to the sidelines as possible, if you're not strong, you need to be precise. Dropshots etc.

I also had a weak clear and bad smash when I started badminton, so I needed to be clever and went for mostly netplay and dropshots (and general defencive play), but once i started to play more often and actually started to work on my smashes, I slowly-slowly started to get stronger and getting better at that (I'm still not very strong nor have great technique, but I can see the improvement). It just takes time and effort.
 
You might aswell show us your match video so we can analyze it, lots of kids 9-12 years old can clear back to back, and my friend who older than me, 29++ with decent size body can’t even clear.. its all about the technique! So you need to work on those. Also racket and type of shuttle also affect it a little bit.
 
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