Post videos of yourself playing

Thanks for that detailed observation! I'll certainly pay more attention to my recovery after smashes...
I noticed they tried to get me to the back court a lot, but didnt really mind. My partner wanted to rotate out too much in the first game, at least thats what I told him in the break - and i feel we moved better afterwards, with more commitment towards the net.
Flattering that you like my style of play being methodical might have sth to do with me starting so late - I actually learned a lot from Gill Clark's commentary in the beginning (and from watching, of course)...

 

Some of yesterday's training....this was the 3rd game of the first match. Got my new racket, now I gotta get used to it - but it certainly feels alright already. Gotta tinker around with the grip, though, I'm not entirely certain if I'm gonna go towel or overgrip yet.....

 

Which racket did you go for in the end? Damn hard to tell from the clip, even though it's HD.

Apart from that, it looks a bit like a typical sparring match with opponents you know well and you seem to be having under control on a normal day. Sloppy racket carriage a lot of times and noticeably less "bite" compared to the latest clips you shot during tournaments. What I liked was how much you focused on having a lower and wider stance in your defence. And it looks to me as if you have increased strength training for your noodles... ... sorry... arms and shoulders or is it again the sleeveless shirt which is giving the impression?! And as always, your serves are top notch.

Oh... and I just found one excellent moment: 9:09. Your sponsor presentation is already on pro-level!

 

Haha, funny you should say that - it was actually a much tougher match for the first two games, us losing the first, but the opponent in green ran out of steam They both got a good overhead attack (the guy in purple actually has the hardest smash in our club and is the best singles player), but with my partner and I having a fairly stable defense and good first three shots, it more than evened out

In the end, I went for the N80-II - most expensive, but it was definitely better for me than any other racket I tested. Solid, solid feeling, yet still flexible enough to allow for late clears in singles. I'll do the promised full write-up soon, maybe over the weekend. Hard decision in the end, the N55-III has different qualities, but was a close runner-up (and cheaper, also).
That walk into the camera was entirely coincidental, I just needed another shuttle and my bag was right beneath it Speaking of coincidental - and thickening of the noodles is a random byproduct of my strength&conditioning training and me putting on weight overall. I seldomly do arm-specific exercises, and then it's not a lot (just a bit to keep the bicep tendon loose and the tricep strong enough for smashes). My back might be bigger because of the training, though, but I still fit into all my shirts easily

Thanks for the feedback! I'll have some footage with real bite in it coming up in September - our first league matches are against our second team and then against the probably hardest opponent of the league. There's some tension between them and basically every other club in this region, so everyone's very highly motivated to win that

 

Interesting. If the first two games were so close then it's a good sign that you were showing that kind of confidence to win in the decider. And yeah... it looked like the guy in green was highly in need of an O2-tent towards the end of the match.

Out of curiosity, is there a specific trainings routine that you follow in your strength & conditioning training? I am currently focusing a lot on the routines and program for season preparation that Diemo Ruhnow has posted on his homepage (http://dr-badminton-training.de/ath...ramm-wichtige-elemente-fur-das-sommertraining). It's pretty obvious that you have earned yourself a "breites Kreuz". And keeping in mind that there are still some weeks left to grow even more, I wonder if you will need to order you shirts one size bigger before the next season finally kicks off.

EDIT:
Oh, and the real art of presenting a sponsor is to make it look conincidental. So still... full score for you in that department.

 

Haha, it's training....so there's never any real pressure, because I dont really mind losing one match in a while against my (good) club mates, you know?
But still, going into a third game, I never lack confidence, since I already took a game. Different story if you lost the first game clearly in competition and go into the second, then it can be tough to be confident and go for your shots, especially if you had specific problems (serve inconsistent, not keeping drives flat and inside the lines,......)

My current training consists mostly of the classic powerlifting moves - deadlifts, squats (especially front squats) and some accessories. Thats because I'm a pretty slim, endurance-type guy, and need to build strength, stability and a bit of muscle. In a typical session I'll work my way up to a 5x5 on either the deadlift or squat, do warmup sets for the other one and finish the workout with accessories, how much depends on how much gas I have left in the tank by then.
Typical accessory exercises include one-legged leg curls and extensions, always a few sets of cable rows, often the bench press machine (dont do bench press for lack of a spotter and some past shoulder problems) and the reverse butterfly machine. I can write that up more structured in a different thread if you like
While I pretty much do baby weights on those lifts, it's just physical preparation and conditioning for me, so keeping good form and not getting injured there are the top priorities.

Since it's only a couple weeks, not months till the season kicks off, I wont need to worry about bigger shirts I expect my lifts to go up 5-10kg until then, but no more than maybe a 1kg higher body weight. I'll definitely lose 1 or 2 kg until Christmas, not all of my weight gain has been muscle

 

I like your mindset when going into a third game. Classic case of seeing the glass as half full instead of highlighting the one lost game.

In my stability routines I'm mostly doing good old bodyweight only stuff. Squats (deep ones), pushups, all sorts of planks... only accessories I currently use are some mini-bands and a skipping rope. I never liked working out with machines. Oh, and I added a reaction ball lately (=>https://www.amazon.de/dp/B000W0592C/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_INBRxb0T13H8E) which is just so much fun and so useful to train your eye-body-coordination.

 

It's a result of my natural arrogance in competition I'm going into every match with the assumption I'll win, unless I know for certain that my opponents are better. Even then, in doubles, I rarely doubt my ability to beat them, and basically assume I'll just have to play the right way to beat them - everyone has weaknesses and some aspect that they don't like to have exposed.

For example, most younger players can outpace me and have better movement and harder shots, but dont make great tactical decisions at all times and dont deal with slow or half-paced shots very well, thus they dont like me taking the tempo out of the game and forcing them to think about their shots (as opposed to just reacting to fast plays).
Same goes for varied placement of the smash - many can defend a good downwards angle well, but are weak when you purposefully smash flat towards their shoulder. Lost count how often someone complained how freaking bad my smash was when I scored a direct point with it.

 

Hi.

Just wondering if someone can enlighten me about the areas I can improve upon. I've been playing for almost 3 years now( without coaching).

I'm the one near the camera in both the videos.

Thanks in advance. And sorry for the bad video quality!!

 

I'm not great at finding errors but I think your racket carriage might be a bit low.

Like there's a smash to your body early on in that first vid that you could have probably returned if you'd had your racket more in front of you. I notice your racket it down kind of low most of the time. But see what other people say, I'm not the best at coaching.

 

Forgot to post it here - uploaded another video from that same training session, and made it available ~21hrs ago Any comments, critique, questions are very welcome!

Yes, I'm the one in that color that hurts your eyes a bit

 

For what I see, you can train you footwork. You're jumping rather than doing the chasse or lunges which isn't efficient to reach the shuttle or come back to the base. it feels like you're always in a hurry

 

Really? Seriously? You think his opponents are weak? Did we watch the same video?

 

Lol... then you'd probably think that Ahsan and Setiawan should improve more since their rallies are usually less than 5 shots and very often over in less than 3 secs as their serve and receive skills are out of this world.

 

Hahaha what a flattering comparison Taking it to the extreme there
I get Cheung's point, though. Short rallies - in our case - are less a result of ruthless first 3 shots and more a product of lacking concentration
Gonna get a new vid up soon, hope it's gonna be good. The match was fantastic, and a nail-biter to boot, but my camera cut off at some point (card was full) and I'm not sure how much I missed :/ Hope it's just a couple of points! Even that is a shame. I'll ask the opponents for their footage, though, in case some of you can't sleep without seeing the end to that particular match

 

Soooo, I ended up putting in the hours and got the video cut and uploaded. I cut the pauses between games, but kept the intervals, if that's annyoing, tell me and I'll cut them as well going forward. Still trying to get used to a different editing software and still considering getting another program

Anyhow, probably the closest, most fought-for match I ever played. Good opponents, and a very concentrated (and, later on, nerve-y) atmosphere. While I didn't feel anywhere near 100% going into it (partying neighbours impacted my sleep heavily, and my racket foot hurts since I went waterskiing 12 days ago), that is not an excuse or an attempt to downplay the match, since I felt I played to a good level and was able to block out any physical distractions. Had to dig very deep in the third game, as my body didn't want to continue, but somehow I made it through in one piece
As I mention in the video, my camera cut out close to the end. My opponents filmed the match as well, and I will try to get their perspecitve of those last few points, but since their camera died at some point as well I can not guarantee I will get it, even though it would be a big shame since I remember there being a few hard-fought, long rallies after 20-20. (Spoiler alert, by the way )

As always, please comment, like, criticize (constructively), and enjoy!

As almost always - I'm the tallest player on court. Wearing green, this time, to give your eyes a chance to recover

 

Nice game, you did really well not to get dragged into a flat power game with them too often. (I felt the other pairing were stronger in that department). They certainly liked to cross court it a lot, which gave you the opportunity to cut out a lot of shorts with more angled shots. Whenever you took the pace off they gave you an attacking opportunity because they were heavily focused on playing a fast game. (Age / experience I think).

Most of their serve returns were hard shots, and I think they made it very easy for you to have an opportunity to press the net (after their serves for example they didn't threaten the service return). You could tell they weren't confident around it. You did start pressing later on in the game with a larger deal of success.

Your overheads were more consistent than previously, just be wary of getting into a smash smash smash smash mindset. These rallies seemed less effective than when you varied with drop shots etc.

When you're on the left hand side of the court you can be very forehand dominant in defence, it was ok because they didn't seem to push it, but against other opponents you might find yourself getting found out.