So, its a few days after my University Badminton tournament, time to reflect and share what happened!

My mens doubles partner for my regular league matches was unavailable, so I decided not to play mens doubles. Because my partner was unavailable, his regular mixed doubles partner needed a partner, so I played with her. I also entered the singles.

I got up nice and early. A hearty breakfast, and packed my normal bag of salad snacks – cucumber, pepper, tomatoes, carrots, an apple and a banana – my favourite snacks for tournaments 🙂 I knew this was going to be a good day… I knew my technique has improved recently. My smashes are much much more powerful, and all my shots are more accurate. If I move well today, I will play well!

I turned up nice and early, for my normal long warm up. Someone needed a partner. I knew he was a good player, but I knew he often get angry on court. From previous experience, this normally winds me up on court. I agreed to play with him, in the understanding that today was about fun and good badminton, not about egos. We were signed up.

Mens doubles first, the first few matches were fairly straight forwards. Simple badminton, but effective. Then past the group stages, into the semi finals, vs the mens 2nd team captain and his partner. I know I can play against these guys, but my partner starting breaking down, telling himself he couldn't compete with these guys. The match started to unfold. They won the first set, prompting my partner to get very very very angry, including a thrown racket. I told him straight out (which is out of character for me) because I know him well, that I don't care what he is NOT doing well. He argued back, talking about the expectation of people around the court. He didn't want to look like a fool. I couldn't tolerate this. I was very angry, and on the verge of telling my opponents I didn't want to continue with the match, because of the negativity of my partner. Instead though, I chose to put my head down, and focus on my speed around the court. I was going to become faster than I have been in a long long time, looking for every opportunity to seize the net, and play net kills and intercepts. My partner started to find a good rhythm on his smashes and drives, and so we played the fast pace attacking game, with an element of risk involved, stepping forwards to seize control. We played well, and won the 2nd set. In the third, everything was close. We got opportunities at about 17-all in the third, but in consecutive points put half chance net kills in the net. We lost the third 21-18. But in the end we had all really enjoyed a thoroughly tactical, gruelling match, and had all performed to a high standard. In particular, my speed around the court was vastly better than normal, and drew many complementary comments from my regular team mates 🙂 I had exceeded my expectations and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

In the mixed doubles, I enjoyed a lot of success with my partner. I used to partner this lady, and knew I played well with her. we played a good aggressive brand of mixed doubles, with my partner performing amazingly in attack and my movement working well in attack and defence. We combined extremely well, and finished runner up losing out to the mens first team captain and his partner in the final. It went to three games, but in the end I was disappointed with my performance in that final. My opponent really stepped up his game, started moving so much quicker, and I struggled to cope with the speed of his game. I am not disappointed about losing, but rather disappointed that I didn't do more/execute better alternative game plans that I wanted to try. I was sure it would be tough, but I know I didn't adapt as well as I could have. I need to go away and practise my defence, turning defence into attack, and finishing off those rallies.

Finally the singles. I have been under-performing in singles a lot recently, due to my footwork being generally not quick and balanced enough to play at the pace I need to play at. But today I decided, seeing as my movement was still good, that I would play something close to my best. I got through the group stage, the quarter finals, the semi finals and into the final, against the first team captain. I played to a fairly high standard, but I made lots of mistakes. At times, my footwork was sluggish as I responded slowly to some of his drop shots, and ultimately it was my movement to my forehand deep rearcourt corner that was my undoing, as I wasn't able to get back in time to lift the shuttle properly. A fairly tired performance in the final, and once again making me realise where one of my greatest weaknesses lies. However, a thoroughly enjoyable match, and once again I outperformed my regular standard given my recent form, quite considerably!

So, all in all, runner up twice and a semi final, overcoming good players and playing some good badminton! A thoroughly enjoyable day!

Any comments?

Matt

Thanks for your comments Jin 🙂 you are spot on – when I get tired (having played all day 😛 ) my footwork becomes a little less automatic. I tried to compensate for this in my tactics, but ultimately I was not effective enough to beat my opponent. For me, the sluggishness for my singles came from putting in so much effort into my semi final, to play above my regular standard, that I was mentally under prepared for the final. I knew my opponent would be tough, and I knew we were both tired, and in the end I dealt with this fact worse than he did, and wasn't able to exploit his weaknesses to the full.

And, as is the case for EVERY player, I must get working hard on my footwork and consistency. Then, next time, I will compete better, and maybe win a game or two 🙂

Thanks again for your comments.

Matt

Thanks Ed, I think you hit the nail on the head : It is ALL about ENJOYING yourself. Thats what badminton is really about 🙂